adventures by train

It's been a few weeks now, but I am finally going to make mention of my trip to Baltimore!  I had another great experience with Amtrak, taking the train each way and also a quick train trip up to Newark over the weekend.  I wish our culture would value quality of travel over speed and take advantage of how civilized the travel is on a train!

Probably the most amazing thing about my train trip was the fact that a baby was right in front of me and a toddler was right behind me and for the entire 7 hour trip to Baltimore there was no shrieking, crying, or any other annoying behavior that's so prevalent with little ones on airplanes!  Overall, it was such a nice and relaxing way to travel.  I especially liked the part going into DC where we could see all the cars stuck in traffic as we kept zipping along!  I made a whole list of all the reasons trains are way cooler than planes:

1.  The super lenient luggage policy.  You could move a small apartment on the train for very little cost.  You can carry on 2 bags up to 28" tall, and your two carry ons do not include purse/briefcase etc.  You can also check 3 bags that are up to 36" tall for free, and if that still doesn't do it, you can check an additional 3 bags up to 36" tall for a MERE $10 each.

2. good scenery

3. No stupid 3-1-1 rules about liquids.  You could pack your carryon bags full of water and shampoo and they don't care!

4. Use whatever electronics whenever you want!  And there are outlets at each seat so you can charge your electronics!

5.  You can get some good exercise walking through the cars and down to the cafe car.

6.  It's so quiet.  My headphones didn't have to be at a deafening decibel level to drown out the engine noise like on a plane.

7.  The bathrooms are twice as big as on a plane, and there's a handicap one on each car.  Also, there are coat hooks in the bathroom.

8.  water fountain!

9.  Within 30 minutes of arriving at the train station, I checked my bag and got on the train - and didn't have to take off my shoes, belt, jewelry, and get patted down or have to unpack my stuff to send it through any metal detector.

10.  There's leg room for days compared to the average airplane!

I love trains!

Our hotel room in Baltimore was awesome because it was on a corner, so we had 2 walls of windows.  It may seem silly to mention this, but it also had one of the nicest bathrooms I've seen in a hotel.  The wallpaper was beautiful, the pedestal sink was so nice, and who doesn't love subway tile?

 One of my favorite things in Baltimore was this building which presumably was a firehouse.  The architecture alone is gorgeous, but we were walking quickly by because there was a bum sitting in the front looking like he was about to start talking to us.  Out of the corner of my eye, I somehow caught sight of the detail on the capital of the columns and stopped in my tracks.  From afar, they look like regular old decorated capitals, but up close you can see that they're decorated with little firemen!  There is a fireman holding a ladder on the left side and two firemen holding a hose in the middle.  How amazing!

We went to the B&O Train Museum which was really cool.  The roundhouse is shiny and new due to a snowstorm collapse of the roof on the original a few years ago.  There were so many neat trains both inside and out.  One of the most interesting to me was this clearance car which was used to determine how much tunnels needed widening for the new larger trains.  The iron spikes stood out on all sides so they could tell how much bigger the tunnel needed to be!

I also quite liked this tiny building that has a parking deck built up around it. It's the University Police office now I guess, but I wonder what the history of the building has been!

I had a great time and was so excited to see lots of people!  I got to see my cousins for two dinners and a lunch, have dinner with an old friend from college, and also pop up to New Jersey to see a good friend who was about to have a baby (which she did this past Friday!)

No wonder I was too tired to share my trip until now : )