Crossing Europe by Train -September Competition.
turning a childhood dream into reality.
I had a close/distant relationship with my mum, but one of the things we loved to do together when I was a kid was watching the old classic Hollywood movies on TV. Sometimes the picture would involve the main stars, say Joseph Cotton and Susan Hayward, on a train to Berlin or Rome. I wanted to take that journey myself.
In 2002, with £800 and two weeks off work, I set off to finally take my dream trip. Travelling solo with a Cross Europe rail pass, my journey would take me through three countries and over a mountain range.
I started off on Eurostar, through the Channel Tunnel, to Brussels. The medieval guild houses of the Grand Place typified the city where the present overlays a still visible past. From Belgium I took the train into Germany, going through the Ardennes with its dense swathes of forest on either side. My first stop in Germany was Cologne with its magnificent cathedral. From Cologne I went on to Berlin then Munich. From Munich I took a train across the Dolomites into Italy, first to Venice then on to Rome with a side trip to Pisa to see the famous Leaning Tower — so I could say I saw it in case one day it collapses!
It was a bit of a whirlwind tour and the budget was tight. I missed a lot of the galleries, museums and other tourist attractions, instead, I explored the streets of the city, saw where people live, heard conversations in languages I do not speak and felt immersed in a culture other than my own. But I didn’t entirely miss the sights. Most of the hostels I stayed in organised tours which showed me things I would otherwise have missed, the last extant piece of the Wall and the site of the once-notorious Gestapo headquarters in Berlin, the Castel Sant’Angelo in Rome, said to contain a secret passage connecting it to the Vatican in case the Pope ever need an escape route in the days when Italy was under threat of invasion. I also ate real Italian pizza on the terrace of a Venetian restaurant opposite an ancient monastery as the sun went down over the lagoon.
There are moments of my grand cross Europe train journey that stand out in my memory. Looking from the window of a very long train and seeing the towers of the Cologne cathedral as we approached the station. Crossing the Brenner Pass with its speech defying views of snow-capped mountains and verdant pastures. The journey from Verona to Venice, mile upon mile of the dusty Italian landscape, olive groves and vineyards, little variation until suddenly there is an expanse of vivid blue water as the train pulls into Santa Lucia station.
When you have waited for and dreamed of something for a long time, the reality can be a disappointment. In this case, the fulfilment of the dream was better than anything I had imagined.
