I'm on vacation with my family in France, Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. (We landed in a canicule, a heat wave: on our first night in Paris, the mercury topped out at 39-degrees C, and it turned out the place we were staying at in Montmartre not only didn't have air-con—it didn't even come with fans. June 2026 has been officially declared the hottest month in the recorded history of western Europe, and July is coming on blistering as well.)
This isn't a work trip; it's all about giving our boys a long-overdue taste of Europe. But I'm keeping it real, and we're going everywhere by train (and bicycle, and tram, and trolleybus, and gondola, and funicular). We're well into our third week, and we haven't set foot in a car yet.
I vowed not to work on this trip, but you can't keep a good straphanger down, and I've been keeping my eyes wide open, and I've had a chance to make sidetrips to investigate the latest in transit and rail transport in the cities we've been staying in. You'll be reading more about what I've experienced when I'm back at my desk in the next few weeks.
Here's a from-the-front sneak preview of what to expect:
In Paris, I made a beeline for the latest addition to the RATP network, the C1 cablecar, which started running in December 2025, and is a unique solution to a challenging (ex-) urban environment.
In Basel, we boarded the NightJet sleeper train to Germany. We booked a 2nd class compartment, which was perfect for a family of four. Lots to report on this experience, but so far, this was my kids' favourite train ride (and that includes the Train du Chocolat to a Swiss chocolate factory!).
A lot has changed since I was last in Berlin in 2011, and, wow, I'm impressed with what's going on with its transit network. (Less so with the inter-city trains: DB has been going through rough times lately, though they've made a huge commitment to upgrading their deficient infrastructure.) I got to visit some of the oldest and newest stations on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn system, and took a ride on the latest-born tramway line.
S0, watch this space, and if you haven't signed up to receive dispatches yet, you can do so by entering your email in the sign-up box below.
