“How?”, you might exclaim in these days of quarantine and self-isolation. Well, with the help of t’internet, all sorts of possibilities open up before us.
Race through the French countryside on the TGV at 200 mph, meander along the branch lines of Bulgaria on a freight train, or take in the jaw-dropping Swiss mountain scenery – all in real time.
YouTube has some strange offerings, but taking long train cab journeys, where you get a front view from a speeding train, is becoming increasingly popular. And some trips are very long indeed lasting for many hours. The links below are a few examples of train journeys but there are many hundreds on offer from just about every country in the world.
- Paris to Toulouse on the TGV. Follow this link…
- Paris to Valenciennes on the TGV (in 4K resolution). Follow this link…
- Note: The TGV only gets up to full speed (320km/h) when it’s on special track outside of the cities.
- The Royal Gorge in Colorado USA. Follow this link…
- Bulgaria ride from Sofia to Svilengrad. Follow this link…
- Switzerland, Linthal to Zurich. Follow this link…
Here are a few tips to get the best from your holiday of a lifetime trip:
- Select the highest resolution you can get by clicking the gear icon. 4k is best but 1080p or 720p are acceptable
- Turn on your speakers for extra atmosphere
- For the very long journeys, if you want to stop and return to your last position, right click over the video and select ‘copy video url at current time’ and save it as a bookmark in your browser
- For an even more immersive trip, include you family by showing the video on your large smart TV
- Why not follow your train journey in parallel on Google maps and if you stop at an interesting station, have a look around on Google StreetView
It might not be quite the same as being there, but there are none of those airport hassles, problems with foreign languages, losing your luggage, it costs nothing, and it’s guaranteed free of coronavirus!