Why I like travelling by train

As I already wrote, I was travelling by train for two and a half hours this weekend. I am one of the dwindling number of people who prefer travelling by train to travelling by car and in this post I want to tell you why.

As you might have gathered from previous posts, I like reading a lot. In addition I also like listening to music and I like travelling comfortable. While riding a train, I get all of this at the same time.

Normally I like driving my car, especially since I got myself a new one last year. But while travelling over short distances by car surely is more comfortable and, for example, better than trying to take home your weekly shopping by bus, it also means a lot of concentration and - with the way the road situation is in Germany - a lot of frustration as well. There'll be traffic jams, there'll be idiots on the road and so on.

All this will not happen in a train. There may be idiots riding it with you, but you don't have to deal with them or look out for them. And instead of always staring ahead with concentration, you can nod off a bit, read a book or a newspaper, listen to music or just stare out of the window and look at the landscape you pass by.

Another reason why I like travelling by train is the fact that you can study a lot of different people there. If you're a writer like me, or interested in mankind as a such, that alone is a good reason to prefer the train to the car - in which you usually are by your own or with a person you already know quite well.

I've also found that I tend to think about things a lot more while riding a train. The fact that you have nothing to do but sit and wait for the moment the train arrives at the station you're bound for, allows you to spend your time just thinking. I don't know how other people see this, but for me it's the ideal situation in which to either work on my stories or think about topics I can and will sooner or later post in this blog.