"Training" with my Dad From England to Austria

When we began planning my dad's trip over here, we knew he would fly into England and that he then wanted to go to the Salzburg area to see Berchtesgaden, Germany, which is right on the border.  I of course started coordinating the easy 2-hour flight between England and Salzburg.  However, when I went out for a run, my dad called back and talked to Brian to ask if it were possible to take trains all the way there.  What you might not know about my dad is that he LOVES European trains, so for him, that was the ultimate adventure.  Of course it is possible, so somehow I ended up taking trains with my dad all the way from Bury St. Edmunds, England, to Salzburg, Austria.  Here was the breakdown...  =)


Me with my dad

On the Tuesday morning after my dad arrived, we began the adventure by taking a 2-hour train ride from Bury into central London.  (As a quick side note, there was a HUGE tube strike that day that caused a bit of chaos for us - of course it had to happen that day!)  After a quick lunch break, we then took the Eurostar through the Chunnel over to Paris where we stayed for the night.  As another side note, Paris was a bit rough.  The hotel I had chosen for us near the train station wasn't great and a big fight (with punches thrown and cops called) erupted at the restaurant where we were eating dinner, but at least it gave us some funny stories!  My dad was definitely a trooper.

The next morning, we continued our adventure early and took a 5 1/2-hour train ride through France into Switzerland to make a stop in Zurich.  I thought that it was going to be too big for me since it is such a major European capital, but I absolutely fell in love with it.  The architecture was amazing, and it had a great, small-town feel.  After enjoying 1 1/2 days in Zurich, we made our final train journey to Salzburg.  It was another 5 1/2-hour train ride, but we had upgraded to First Class on a really great Swiss train so the ride wasn't bad at all!  More on the Salzburg part of our trip tomorrow.

Shopping in the cute streets of Zurich

Beautiful Zurich

Largest clockface in Europe, located in Zurich

Overall, our training adventure definitely took more time than a flight would have, but we got to see some amazing scenery and sights as we made our way through Europe on the rails.