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.

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.