Portugal and Spain trip

Dom Luís I Bridge in Porto

The Iberian Peninsula is a major region of Europe that I had not been to prior to last month. It has a much slower pace than that of France, Germany, and England, but there is much to be appreciated. I spent 10 days total in Europe on this trip: 5 days in Porto and 5 days in Madrid.

Portugal

After a 30-minute layover in the Azores, a Portuguese
archipelago in the middle of the North Atlantic, I hit the ground running as soon as I arrived Saturday morning in Porto. This is the second largest city in Portugal, which is about a 3-hour drive or train ride from the capital, Lisbon. The most direct route from Boston to Porto is via the Azores.

I strolled across the Dom Luís I Bridge, right at the center of the city, and took a historic streetcar down to the mouth of Douro River, where it meets the ocean. The streetcars around Porto are more of a tourist attraction and prone to breakdown, but it was a fun way to initially take in the new city. Porto also has a modern light-rail system, which I did take to and from the airport.

Food

Food tends to be a highlight when I travel and this trip was no exception. The most popular local dish is called Francesinha (“little French girl”), an adaptation of a French croque monsieur, but with linguiça sausage plus a tomato beer sauce. It’s quite good. I indulged in an assortment of pastries. The local delicacy is a Pastel de Nata, which is small flakey pastry cup shell filled with custard.

Pastel de Nata

I was also happily surprised by how affordable the food is relative to New England. A basic meal in Portugal can be found for under €10, which is not the case in Spain.

Francesinha in Braga

Douro Valley

This was the most scenic part of my trip. I took a wine tour on a bus from Porto up the Douro Valley, which is painted with vineyard terraces as far as the eye can see. The Douro River starts in the mountains in northeastern Portugal and ends in the ocean in Porto.

Braga

The Boston friend that I rendezvoused with in Porto was there on a business trip, which was part of my excuse for going. My friend recommended that I take a train one day up to the City of Braga, which is an hour north of Porto. The historic city center was significantly less touristy city than Porto, which I found authentically charming. Lots of tile covered sidewalks and beautiful pavilions.

The highlight of the day was that I took a Bolt taxi (the Iberian version of Uber) up a hill to visit the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, which is a Catholic shrine. Beautiful views from the top and ornate stonework on the building and especially the staircase leading up the hill in front of the church. The stairs are deceivingly far and the pictures make them look small. I made the trek down the stairs and then took a Bolt back to the main city square.

Spain

A good friend of mine moved to Madrid, so for the second half of the trip, I stayed with him. Madrid is one of the largest cities in Europe and likewise it has all the amenities you’d expect from a major metropolis. Parks, museums, discotheques that open at 4am, you name it. It’s clean, it’s pretty, but It didn’t have the same level of old-world charm that Portugal had. I had fantastic stay none the less.

Food

The Spanish are big into tapas, but the dish that I found most interesting was one called tortilla. Nothing to do with the chips that Americans are familiar with, but rather thin quiche-like egg crust around a meat filling. Quite good.

Art museums

I went to a couple art museums. The most interesting one was the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, which had a large collection of impressionist pieces that I enjoyed. They even had a Bierstadt scene of New England, ha!

Segovia

On my last full day in Madrid, I wanted to do a day trip to a town outside of Madrid to get a taste of the countryside. The first choice would have been to go to the City of Toledo, but the trains that day were booked up and we ended up going to the City of Segovia, about 30 min by high speed train north of Madrid.

The scenery on the train at the city limits of Madrid quickly turned into high mountain desert with mountains in the distance, reminiscent of the American West. The train approached a large mountain range and then suddenly descended into a dark tunnel.  Mind you, we were going 200 mph, so everything happened rapidly. After shuttling 15 minutes through a mountain range, we came out the other side into Colorado.  No seriously, I had to double take looking out the window to assure myself I wasn’t in the front range of the Rockies near Boulder, Colorado.  The geography and vegetation was a near carbon copy. 

The train station for Segovia was at the other end of the tunnel and we got off and boarded a bus bound for the center of town.  The entrance to the historic area of Segovia is guarded by an original Roman aqueduct.  All these years of traveling thru Europe and this was the first time I had ever seen one. It’s striking to see such an old and well-constructed piece of civil engineering.

Romulus and Remus founded Rome and were raised by wolves. Sic, Magistra! I paid attention in high school Latin class.

Segovia also features a beautiful castle that towers at the edge of town next to a very large cliff.  Lot of beautiful tiled mosaics inside.  The Moorish influence on the architecture was evident.

We had some coffee, pastries, and then we plowed over a gaggle of Spanish tourists to get back on the last bus back to the train out of town.

This was a great trip and the only full week I took off from work this year.  Portugal definitely was more compelling from a tourist perspective.  It had more old world charm, and they’ve slowly built up a tourism industry around it.  It also doesn’t hurt that the dollar goes a long way there.  Would I go back to Portugal? Sure.  I think I’d want to go to a beach during the warmer months.

Soapbox idol speech: The libertarian case for trains and urbanization

Why do so many libertarians hate trains? It’s like hating guns or free beer. Dagney Taggert would like to have a word.  So, let’s talk about why trains and urbanization are wicked awesome.

First off, did you know a double-tracked rail line can move as many people as an 8-lane highway? That’s right! That’d be like squeezing Chris Christie and Lizzo into a smart car—ridiculously efficient and a bit hard to believe, but it’s true!

We live in a car-centric society. Sure, cars are great, but let’s be real: being stuck in traffic is the opposite of freedom. If freedom means yelling at Masshole drivers and crying over gas prices, I’ll take a train ticket please.

Now, trains—especially those powered by overhead wires from clean, cheap nuclear energy—are a sustainable alternative. Pollution from cars? Forget it! It’s a property rights violation! Over 50 thousand Americans die every year from respiratory illnesses caused by pollution alone. Trains can help reduce that, and guess what? They’re safer and faster.

Urbanization isn’t just for hipsters. It’s about creating ‘third places’ where people can mingle. You know, like the libertarian version of Cheers or PorcFest.

Contrary to popular belief, our car obsession isn’t a free market triumph. It’s because of restrictive rules that make other transportation options nearly impossible. And don’t get me started on zoning laws—they’re like the fun police or the Federal Reserve. They ruining everything.

I dream of a New Hampshire with greater supply of housing and walkable towns. This isn’t a leftist conspiracy. Towns like Portsmouth and Peterborough are popular because they developed without these silly restrictions. Picture hopping on a train in Nashua, heading to the White Mountains for a ski trip, and not worrying about getting into an accident in a snowstorm. You can read a book, sip coffee, and enjoy the ride.

Trains can be privately operated, but to make this viable, our socialized highways and roads need to be privatized too. Look at France—their entire highway system is privately operated and funded. Who knew we could learn something from the French?

Cars and trains complement each other. A highly developed society needs a mix of transportation options. And let’s face it, automating trains is way easier than automating cars, Elon Musk!

So here’s my call to action, libertarians, let’s start by privatizing parts of our road system. Let’s create a New Hampshire where multiple robust and private transportation options make us truly free and happy. And who doesn’t want that? Probably the same people that think Bernie Sanders should run PorcFest next year.

(Not so) E-Zpass

I had the pleasure of driving to Sunapee on Friday afternoon last week amongst the onslaught of northbound weekend traffic. The Everett Turnpike in New Hampshire has two express lanes for E-Zpass vehicles to bypass the traditional toll booths. The irony was that the normal toll booth lanes had little to no traffic, while the express lane was a parking lot. Being the clever person that I am, I went thru the old toll booth, which still accepted my E-Zpass, and I went about my merry way with little to no traffic.

This got me thinking. The express lane system that was designed with the intent to relieve traffic had completely failed. The majority of the vehicles on the road at that time had E-Zpass.

Wouldn’t there be a better way to allocate the scarce resource that is road capacity? Turns out there is a very old fashioned solution: market-based pricing. Be it tulips in 17th century Netherlands or airline tickets, they all have something in common, pricing based on the supply and demand. When market-based pricing is applied to roads, it means that as traffic demand increases, so do the tolls to keep traffic at an equilibrium.

A reasonable example of congestion-based pricing of roads is around Denver, Colorado, where instead of carpool/HOV lanes, there are toll lanes with variable pricing. The standard lanes are still free at the point of use. I propose taking this model a step further. All lanes should be tolled and dynamically priced, however the left lanes should be slightly more expensive, allowing vehicles that want to travel faster to be able to do so without more congestion. At the same time, this system would also encourage drivers to stick to the right-most lane as possible to avoid higher tolls. I hate getting stuck behind a slow, clueless driver in the left lane. Under my system, these clueless drivers would be dinged with higher tolls.

Lastly, there should be significant weight surcharges for heavier vehicles. Roads in the United States are heavily (intended) over-engineered for trucks, which put at least 6-8 times more wear on the road than a standard vehicle. We spend hundreds of billions of dollars subsidizing government roads for the benefit of long-distance trucking, which in many cases would be more efficiently served with private trains.

Planes, trains, & automobiles: a student travels thru Europe

Originally published in the Concordiensis on 2014-11-06.

Drew in Mürren, Switzerland

I’m currently on a plane going from Basel, Switzerland, to London, England, for a layover back to France. Below me, the Rhine River winds by misty hillsides in this region where the German, Swiss and French borders meet. 

It’s the end of a long trip. Switzerland was the sixth European country I visited during my term abroad at the University of Rennes, France. 

My travels began on Monday, Sept. 1, in Sunapee, NH. I put on my turquoise golf shirt and made sure for the 10th time I had everything. My mother wasn’t going to let me leave the house without the proper provisions for the fierce winters in western France. 

From Boston-Logan Airport, my first stop was Reykjavik, Iceland. My friend Stefan and I met up in Reykjavik, because he flew in from JFK. 

Iceland has a plethora of geothermal energy (in fact, the country is completely powered by renewables) and much of the excess energy is used to heat swimming pools. In downtown Reykjavik, we visited a couple of outdoor pools, all of which stay open in the height of winter. We also saw the Blue Lagoon right before we hopped onto our plane to Paris. 

If I’ve gotten an education in anything during my term abroad, it’s been how to work public transportation. All major European airports have train stations, so from Charles de Gaulle Airport, we took the Regional Express Network, or RER, commuter rail into the heart of Paris. 

Stefan and I did touristy things around Paris, like going up the Eiffel Tower and walking the Champs Élysées. I had already been to Paris before, but some of the highlights from this trip were the Musée d’Orsay and the park next to the Palace of Versailles. 

From Paris, we planned to take a flight from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Rennes, the city where we would be studying.

After strolling around the Jardin du Luxembourg we took the RER train back to the airport. We arrived at Charles de Gaulle Terminal G about 45 minutes before our flight, which was a problem, because Air France check-in lines move like molasses. 

The attendants, for whatever reason, were making phone calls for each check-in. You would think they would have a more efficient system, but this is France, and, of course, Air France was on strike a week later, anyways. 

By the time we reached the head of the line, the attendant refused to check our bags, since it was 1 p.m. and our flight was scheduled to leave in a half hour. What a pain. 

With trains and flying out of the question, I was left with the American solution: rental car. It turns out that 21-year-olds can rent cars in France. 

As a disclaimer, I very much don’t recommend renting a car in Europe unless you are up for the challenge and can drive manual transmission. I had just turned 21 two weeks earlier, so I only had a temporary paper license and my expired license. After being declined by the Hertz affiliate, the Avis guy gave me the go-ahead. 

I’d bought a SIM card in Paris from Free Mobile, a really cheap cellphone company in France, but it provides data service nonetheless, so fortunately Google Maps was functional on my phone. 

Between Stefan, my luggage and myself, the little sub-compact Opel was packed to the roof. Somehow, I managed to drive three hours to Rennes with neither a real map nor a real driver’s license. 

As if getting to Rennes wasn’t enough of an adventure, for a month and a half leading up to my vacation, I had been traveling every weekend throughout Western Europe. 

One of the first weekends of the term, I visited my family friend Katrin in Munich, Germany, for Oktoberfest. I took the TGV, France’s high-speed train system, to Paris, and then changed onto a sleeper-overnight train direct to Munich. 

In any case, Munich is a spectacular city. After running with one of the brewery parades, Katrin gave us an extremely quick tour of downtown Munich. Then she said to me, “Now you’ve seen most of Munich, you should take my car and go see Salzburg, Austria.” 

I guess the drive to Rennes was foreshadowing my drive down the Autobahn. Katrin claimed that her Volkswagen Polo would only go 130 km/h (80 mph), which was probably her way of saying I shouldn’t drive too fast. On one of the straightaways without a speed limit, I did get the Polo to redline at 170 km/h (105 mph) — in the middle lane, mind you. Meanwhile, in the fast lane, Porsches and Lamborghinis were humming by at a much, much faster clip. 

The speed limit on the Autobahn is automated according to the weather and traffic, so as soon as the digital signs change to the no-speed-limit symbol, which looks like a white circle with a couple of white lines diagonally bisecting it, everyone steps on the gas. It’s as if the scenery around you abruptly speeds up, but the cars stay in the same place. I’ve never experienced anything like it. 

After Munich, we did several group excursions with the whole group. We’ve toured around Brittany, the region where Rennes is situated. In Normandy, we visited all of the famous World War II sites. 

Other side excursions I’ve done on my own include visiting the City of Nice, in the Côte d’Azur region, and the British Island of Jersey, right of the coast of France. I’ve been staying in youth hostels, which cost about $20 to $40 per night. 

In Europe, most students have a vacation mid-semester, around Halloween. My plan was to make good use of Ryanair. So with a one-day layover in London at both ends of my trip, I flew from Dinard (just north of Rennes) to Venice, Italy. Stefan, Ashley and I spent a few days marveling over the canals and the Italian architecture. 

From Venice, Stefan and I (Ashley went to Scotland and the Netherlands) took a train to Lucerne, Switzerland, which is a city surrounded by lakes and mountains. 

In Switzerland, Stefan and I bought a Swiss rail pass, valid for all trains, boats and public transport within the country. Even the tiniest villages in Switzerland are accessible by train. 

From Interlaken, we took the narrow-gauge Berner Oberland-Bahn train to the ski village of Grindelwald, at the foot of the Eiger, one of the most prominent mountains in Europe. We even took a train to the Jungfraujoch, the highest train station in Europe, which is right next to the Eiger. 

I’m in decent physical shape, but walking up stairs at 11,000 feet put me out of breath. The view at the top of the viewing platform was crystal clear. All of the snowcapped Alps towered above cow pastures and villages.

After Grindelwald, we spent a night in Geneva, and our Ryanair flight left from Basel. 

Knowing how to speak French has been helpful in France, but I’ve been speaking English everywhere else I’ve gone. 

It didn’t really hit home until my host mother, who can only speak French, asked me what language I was going to speak in Switzerland. “English,” I responded with a chuckle. 

And then there’s the money. Everything in Europe, save health care and education, is many times more expensive than in the U.S. On top of that, the sales taxes in several countries add up to 20 percent (Switzerland was only 5 percent). The taxes were especially shocking for me since we don’t have sales tax in New Hampshire. 

And the gas — yikes! Gas is about $10 a gallon. To fill up a quarter of a tank in Katrin’s tiny Volkswagen cost me around $45. 

I’ve already spent a couple thousand dollars, but considering how much I’ve done in two months, it’s been completely worth it. I may not have many more chances left in my lifetime to explore another continent extensively. 

The term abroad in Rennes has given me an extraordinary opportunity to see Europe. 

How far can you go in a train in 5 hours?

Excellent interactive visualization of 5-hour train journeys in Europe

One of these days I’ll write more about my life and times in Europe. I’d like to think I have a unique perspective having lived and traveled extensively on both sides of the Atlantic.

Some Americans, especially on the left, love to praise everything European. Many right-wingers like to take the opposite stance. Regardless of which tribe you gravitate towards, from the perspective of an unabashed libertarian from New Hampshire, there are a number of categories where western European countries out perform in.

One of these areas is passenger transportation. I’d even go so far to say that Western Europe currently has a much more free market passenger transportation system than that of the United States. Nearly all long-distance highways in France, for example, are leased to private corporations and funded through direct user fees in the form of tolls. Guess what? There are no potholes. European railroads operate on a similar public/private premise.

More well-run options for consumers leads to more competition. Trains, cars, and planes all complement each other nicely. This comes in large juxtaposition to transportation in the United States, which is almost entirely and ineptly run by government agencies. There is little reason reason why 2 to 5-hour car trips in the Northeast could be supplemented with private train travel, even New Hampshire. The population densities are very comparable in this part of the country to many areas in Europe. Sure, we have very car-dependent towns, but this could be easily fixed over time with better mixed-use development and libertarian-esque zoning laws, see Japan.

The United States once had the largest mass transportation system in the world. Nearly all of it was privately operated I might add. The US still has the largest freight railroad network in the world in terms of tonnage. Passenger train travel and freight train haulage peaked in 1917, however the rapid decline of the system did not occur until the late 1940s after the war. The decay was largely attributable to the subsidization of highway projects, which was a boon for truckers, and removal of streetcars, which spurred high demand for automobile ownership. General Motors was largely responsible for lobbying government officials to forcibly remove streetcars and thereby increase car sales.

To its credit, GM did play a large role in helping supply allied machinery during the war. Correspondingly, the attitude thereafter in Washington was: “What’s best for GM is best for the country”. Additionally, more locally, in New Hampshire, there was a lot of resentment by the 1940s by state politicians against the Boston & Maine Railroad, which had effectively held a tight grip over the New Hampshire legislature for over 75 years. Giving rein to the automobile was seen as a way to get rid of the old guard. It’s no coincidence that New Hampshire has the lowest density of rail traffic in the country (except for Hawaii, which effectively no longer has railroads). In fact, it’s by design. The state government wanted to monopolize control over transportation to sweep away the Boston and Maine Corporation. Even Vermont, which has half the population of New Hampshire and less than half the GDP, has considerably more rail activity.

From a purely physics perspective, railroads have profound efficiency advantages over auto roads in terms of theoretical long-term cost (depends who’s running it; ideally an entity with profit motive) effective throughput (freight and passenger volume), and energy use, especially if using nuclear power like what is done in France. It’s foolish to dismiss this fact. Every analysis written on this subject by Cato Institute and even Drew Cline of the Bartlett Institute clearly did not consult a physicist or at least willfully ignored the hard science.

I digress. This post was inspired by this interactive visualization that shows on the map how far you can get in 5 hours by train in Europe. France is a very well-connected country due to the SNCF’s TGV. Germany’s DB isn’t quite as fast, however it is quite good, without requiring the same level of subsidies. In France, roughly half of a train ticket price is subsidized by its central government. I will end that French rail system (especially the high-speed rail system) is heavily subsidized at the opportunity cost of encouraging growth in other areas of society. France is no darling in the perspective of free market economists, however it is light years better in terms of transportation options than that of our current American system.

Scotland (and England)

I would never recommend traveling to the interior of the British Isles in pursuit of exotic food nor beach weather. What I did find on my most recent trip to Britain was rich history, scenic landscapes, and great company. I initially had grand ambitions to do this post as more of a travelogue, but it’s been almost two months since the trip so I’ll stick to the highlights.

In June, I had the opportunity to visit friends who are currently living in York, England, and I knew this couple from my life and times in beautiful central New Jersey. I flew both in and out of Edinburgh, Scotland, directly from Boston, which was a surprise because I thought I was going to have to fly into Heathrow. During my 7 days in the UK, I made several stops on my train tour, which I will elaborate on.

This was my first time leaving the US since covid, and it was mildly interesting to see what the post-apocalypse world looked like, or rather didn’t look like, away from home mostly because it seemed like things had reset back to normal much more quickly than in metropolitan US. Not a soul wore a mask outside the airport. Only place I saw masks was by a queue of people getting on an AirCanada flight, ha! I did not have to wear a mask on my flight, and my only requirement was to have a negative covid test to get back on the return flight. The negative test requirement ended up being dropped the day after my return flight.

Edinburgh

Arthur’s Seat

Best thing: Hike up Arthur’s Seat. The weather the first day was incredible, with blue skies and no clouds, which is rare in Northwest Europe. From the top of this ancient volcano, located directly in the city center, you could see the entire Edinburgh region, the ocean, and the large cantilever bridge that crosses the Firth of Forth. Open, green, treeless fields and hills as far as the eye could see.

Other highlights: Holyrood Palace, the castle, and overall architecture. I ate haggis, which despite the reputation among Americans, tasted reasonably good.

The Scott Monument

York

York Minster

Best thing: Museum Gardens and site seeing near the Minster.

Honorable mention: Gatehouse Coffee. Really cool cafe built right into the city entrance gate. York was a walled city first settled in Roman times. Not a big city in terms of population, but it’s famous among Brits for the history.

What I didn’t get to see: The National Railway Museum. It was closed on Mondays, which ended up being the only day that would have worked. I have a knack for going to famous cities and missing out on great railroad museums. I’m looking at you Lucerne Switzerland. My friends thought I was kidding that I wanted to go to the railroad museum. Trains are a priority people!

Glasgow

Necropolis

Best thing: Necropolis. I’ll admit I was shaking my head at first that my friends were taking me to a graveyard, but the view and the hilltop landscape with tomb stones in the foreground make it clear this is not your average graveyard.

Honorable mention: The food. I also tried a pornstar martini for the first time. Glasgow was surprisingly cosmopolitan, significantly more so than Edinburgh. Glasgow is the 4th largest city in the UK. Did not know. It’s slightly larger than Edinburgh. However, Edinburgh does get more props for interesting architecture and history.

Glasgow streetscape

Fort William

West Highland Railway

Best thing: The train ride between Fort William and Glasgow. The landscape of the Highlands is wild to put it lightly. The rocky unobstructed views with very few trees had some semblance to that of the western US states, albeit much greener and cloudier. The train meandered into uninhabited valleys, save a few random hikers.

Honorable mention: Ben Nevis distillery and the hot tub on the deck of our Airbnb. We had a beautiful view of the town and loch below us. Would gladly stay there again. Ft William is a well known town among Brits, and I’m glad I went to more of a locals destination in the Highlands.

I was gunning for a longer train journey to Mallaig, but 3 hours was long of enough for the rest of the crew this time. There is a famous viaduct used in the Harry Potter films just northwest of Ft William had we continued further on the train. In the future, if I go back to this area, I would also like to see the Isle of Skye.

Airbnb in Fort William

Overall, great trip. Exceeded expectations. If you were to have asked me two years ago what my first post-covid overseas trip would be, I probably would have predicted Norway or Iceland, but the timing was right to visit friends. I came away from with this trip with a much better appreciation for Britain, despite it still not being a culinary destination. My previous trips to the British Isles included Jersey and London, and were very rushed. I had more energy in my college days. This time around was relaxed and I could watch the scenery go by as we lounged on the train.

The Mountain Division

North Conway Depot was designed by Bostonian Architect Nathaniel J Bradlee

The Maine Central Railroad’s Mountain Division thru Crawford Notch, New Hampshire, is the crown jewel of the historic mainline railroads in New England. The road snakes into the White Mountains to Crawfords Station, about 25 miles north from North Conway. An inactive right-of-way continues another 45 miles from Crawfords to St Johnsbury, VT.

Other than the grand scenery, the significance of this line was that it once served as the primary route for freight traveling from Maine to points west of Chicago via Canada. After the consolidation of the Boston & Maine and Maine Central railroads in the 1980s, the preferred route for freight was the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad via Gorham and Berlin, NH, which has more gentle grades.

Nowadays, the glory of the Mountain Division can still be experienced aboard the Conway Scenic Railroad‘s Mountaineer train, which my parents and I had the pleasure of doing the week before Thanksgiving this year, during my interim between jobs. This was the Conway Scenic Mountaineer’s final excursion of the 2021 season and the neat thing about the ride late in the year is the ability to see the snow-capped peaks without foliage blocking the views.

Drew’s reflection onboard Conway Scenic’s Mountaineer on the Maine Central’s Mountain Division in Crawford Notch, New Hampshire

Trip highlights

  • North Conway Depot – The mountain backdrop with Cathedral Ledge and the atypical architecture for New England make this a photo destination unto itself. This is was designed by Bostonian architect Nathaniel J Bradlee and is considered a unique blend of Victorian and Imperial Russian architecture. Bradlee was an accomplished architect and designed many of the brownstones in Boston’s South End.

  • Frankenstein Trestle – It’s a long curved trestle. A lot of bystanders take pictures of the traversing trains and I’ve spotted several great drone shots on Instagram of trains on this trestle. Honestly, it’s not the most scenic part of the ride, but it must have been quite the engineering feat when the railroad was built in the mid-1800s.

  • Mt Washington views from Crawford Notch – Nothing short of amazing. I’ve been on many trains thru the Swiss Alps and the views along here are in the same league.

  • Crawfords Station – Another fine example of Bradlee’s work, although slightly more standard Victorian. There are many excellent photos ops of the station with Crawford Notch in the background.

  • AMC Highlands Center – Probably Appalachian Mountain Club’s most modern lodging facility. It has a gift shop, restrooms, a cafe, and many scenic vistas. This is walking distance from Crawfords Station.

One of the big themes of the guided narration during the train ride was mortality. Both the aspect of inhabiting an avalanche-prone valley and operating a railroad in the wilderness a century ago were dangerous prospects. The conductor memorialized many lives lost trying to tame the savage elements of the White Mountains. Along the railroad itself, there were numerous accidents, including a particularly bad train boiler explosion. It’s no wonder that the American Indians demurred from inhabiting much of the rugged terrain and were also reluctant to ascend the high peaks.

Conway Scenic trains reversing direction at Crawfords Station

This was a long ride, sitting at about 5 hours round trip. It’s unfortunate that the tracks in the low country leading up to the notch aren’t in slightly better condition allowing for faster speeds, since the scenery is not quite as interesting as it is along the notch. However, the weather was as good as it possible could have been since Mt Washington’s summit is usually hidden in the clouds the vast majority of the year. Also fortunately, the seats are very comfortable and the large windows offer the audience world-class views. This was a wow.

Off the beaten path

There can be a certain charm in traveling to deteriorating places. You get to play anthropologist and historian trying to imagine what once was. It’s remarkable how relative human development in certain localities, such as the rust belt or Russia, can decline precipitously in a matter of decades.

One of my favorite YouTube travel shows is called “Bald and bankrupt“, which is about a gentleman named Benjamin from England, who is a semi-native Russian speaker and who travels primarily around the former East Bloc. Benjamin travels in pursuit of uncovering relics of the glory days in the former Soviet Union, all while correctly exposing the humanitarian disaster that is communism, be it touring the Gulags or KGB torture facilities.

What I particularly like about this show is that there are no rose-colored glasses and beating around the bush as the audience gets to see a raw and authentic perspective about places that are not well known outside the 2nd world. Benjamin has many man-on-the-street segments where he asks locals unfiltered questions like “What’s your opinion on Gorbachev?”

In my final weeks living in New Jersey, I took some Bald and bankrupt-inspired trips. The first being a drive up to the Poconos and Scranton. I had been up to Scranton once before a couple years ago to see Steamtown, which honestly, aside from a couple famous steam trains, isn’t anything to call home about. Steamtown was a steam train exhibit originally created by F. Nelson Blount in the Lake Sunapee and Monadnock regions of New Hampshire, later moving to Vermont and then finally to Scranton, PA, as part of a pork-barrel spending project later turned National Park. The default train ride that Steamtown offers is pretty lame compared to other heritage railroads, such as those in the Delaware Valley or the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Right next door to Steamtown is the Electric City Trolley Museum, which I found far more interesting, and the main reason for a return visit to Scranton. They offer trolly/streetcar rides down a 5-mile track. The trollies reach speeds of up to 30 MPH, making this the fastest heritage railroad that I’ve been on. Amazing to think that less than 100 years ago, trollies were the primary form of transportation.

Adjacent to Steamtown is the Steamtown Mall, yet another failed government boondoggle to revitalize Scranton. The mall is full of vacant storefronts, a greasy pizza shop, and multiple discount cellphone carriers. Boost Mobile and Metro PCS tend not to set up shop in the nicest part of town.

I did manage to eat at a decent ramen restaurant in town called the Peculiar Kitchen. If for whatever reason you find yourself in Scranton and hungry for ramen, this is the place to go.

A week later, I continued my bald and bankrupt tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey, which was once the premier summer destination for city dwellers in Philadelphia, including both of my maternal grandparents. Immediately upon parking on a street next to casino, which towered above, I felt a seedy aura.

Again, much like Scranton, Atlantic City has seen better days. There were many abandoned storefronts as I walked along the boardwalk. Electronic billboards lined the boardwalk every 50 yards and flashed obnoxious ads. Perhaps the most striking thing about Atlantic City was the demographic of people in attendance. I felt like I was the only sober, height-weight proportional, Caucasian, young male. I felt very out of place to say the least.

After a stroll around the Bass Pro Shop, I made my departure for Ocean City, which at only 9 miles away from Atlantic City, felt like a world apart.