Tag: travel

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.

A year of blogging

Nantasket Beach, Hull, MA, drone shot
Drone shot of Nantasket Beach in Hull, MA, looking towards Boston in the distance

I bought the drewsview.xyz domain a year ago and the out reach of this page has exceeded my expectations. My Twitter page has grown at reasonable clip thanks in no small part to my #NHpolitics and liberty followers. My public Instagram and YouTube pages need more love, but they have generated positive impressions. I’d like to be more active on Odysee, which is a video site hosted on a blockchain, and is more impervious to censorship. I plan on flying high and keeping the adventure going into Summer 2022. I have some good trips in the works for June. Stay hungry.

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.

Bullet-proof canoe

My parents picked up a kevlar Ranger canoe yesterday near Squam Lake. I had never been to the village of Holderness before and was thoroughly impressed by the Squam Lake Marketplace. We got panini sandwiches and lime zest cookies. The store had many high-end local-themed souvenirs, such as: loon floats, artisan cheese, and New Hampshire home decor. This might inspire me to watch “On Golden Pond” (1981), which was filmed on Squam Lake.

The summer is flying by. I have been taking plenty of drone shots, but I haven’t been able to dedicate much time posting the photos and videos yet. I have been in touch with an NH state legislator to submit a drone bill that would allow drone pilots to fly in state parks without being hassled. A regulator decided this past year to create a rule banning drones in NH state parks, which not only goes against the ethos of NH, but is also nonsense. Far more dangerous activities, such as hunting and driving automobiles is allowed in state parks.

Blog SEO and Keene travel guide

Oh the art of search engine optimization! It’s taking me well over two months to get listed on Bing, which will also get me cross listed on DuckDuckGo, one of my favorite search engines for privacy purposes. It would be nice for people to find this website in more places than just Google.

I wonder how useful this site will be for people in the future. Ironically, one of my coworkers asked me recently for travel recommendations for Keene, NH. I used a lot of the same info that I used in my post about Walpole.

Other highlights about the Keene area: