One of the most enjoyable long train journeys that we’ve ever made was on an Amtrak service in the USA. We began in Cincinnati, Ohio and travelled in comfort for several days in our reserved sleeping car, enjoying excellent meals in the dining car each day (included in the cost of our tiny but cozy private compartment). As we watched the upper part of the USA roll by outside our windows, we laughed at how incredible FLAT the landscape was across the midwest.
Yes, it takes you longer to get from point to point when you substitute train travel for plane travel. But the pace of travel is slow, deliberate, and relaxed and you are not confined to sitting in a cramped seat stacked row after row inside a metal tube. There is something quite delightful about being able to walk for awhile, traverse the length of the train and back at meal times, eat very pleasant full meals or have a quick snack from a bistro car.
Enjoy this mini-look at a few cross country highlights.
A comfortable Amtrak sleeper car at a rest stop in Montana.
With bright blue skies and open fields beyond, these grain silos with rail lines in the foreground represent the movement of food products across the USA.
Interior of the beautiful railway station in Portland, Oregon. Shown is a long line of people waiting for their boarding passes — a line we didn’t have to get into because we were pre-assigned by purchasing sleeper car tickets.
Bistro car on the Amtrak rail service.
How appropriate is that sign on the tower above the Portland rail station!
Deborah leaning out of her sleeping car on the way to the West Coast of the USA.
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