Born in the slums of Manila near the railroad tracks, my favorite mode of transportation had been the vintage jeepney that became popular after the war. Since I migrated to the US, RVed the continent, and traveled the world, I have experienced other transportation infrastructure that serves each traveler well. Here are the best and our favorites: the roads of America and the railways of Europe.
The Great North
American Road Network
Our eight
years of RVing full-time in the US, Canada, and Mexico gave us great
experiences on the great North American road network. The largest component is the
US highway system, the most extensive in the world. Today it constitutes about
165,000 miles of roads. 90% of US tourist traffic is carried in the system.
This is
complemented north of the US by the Trans-Canada Highway, Canada’s transcontinental
federal-provincial system that travels through all ten provinces of Canada from
the Pacific Ocean in the west to the Atlantic in the east. The main road spans
4,860 miles across the country, one of the longest of its type in the world.
And, in the
south, the roadway network in Mexico also does not disappoint, especially with
the concretization of Hwy 15 that connects to Arizona. There are 72,577 paved
miles, making it the largest paved network in Latin America, 6,508 miles of
which are multi-lane expressways, including six-lane ones.
This great
North American road system is complemented by a network of campgrounds and
motels/hotels that provide lodging options with no equal in the world. Road
travel in America is ultra-convenient. In addition, RV models range from small camper
vans to huge luxury motorhomes. We also experienced the same satisfaction in the
Australian road network.
The Reliable European
Railway System
The European
Railway system consists of the following:
Tier One:
Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and France.
Tier Two: Great Britain, the Netherlands, Luxembourg,
Spain, the Czech Republic, Norway, Belgium, and Italy.
Tier Three: Lithuania, Slovenia, Ireland, Hungary,
Latvia, Slovakia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, and Bulgaria.
We have used
all seven in the Tier One systems, six of the eight Tier Two, and three of the
ten Tier Three. We especially loved our train travels through Llubijana and
Bled in Slovenia, Vienna, Salzburg, and Innsbruck in Austria, Munich and
Oberstaufen in Germany, St. Gallen in Switzerland, Vaduz in Lichtenstein, Paris
in France, and Brussels in Belgium. We covered all of that in four weeks and a
half.
We have tried
economy and first-class trains, taking us to small towns and big cities. The
rail network is seamlessly interconnected to buses, taxis, and Ubers. Not a
single train ride was late or canceled. The stations were sometimes
airport-like in the big cities. In the small towns, quaint little shops are built
around them as walking malls. I love train travel in Europe.
Bill did,
too, because he did not have to worry about driving and enjoyed the scenic
views of country and city life that unfolded before us: dwarf apple trees, tiny
garden sheds, rolling hillsides, etc. Sometimes, the wide windows can even be
opened for a better camera shot. We enjoyed the bars and dining cars, too. I
even found comfort food for my upset tummy on a train ride between Innsbruck
and Vienna. Trains were certainly better
than driving rental cars on the other lane and on narrow roads of the UK.
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