Trains

 

This week I received a list of books taking place on trains or having some part of the story involve them.

• 4:30 from Paddington, A. Christie
• Murder on the Orient Express, A. Christie
• Mystery of the Blue Train, A. Christie
• La Bete Humaine, Gmile Zola
• Anna Karenina, L. Tolstoy
• Strangers on a Train, Patricia Highsmith
• The Thirty Nine Steps, John Buchan
• The Great Train Robbery, Michael Crichton
• Murder on the trans-Siberian Express, Stuart Kaminsky
• Murder on the Flying Scotsman, Carola Dunn
• Stamboul Train, Graham Greene
• Tunnel Vision, Keith Lowe (London Tube)
• The Sleeping Car Murders, Sebastien Japrisot
• Rider, Marian Francis Wolbers (Tokyo Subway)
• Avalanche Express, Colin Forbes
• Artic Summer, E.M. Forster

Graham Greene's Travels with my Aunt has been omitted because my favorite daughter (who lives in London) knows I know about it. The list was inside a nice Father's day card (above), the cover of which reminds me of Switzerland. The main locomotive makes me think of the American West, but the train up on the viaduct and the mountains definitely has has me yearning to go back to Switzerland. We were there in 2001 and again for a daytrip to Lugano in 2004. On our trip in 2001 we visited Zurich, Bern, Thun, Lauterbrunnen, Interlaken and Zermatt and all travel was by train.

 

Here is the eldest daughter and myself in 2001. We are on our way to Trummelbach Falls from our hotel in Lauterbrunnen. Both sides of the very narrow valley are very steep, you can see one wall off in the distance. The falls are inside the mountain and are from glacial runoff, it was well worth the walk. We also passed some other falls on our way, the largest Staubbach Falls, could be seen from our hotel, Hotel Staubbach. A great hotel, in a nice quiet village. The hotel was close to a church which chimed the hours all night long, but it was the same in Bern and it seemed everywhere else we went on that trip. I don't think in Zermatt we heard the church bells though.

 

This is the new funicular from the Lugano train station down to the center of town. For some dumb reason we took the funicular down and walked up later in the day back to the train station. We took the train from Milano Centrale passing some very beautiful scenery, the trip took about 1 hour. It was a perfect daytrip, though I imagine it would be a lot more crowded in the spring or summer than in December when we went. I don't think we had dinner in Lugano, but we did have a very nice lunch. Did you notice the palm trees.

I have quite a number of books in the reading queue mainly Beverley Nichols, but once I get through them I will definitely look to see if the local library has any of the train books on the list. I had been meaning to compile such a list for awhile. I also have to fit in the traditional "Travels with my Aunt" summer read, if Summer ever gets here. I wonder what my favorite daughter who lives in NYC will get me for Father's day?

For the longest time I bought my Dad Crown Royal Whisky for Father's day. My favorite part was the bag, I never liked whisky back then and now only in Mint Juleps.

 

Talking about my Dad and alcohol, I was going to say that his favorite beer was Schmidt's, but that is what he bought, a case of schmidt's in little squat bottles every week or so. I couldn't find a photo of the bottle on the web, but found a label. I only ever snuck one or two so I don't really remember if it was any good. Was it his favorite or the least expensive or was he just different than the average Joe? I never asked. He also smoked Kent cigarettes, same quandry. I am going to go with he just walked to the tune of a different drum.

Happy Father's Day