His name is Martin Gasser and he’s a Swiss railroad engineer — they call them”drivers” in this part of the world. For a few days every week, he’s at the controls of the locomotive hauling the famous Glacier Express as it twists and turns for 180 miles through the Swiss Alps from St. Moritz to…
Here’s what impressed me about my three train rides today: the slow trains here are fast and the fast trains are really fast. When Matthew Foy of Railbookers in London presented me with my rail tickets and hotel vouchers, he described several of the rail segments as “local trains”, emphasizing that there was no reserved…
I’m staying at Le Grand Monarque here in Chartres and, just after breakfast this morning, I asked the woman at the reception desk if there was a photo store nearby. She looked at me, somewhat askance, and said, “Monsieur! C’est lundi aujourd’hui!” Yes, today is indeed Monday and that means just a few shops and…
I am in Caen today, just a half hour or so from the Normandy beaches where more than a hundred thousand men stormed ashore on June 6, 1944 … the invasion of Europe. For me, the day began with a visit to the Mémorial de Caen and it is a must-see … a series of…