Tag Archives: Europe rail

Deutsche Bahn

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

The German train system is perhaps (the French would argue otherwise) Europe’s finest. It works well. And yet… The train from Poznań to Berlin was 20 minutes late at the border. In Frankfurt an der Oder, the first town on … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

24 hours in Silesia

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

The small train from the Czech Republic came rattling through cool Sudeten mountain forests of silver birch into Poland, and then descended to the plains. When I was at school back in the 1970s I had a mental picture of … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

back on the main line

Posted on July 18, 2012 by Mark Rossiter

On the train from Dresden to Prague, making its way from Berlin to Vienna, I got a shock: plugged back into the high voltage European backpacker circuit, every compartment filled with people half my age in big groups doing it … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

the end of the road (for now)

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

From Trencin, another train journey, this time across the Czech Republic to Prague. Prague was undeniably beautiful, especially the buildings: but a tourist zoo: I guess I arrived 15 years too late, i.e. just in time for the opening of … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

trans-Slovakian

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

when I left Levoča this morning I took the bus to a quite ordinary town called Poprad – quite ordinary, that is, apart from its view of the High Tatras: These are the highest mountains in the whole Carpathian range, … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Košice

Posted on July 11, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

I had to get up at 5.30 in the morning to catch a train, but it was worth it – what a great day! The train on the left is the one I caught (actually the third one, after I … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Hungarian history on a hot day

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

today I went to two old places outside of Budapest, connected with Hungary’s history. When the Hungarians came out of the east 1200 years ago (they had originally lived in Asia, between the Caspian and Aral seas), they settled first … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Győr

Posted on July 5, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

From Bratislava I went on into Hungary down the valley of the Danube, through fields of sunflowers and giant wind turbines (at first I had assumed these were Austrian, but they went right on into Hungary, too). I arrived at … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Mitropa

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

is there such a thing as Central Europe? Once you leave France something definitely changes, but is that only because France has a unique sense of its own identity? Or is there a continuity among the lands to the East? … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

four countries in a day

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Mark Rossiter

I took the train from Paris Gare de l’Est to Zuerich and thence along the sleepy shores of the lake into a verdant Alpine valley, through the angles of which became visible an occasional rocky peak streaked with snow. I … Continue reading →

Posted in road | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment