Trains - Honeymoon/Semana Santa Pt. III

After our brief stint in Paris we went to the Gare de L'est and caught our train to Reims.  Since we live a life of ease and leisure, we booked first class seats facing each other with a table in between.

Train travel is by far one of the best things about Europe and, as you can tell, I am suuuuper excited about this (and the Gouda flavored crackers, which were delicious).

As you can see from the screen behind the girl with the silly cheeks, the train goes well over 300kph (186mph).  The highest speed we saw the screen get up to was 330kph, which is over 200 mph.

Just in case you were wondering why someone had silly, puffy cheeks.  The answer, as usual, is wine.

Checking out the scenery.  Even going really fast, its a great way to see parts of the country outside of the city.  And doing so with a Belgian beer and (amazing) French crackers makes it even better.

The Train To Soller - Kate's Here!! Pt. II

We finally took the historical train to Soller while Kate was here.  The train was first opened in 1912 and runs from downtown Palma, through the mountains, and back down to the city of Soller on the East side of the island.

The train travels 27.3 km (17 miles) in about an hour and goes through 13 tunnels on the trip.

The train is made mostly of wood and is supposed to be the exact way that it looked way back in the day and is even supposed to be maintained in the same way as it was 100 years ago, whatever that means.

Once you make it to the other side of the mountains, the train stops and gives you a chance to take a few pictures of the town of Soller down in the valley below.

The most impressive building in Soller is the St. Bartomeu Church which originally dates from 1236.  The most unique feature of the church is that it has a beautiful facade, but the rest of the church is fairly plain (unusual in Mallorca anyway).

The original hand-operated switch to change tracks.  I find this fascinating, Kelly thinks I'm a nerd.

These are the trams (different from the trains) which run from Soller to Port de Soller which is about 4km away.  Most of the old town in Mallorca were built about that far from the water to protect from pirate attacks (on a side note...  Whats a pirates favorite letter?  You think it be arrrrr, but its really the sea!).

While we were walking through Soller, a cat perched on a windowsill took one look at Kelly and let out a loud pet-me meeeoooooow.  After the (slightly longer than) appropriate cat petting time, we were wondering if Kelly was some sort of cat whisperer.  However, we were maybe 20 feet away when another person walked by the cat, it meowed, and they pet him.  Turns out this cat is just running a kind of pet-me racket.  Brilliant.

Kate and I in front of the two most Soller-y things in town, the church and fresh fruit trees.

Fin

Trains are so rad!

So we are currently between Paris and Brussels doing 180mph on the train with free wifi, a stewardess, plenty of electrical outlets (4 to be exact), and a TON of legroom. I love Europe. Amsterdam, here we come!