Green Traveler: Barcelona, Spain

July 23-27, 2011 -- Barcelona is a bike-friendly city because of its excellent bicycle infrastructure, including center and left side bike lanes on major boulevards. When bike lanes are located in or near the center of a major two-way avenue and are physically separated from traffic by dividers, then bikers don't have to worry about being crunched between parked cars and moving vehicles on the right side of the road and it makes for a safer experience for both bikers and drivers.

Here is an example of a physically separated two-way bike lane on the left side of a one-way avenue in Barcelona.

Bicycle traffic signals are another safety measure to help make it easier for bikers in Barcelona.

Many Barcelonians take advantage of the city's bike sharing system, called Bicing. Currently the network consists of more than 400 stations and over 6,000 bicycles for the 80,000 annual riders.

Bicing is only available to residents of Barcelona who purchase an annual membership so it limits the options for short-term visitors. However, one option is taking a bicycle tour of Barcelona through a tour company like Travel Bound. This chopper did the job navigating the streets of this historic port city.

Barcelona is building up its electric vehicle charging infrastructure. For EV drivers there are designated parking spaces like this one to juice up.

And like other major European cities, Barcelona has an excellent public transportation system. The Funicular de Montjuic gets passengers up the hill from the Barcelona Metro Parallel station to the Parc de Montjuic station.

Click here for more observations of Barcelona on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here is video of the Barcelona Metro, Funicular and the airport train.



Here is video of the bike tour around Barcelona.



Here are more photos of Barcelona. Click here to see the set on Flickr.

Riding the Rails: Paris to Barcelona

July 23, 2011 -- After a brief one day visit to Paris, I hopped on a TGV high-speed train heading south from Gare de Lyon railway station to Spain through the French countryside and Mediterranean coast via Nimes, Montpelier-Saint-Roch, Sete, Agde, Beziers, Narbonne and Perpignan . After a transfer at Figueres-Vilafant to a Renfe high-speed train, I headed to my last destination in Europe -- Barcelona, the capital of Catalonia.

It is hard to describe the feeling of speeding past vineyards and palm tree-lined coastal villages at nearly 200 miles per hour. It is amazing. I hope one day Americans will be able to experience true high speed rail like what the citizens of France, Germany, Spain, China, Japan and other nations enjoy.

And I hope that on that beautiful day in the United States of America when our trains travel over 200 mph, that we can look out the window and see wind turbines like these near the France-Spain border powering our country with clean, domestic energy.

Here are more photos and video of my train trip from Paris to Barcelona. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr. The 30-minute video shows scenes of the spectacular French and Spanish countryside and Mediterranean coastline.

Capital Bikeshare Celebrates One Year Anniversary

Capital Bikeshare celebrated a successful first year of operation as the largest bike sharing system in North America with 1,100 shiny red bicycles and over 110 stations spread across Washington, D.C. and Arlington, Virginia. The birthday bash was held Thursday evening under gray skies at The Yards Park next to the Nationals baseball stadium, but the mood was ebullient. 

The crowd rocked out to '80s cover band The Reflex, drank eco-friendly beer from New Belgium Brewing and chomped down tasty eats from food truck vendors like Red Hook Lobster Pound. The attendees, many whom biked to the event, heard nothing but praise about Capital Bikeshare from Arlington County Board Member Jay Fisette, D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells and District Department of Transportation Director Terry Bellamy, who announced the planned installation of an additional 54 stations in D.C. next year.

Fisette reminded the audience that CaBi is the only bike sharing system in North America that serves two jurisdictions -- Arlington and Washington, D.C. He said that biking isn't about spandex or carbon frames, but, like in Europe, it is about a leisurely city ride to the grocery store with a basket on the front. Capital Bikeshare is making that dream a reality in the Nation's Capital.

Here are more photos from the event.

Green Traveler: Paris, France

July 22-23, 2011 -- Paris is one of the most bike-friendly cities in the world. The City of Light is home to the largest bike sharing system on the planet - Velib, which boasts over 20,000 bicycles and 1,202 bicycle sharing stations. There were Velib stations and people riding Velib bikes everywhere I looked.

And Paris makes it easy for bikers with great bike infrastructure, including lots of dedicated bike lanes, shared lane marking and bicycle traffic signals.

Like Brussels, Paris' bike sharing system only accepts European Smart Cards with embedded microprocessor chips so I was out of luck with my old-style American credit card. Thankfully, there was a bike shop a few blocks down from my hostel along Canal Saint-Martin. For ten euros I rented a beat-up old mountain bike which did the job.

Another great way to get around Paris is by riding the underground subway system, called the Paris Métro or Métropolitain (French: Métro de Paris). The Art Nouveau architecture is impressive, the stations are fairly clean and the trains are fast and efficient.

There were a couple of modern additions to the Metro, which first opened to the public in 1900. At the recently renovated Franklin D. Roosevelt Station I noticed there are platform edge doors, which are barriers that help prevent accidents such as falling on the tracks. There is also an interactive touch-screen system map which can prove really helpful if you get lost.

I didn't snap a photo so this example of platform edge doors in the Paris Metro system is taken from the Internet.

Click here for more observations of Paris on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here are more photos from Paris. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.



Here is video of me biking along the Bassin de l'Arsenal.



And here is video of a Paris Metro subway train arriving at the station.

Riding the Rails: Prague to Paris

July 21-22, 2011 -- After two days exploring Prague, I took an overnight Deutsche Bahn City Night Line train to Cologne and then transferred to a Thalys high-speed train that took me to my next destination on this summer's rail trip through Europe -- Paris, France.

Prague's modern train station is attached to the historic early 20th century Art Nouveau booking hall, which is now a cafe named after the Czech architect who built the station -- Josef Fanta. The station hall is well-preserved and is an excellent example of Art Nouveau architecture.

At the cafe you can order Mattoni mineral water from the spa town of Karlovy Vary, which is famous for its health benefits.

There is a memorial plaque to former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson with his quote that "the world must be made safe for democracy." From 1945 to 1953 the Prague railway station was called Wilson station (Czech: Wilsonovo nádraží).

On Oct. 5 a memorial statue to Wilson, who helped the Czechs gain independence in 1918, will be rededicated in front of the railway station seventy years after the original statue was destroyed by the Nazis.

The couchette cars of the overnight train feature four beds and there was a fun group of Americans on their way to Amsterdam which helped pass the time to Cologne -- a college student from North Carolina, pictured left, and two friends from Texas touring Europe. We drank the original Czech Budweiser Budvar (called Czechvar in the U.S. and Canada) and had a great time into the night as we rolled through the German heartland.

After transferring to a Thalys high-speed train at Cologne, I finally arrived at Paris Gare du Nord railway station the next day and was ready to explore the City of Light.

Here are photos and video of the train trip from Prague to Paris. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.

Green Traveler: Prague, Czech Republic

July 19-21, 2011 -- There are tram traffic jams in Prague. Seriously. I've never seen so many streetcars at one time. There must have been at least twenty of them lined up one after another. Prague's tram system is huge, with over 900 tram cars running on 87.6 miles (140.9 kilometres) of track and serving nearly a million daily riders.

Prague also has an extensive subway system that serves 1.5 million passengers every day, which makes it the seventh busiest system in Europe and the most-used in the world on a per capita basis. The Prague subway began operation in 1974 and today it is a modern, efficient system with fast escalators that get you to the sometimes deep underground and rather large stations.

Besides streetcars and the subway, visitors and locals can zip around Praha with an electric bicycle. E-bike rental PREkolo offers fully charged bikes for a little as two hours for eight euros to as much as a weekend rental for 60 euros.

Click here for more observations of Prague on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here are photos and videos of this special city. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.

Riding the Rails: Berlin to Prague

Riding the rails along the Elbe River in the Free State of Saxony, Germany.

July 19, 2011 -- After visiting Berlin this summer, the next destination on my rail journey around Europe was Prague. I rode the EuroCity 171 Hungaria train from Berlin Central Train Station (Hauptbahnhof) to Prague Main Railway Station (Praha hlavni nadrazi). We traveled through the spectacular Saxony countryside along the Elbe River (Labe in Czech) and Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

The train was an older model and the Czech Republic isn't set up for high-speed rail yet so it didn't go as fast as most trains traveling through Western European nations. Czechoslovakia dissolved into the Czech Republic and Slovakia rather recently on January 1, 1993 following two uprisings against the communist regime -- the Prague Spring of 1968 and the 1989 Velvet Revolution.  There are plans to construct a high-speed rail network in the Czech Republic, although operation isn't expected until at least 2020.

Prague Main Railway Station and train I took from Berlin -- EuroCity 171 Hungaria, whose final destination is Budapest, Hungary.

But traveling at slower speeds was actually preferable because it offered more time to enjoy passing the scenic countryside and historic villages, towns and cities in Saxony and Bohemia.

There are four seats to a cabin with a sliding glass door and I had it to myself for most of the trip. There is rolling cart food and beverage service as well.

As en environmental journalist and clean energy blogger, I couldn't stop snapping pictures of the wind turbines in Germany. Every time I looked out the window while traveling through the Saxony countryside I saw enormous wind farms with huge wind turbines.

Not to be outdone, while traveling through the Czech Republic I took this picture of a solar farm. That is a lot of solar panels supplying clean, renewable energy to citizens of the Czech Republic.

Another highlight was passing through Dresden. Almost completely destroyed by an Allied bombing campaign near the end of World War II, the city has been rebuilt since then and is now one of the most important cities in Germany.

Arriving at Dresden's main train station.

We finally arrived in Prague and I set out on exploring the next city on my European rail adventure.

Here is video of the rail trip from Berlin to Prague.



And here are more photos of the rail trip from Berlin to Prague. Click here to see the set on Flickr.

Green Traveler: Berlin, Germany

July 17-19, 2011 -- Berlin is another European city with great public transportation and bicycling systems. The U-Bahn and S-Bahn rapid transit railway systems get Berliners and visitors to their destinations in Western and Eastern Berlin.

Bikes are big in Berlin. As I was walking towards Brandenburg Gate on Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district on a weekday morning, I saw more bicycle commuters than automobiles. One biker after another rolled by. It was an amazing sight to see.

And there is a unique bike sharing system in many German cities run by Deutsche Bahn. Call a Bike is different than most bike sharing systems because you don't have to check out and return a bike to a fixed station. There is an electronic rear wheel lock and cable lock that allows riders to leave the bike pretty much anywhere. The reason it is called Call a Bike is because the customer calls a phone number to receive a 4-digit authorization code that will unlock the nearest bike. In addition to Berlin, Call a Bike is available in Frankfurt, Cologne, Stuttgart, Munich, Karlsruhe and Saarbrucken.

Berliners like to bike to the new multi-leveled, futuristic-looking Central Train Station, which opened to the public in 2006 on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof railway terminal. This is bicycle parking in front of Hauptbahnhof.

With trains coming and going above you and below you, the railway station feels like something out of the "The Jetsons" or Fox's animation science fiction show "Futurama."

And it is easy to recycle at Berlin Central Train Station with these large recycling containers.

Click here for more observations of Berlin on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here are more photos from Berlin. Click here to see the set on Flickr



And here is video of a U-Bahn subway train arriving at Hallesches Tor station near my hostel:

Riding the Rails: Brussels to Berlin

July 17, 2011 -- I took a Deutsche Bahn InterCity-Express train from Brussels to Berlin with a transfer in Cologne. The train makes intermediate stops at Liege and Aachen before reaching Cologne. From Cologne the train makes intermediate stops at Dusseldorf, Duisburg, Essen, Bochum, Dortmund, Hamm, Gutersloh, Bielefeld, Herford, Hannover, Wolfsburg, Stendal and Berlin-Spandau. DB ICE trains travel at speeds up to 200 mph (322 kph).

The train station at Liege, Belgium is spectacular. It was designed by renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the new transit hub at Ground Zero in New York City and the Chords Bridge in Jerusalem.

In typical German fashion, Deutsche Bahn wants you to know exactly how fast and efficient their high-speed trains are. The ICE trains top out at around 200 mph (322 kph) so my train was gaining speed at the time I took this picture. For Americans reading this blog post, that is 155 miles per hour.

As we sped through the German countryside I was expecting to see alpine houses and gothic cathedrals, which I did. However, I also saw gigantic wind farms with enormous wind turbines dotting the landscape. And it seemed as if every other house I saw had solar panels installed on the rooftop. Germany is obviously not the windiest or sunniest country in the world, but the Federal Republic has had a Renewable Energy Act in place since the year 2000, so this is the result of over eleven years of generous incentives for wind and solar power. It is impressive to see so many wind farms and so many citizens powering their homes with the sun.

That evening we arrived at the multi-level, futuristic looking Berlin Central Train Station. Trains are coming and going all the time on different levels, making it look like something out of the Fox animated science fiction show "Futurama." So cool.

Here are photos and video of my high speed train trip from Brussels to Berlin. Click here to see the photo set on Flickr.

Green Traveler: Brussels, Belgium

July 16-17, 2011 -- Only a two hour high-speed train ride from London, the city of Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union so the green spotlight is on the place where lawmakers from the 27 EU member states decide environmental policies for the continent.

Brussels has a clean and efficient mass transit system. The Metro subway and light rail trams will get you to all the tourist destinations. But don't expect the subway doors to open for you, otherwise you will watch your train leave without you or you will miss your stop. The doors slide open by manually pushing a button or pulling a lever. This saves energy and reduces wear and tear on the subway doors.

The escalators are also not automatic. They are motion sensor, meaning they are stopped until someone walks up to the escalator and triggers the motion detection system and the escalator starts moving. This brilliant concept saves energy and reduces wear and tear on the escalators. Here is video of a Brussels escalator.



Biking is another way to get around Brussels. They city's bike sharing system is called Villo! and the stations are all over town. They only take Smart Cards, which are credit cards with an embedded microprocessor chip. Unfortunately, the United States has been slow to adopt this new technology so most American credit cards still use a magnetic strip. Villo! doesn't recognize the old American-style credit cards. Only the new European Smart Cards work, so I could not rent a Villo! bike to ride around Brussels.

Click here for more observations of Brussels on Josh's Travel Blog.

Here are more photos from Brussels. Click here to see the set on Flickr.



Here is video of a Brussels Metro subway train arriving at Gare du Midi - Zuidstation.



From Brussels my next destination was Berlin, with a transfer in Cologne. I took a Deutsche Bahn Intercity-Express train from Brussels North Railway Station to Cologne and then a transfer to Berlin Central Station.

This isn't my DB ICE train, but a Thalys high-speed train that travels from Brussels to Paris, Amsterdam and Cologne.