All Aboard!

July 2009 issue | Appears on page 66

New high-speed Barcelona-Madrid
By Jay Brunhouse

by Jay Brunhouse

Minutes after leaving Barcelona Sants Station at 9:30 a.m., where platforms 1 to 6 have been converted from Spanish-gauge to European-gauge, you feel your Siemens Valero E AVE S-103 train begin a smooth transit from 92 mph to 186 mph, according to the speedometer inside the carriage.

The shiny new rails of the eagerly awaited high-speed line connecting Madrid and Barcelona opened on Feb. 20, 2008.

After pausing for clearance at Camp Terragona Station,...

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May 2009 issue | Appears on page 62

The Wall
By Jay Brunhouse

by Jay Brunhouse

In 1984, my train from West Germany, the Federal Republic, to West Berlin passed through 112 miles of ominous countryside known as the German Democratic Republic. The armed guards and police dogs patrolling the platforms along with the barbed-wire fences lining the tracks made everyone nervous.

The trains, by and large, were delayed, but my train, No. D-345, known to passengers as the “Paranoia Express,” traveled on time through Hannover and crossed the East...

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April 2009 issue | Appears on page 62

Railpass roundup ’09
By Jay Brunhouse

by Jay Brunhouse

The thrills of my two most memorable European train trips still vibrate in my mind.

Whether racing down sheer mountainous slopes only feet above a raging, emerald-tinted mountain stream to the idyllic Romsdalsfjord below ominous troll summits rising 6,000 feet or whether suddenly flying out of a 7,000-foot black tunnel onto a naked viaduct seemingly suspended in space or whether watching a spiral stone viaduct appear around the bend ahead and puzzling, ‘How am...

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January 2009 issue | Appears on page 66

Bauhaus Year 2009

by Jay Brunhouse

Over the flat farmland of Germany’s Thüringen (Thuringia) state, my ICE TD, a 5-carriage train, sped to 125 mph with its tilting mechanism mastering the curves beautifully.

I was on the trail of the Bauhaus school, from Weimar, where the school began, to Dessau, where it blossomed, to Berlin, where the most important and influential school of design that combined crafts and the arts met its ultimate death at the hands of the Nazis.

On the 90th...

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December 2008 issue | Appears on page 68

Railpass Q&A
By Jay Brunhouse
Q:

Hi, Jay! We are planning a 30-day trip to Europe and plan to use a Eurail pass. We have a few questions.

If we use the Global Pass, is the train service good enough that we could tour a lot of things every day like we did in the 1980s with the BritRail Pass or would we end up with a problem like we had in Paris, where it would be difficult to see only one attraction in a day and be able to return to the central location to spend the night? Which countries or regions would be good...

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November 2008 issue | Appears on page 74

KL Hop-on Hop-off
By Jay Brunhouse

by Jay Brunhouse

I hopped on at stop #22 Ampang Park in front of Malaysia’s Hotel Nikko Kuala Lumpur, where I stayed. I climbed the stairs to the upper desk of the brightly decorated, black, double-decked “KL Hop-on Hop-off” bus and we sped past the relatively modest Buddhist temple a short walk from my hotel.

The prerecorded voice over the bus’ speakers announced that our next stop would be stop #1 Petronas Twin Towers, but I knew that already because I had checked my Hop-on...

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September 2008 issue | Appears on page 66

New in Munich
By Jay Brunhouse

by Jay Brunhouse

When I learned German in Munich, Germany (München), in 1966-67, Munich was known as The World City with Heart and The Secret Capital of Germany.

The most beautiful Christmas tree that I have seen nearly touched the ceiling in the center of the Munich main train station. This year when I heard news of GermanRail’s planned remodeling of the station into a shopping-mall-cum-trains, I asked, “Why?”

The present Munich Hauptbahnhof (main train station) is...

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August 2008 issue | Appears on page 70

Hungary & Romania Railpass

by Jay Brunhouse

Romanian Railroads (CFR) was a logical extension in 2004 to the stable of railroad companies accepting Eurail passes, but Hungarian Railroads (MÁV) was a surprise expansion of the Eurail system in 1985, and when it happened, I made a last-minute trip in time to add MÁV to the very first edition of my book “Adventuring on the Eurail Express.” Now a single 2-country pass covers unlimited travel on both.

The distance between the capital cities, Bucharest (...

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