When I moved to Germany, I was immediately impressed with its train/rail systems. It was delightful to take a day and visit the Schweberbahn of Wuppertal, a ha

When I moved to Germany, I was immediately impressed with its train/rail systems. It was delightful to take a day and visit the Schweberbahn of Wuppertal, a hanging rail system that has resisted modernity for more than a hundred years. It is a delightful, little trip, even if it took all day to drive to Wuppertal to try it out. And then there was the time I got on the wrong train to Munich, from Dusseldorf, ended up in Hamburg, and had to take the night train across the country. The DB booze wagon was a veritable club, replete with a DJ and plenty of grog to keep the conundrums away. The fresh air out the window, somewhere in the middle of German Greenland, at 3am in the morning - this was a safe, adventurous drinking session. Thank goodness for 'die Kabine', lock and key and all. A Friday afternoon jaunt from the Rührgebiet to Amsterdam Central - not the best food by far, but a restaurant on the way, nevertheless, to finer treats. I came to believe that Americans, for all their faults, could not be forgiven for adopting the freeway instead of the railway as their most virulent expressions of freedom. Nothing quite like spending the badly needed 3 hours before a meeting, staring out at the landscape slinging by, while your presentation is uploaded in comfort and class ..