TRANSPORTATION
Prompt - Transportation : Write about taking your favourite (or least favourite) form of transportation
Once upon a time I'd have been tempted to look to the air for my favoured mode of transport. Flying took one to more distant places, in a short time, and airports were interesting places. That latter statement has altered drastically in the past two decades. Airports are to be endured, and for spending as little time in as possible. Flying has become a (sometimes) necessary evil.
I used to love driving too, and recall being sat at the wheel for nigh on twelve hours to traverse much of Spain, and thoroughly enjoying it. Perhaps I still might on those quiet roads, but I suspect not. My concentration is not what it was thirty plus years ago, and I become stiff and sore after a much shorter distance sat in one place. I prefer somebody else to be doing all the work. In Edinburgh I rarely drive, not when I enjoy waking and the bus and tram service is so good.
I might make an exception for cycling, which I always used to enjoy, and am looking forward to trying again. But that will be locally, for fun and fun only, and is not really 'proper' transport in consequence.
So my favourite nowadays has to be on rails. Able to sit and look out at the changing scenery, read or listen to music, get up and have a walk up and down, and with end points that still retain some of their glamour. Railway stations are far more pleasant places to be than airports, and you don't have to spend so long in them either!
And out of the forms of train travel I've experienced by far the most memorable (if not the most relaxing...) is the sleeper train. I guess if it's a service you use regularly you can get into a routine and a rhythm that allows to you to really sleep. So far I've only made three sleeper journeys. (At least as an adult - I can vaguely recall going on one from Ostend to Austria, and back again, as a schoolboy. The magic somewhat diluted by having to share a cabin with five other farty kids...) On none did I get a good night's sleep. But all three provided memorable moments and images in my mind which will always remain.
This is making me want to book a sleeper to somewhere, just for the sake of it...
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