Friday open thread: memorable journeys

[dolorosa_12]

These Friday posts are making a tentative return. We'll see how long I can maintain the momentum.

I've got journeys and transport on the brain at the moment due to my summer of train travel, and that's what's sparked today's prompt:

What are some of the most memorable journeys you've undertaken? I'm not asking about the destination, I mean the journey itself, by any mode of transport.



Trains are far and away my favourite form of transport (other than my own feet ... or my own arms and legs, I guess, since swimming is technically a form of transport that I enjoy), so I guess it's unsurprising that train journeys are my most memorable. The one which always sticks in my mind is that from Bergen to Oslo in Norway — six hours through the most incredible, snow-covered mountains, little houses with roofs covered in grass, and just this endless sweep of magnificent land and sky.

I don't particularly enjoy travelling by car, so weirdly my most memorable car journeys are the ones that happened so frequently in my childhood that they became habitual, and memorable because they caused me to remember every contour in the land, every twist and turn in the road: the three-hour trip between Sydney and Canberra, the winding route down the mountains from Canberra to the NSW south coast, my endless trips back and forth from my high school to my house, to my gymnastics club, to my piano teacher's house, and so on.

I don't think I travel enough by boat to have much to choose from here, but nothing beats a journey across Sydney Harbour in a ferry.

In contrast I travel too much on foot (both just walking around in my daily life, and on hiking trips) to ever be able to narrow things down to the most memorable journey.

My memorable plane trips are all memorable for the wrong reasons...

Comments

[regshoe]

Taking the Caledonian Sleeper from London to Fort William last summer! The train was delayed overnight; I woke up somewhere in Cumbria and we spent the rest of the morning travelling across Scotland through increasingly dramatic and lovely scenery, peacefully watching out of the window of our comfortable private room. Despite the delay it was pretty much the nicest rail journey I've ever been on. :)

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, that sounds absolutely amazing! It sounds as if the delay meant that you were able to see things at a more optimal time of day, rather than passing through them when you were asleep.