Romanian castles and Turkish mosques give journey a storybook feel
Trains take you behind the façade of a place and show you fleeting, random glimpses of ordinary life. Between Istanbul and Budapest, the luxurious Danube Express passes storybook medieval villages, smokestacked industrial suburbs, and endless fields of sunflowers. And bystanders take phone videos of carriages restored in the style of fin de siècle sleeper trains. [travelandleisure.com]
Oslo to Bergen: Europe’s best train journey?
Norwegians, as visitors quickly learn, don’t mess about when it comes to getting around. Mountains made of seemingly impenetrable gneiss rock are simply one more thing to go straight through. Anywhere else, the Bergensbanen, or Bergen Line, would be heralded as a wonder of the world. Here, it’s a matter-of-fact way of linking the nation’s two most important cities. [lonelyplanet.com]
A bullet train journey across Uzbekistan
The 7:28am train to Bukhara, via Samarkand, pulls out of the Uzbek capital Tashkent on time. The bullet train will reach over 137 mph as it speeds across the largely flat expanse of central Uzbekistan on its way to the country’s cities and religious buildings associated with the rise and fall of empire and its Silk Road trade history. [independent.co.uk]
Australia: Great Southern new luxury train from Adelaide to Brisbane
Journey Beyond Rail Expeditions (formerly known as Great Southern Rail) has launched a new Great Southern luxury rail journey. The three-day tour from Adelaide to Brisbane makes extended visits to the Grampians, Canberra, and the New South Wales coastal resort town of Coffs Harbour. [traveller.com.au]
Life on China’s low-speed trains
Shunning China’s “bullet trains,” photographer Qian Haifeng documents the country’s old, slow “green trains.” Cheap and often delayed, they may have no air conditioning or heat. Their third-class-carriage tables are cluttered, and weary travelers try to sleep; heads cushioned by towels and t-shirts propped against window frames. [inkstonenews.com]
