A View from the Train

As I continue to kick items off my bucket list in terms of trains traveled (and some spotted) on this planet, and not so much the destination visited I thought I'd start listing them in some order more to serve as a documentary for me since I have begun to realize that the hard disc upstairs is getting full and might throw an unexpected error one of these days.

So hopefully in chronological order of where I've been are some views of this planet shot at varying velocity through clear or murky glass and at times without. Some above ground, some under, some at sea level and some much higher, some in scorching and humid weather while some near freezing.
Most journeys these days have been on trains with electric locomotives, sometimes diesel-electrics but not with steam. When they invented good cameras, the steam train had died. I would need to find some exclusive journeys to take just to get on a steam train one of these days (like the restored Flying Scotsman that just unveiled in England in late 2015).

Enjoy!

2003 - summer- visiting the Grand Canyon - Williams AZ

Williams Depot in AZ before train leaves for the south rim of the Grand Canyon

2004 - Napa Valley Wine Train

Chardonnay country, Napa CA

Toy Train - steam loco in Tilden Park, Berkeley CA

12" Gage - Redwood Valley Railway (joy ride through redwoods)

Australia's East Coast - near Cairns (jump off point for the Great Barrier Reef)

Kuranda Rail - into the jungle and on top of a hill

Bridge on the River Kwai - near Kanchanaburi, Thailand

Death Railway - built by the Japanese during WW II connects Thailand to Burmese border

Inside London in 2009 - underground

inside the tube

Summer 2009 - Eurostar to Paris from London

St. Pancras to board the Chunnel Train

And then explored Paris using their Metro

And then on to Bern, Switzerland on the TGV - operated by the French SNCF

Visiting the Bernese Oberland region of Switzerland was one of the most memorable and idyllic times we have spent

Interlaken (on said lake) provides the gateway to the Alps

Visited the 10,000 foot mount called the Jungfrau

Leaving Kleine Schedig on the way to the mount

After doing some train spotting every evening when back at the hotel in Interlaken it was finally time to head back to the last stop - Zurich and then fly home to SF

Trainspotting at Interlaken - an ICE heading to Germany

Leaving for Zurich Flughafen with Glattalbahn light rail

A summer spent in the nation's capital - 2010 July - Washington DC

Time to head north on Amtrak's regional express to NY, NY

Fall of 2011 was another amazing journey into Spain - much cleaner and newer trains - their superfast version is called the AVE - we traveled at over 300 km per hour from Barcelona to Madrid and Madrid to Seville on the southwest coast all by this deluxe service.

I will devote a separate blog to showcase the next set of trains (there is too many more) from New Zealand, Germany and India.

A few good books

On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...

Costa Rica

Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry. Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while. Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...

Brown Motion

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