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Travel The World By Train.
DVD. Train Travel
Series. Set of
10 DVD discs.
Hours and hours of incredible enjoyment! Includes 5 continents
and 55 countries.
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Customer Comment:
"This is the best set of train videos I've
ever seen".
Raymond T. from Pennsylvania.
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Volume 1 - Europe:
From London's historic
Victoria Station to the sunny cities of Italy, ultimately climbing into
the astounding summits of Switzerland, this video takes the viewer on a
stunning trip through Europe by rail.
The first leg of the journey takes
the fabled Orient Express from London to the English Channel, then, after
a ferry crossing, resumes a luxurious train trip through France and into
Italy.
The scenery shown in the video is spectacular, and it easily
establishes the point that a train window might be the ideal vantage point
from which to appreciate Europe.
The second leg of the journey takes the
viewer through Venice, Florence, Rome, and Milan, and in the third leg of
the trip, the Glacier Express rolls upward into the Alps.
The footage shot
in Switzerland is particularly astonishing as the trains doggedly move up
the mountains (but inside, things remain calm--wineglasses in the
luxurious cars are specially made to sit on tables that are always
slanted).
This commendable video features an understated narration that
lets the scenery and the classic trains speak for themselves; when
portraying a combination train station and observatory 13,000 feet high in
the Alps, the photography says more than any narrator could. 60
minutes.
Volume 2 - North America:

The first train trip, through Alaska,
shows
off the natural wonders and wildlife of the state. The Canadian
transcontinental trip that follows, from Quebec City to Vancouver,
compresses four days and three nights of travel into fifteen minutes, so
you do miss a lot; but what you see is enjoyable and worthwhile.
The trips
that follow, from Seattle to Chicago, NYC to Florida, NYC to San
Francisco, and from LA to San Diego, provide a wonderful display of the
immensely varied US scenery. 60 minutes.
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Volume 3 - Europe:
This video takes viewers on a journey
through Germany and some of the more visually pleasing regions of Eastern
Europe. Germany's famously extensive and efficient rail system is given a
fine showcase here.
On the so-called "Fairy Tale Road," the train stops at
picturesque old haunts of those famous fairy-tale collectors
the Brothers Grimm: towns such as Bremen (of the Bremen Town Musicians)
and Hamelin (of the Pied Piper). The "Castle
Road" trip departs Frankfurt
on the Intercity Express, Germany's fastest train. This route features
massive medieval edifices and such bastions of German romanticism as
Heidelberg Castle, interspersed among vistas of verdant natural beauty.
Beginning in Prague, the capital of the
Czech Republic, a train follows "The Romantic Road," passing
Neuschwanstein, the grandiose castle built by Bavaria's "Mad" King Ludwig
II. Looking like "The Little Engine That Could," a tiny Czech "Rail Bus"
chugs up a 3,000-foot mountain in the Bavarian forest.
The Hungary trip
introduces us to the beautiful capital of Budapest, bisected by the Danube
River. Magyar horsemen ride Hungary's sweeping plains. Idyllic farms dot
the landscape of the Romania route, which leaves the capital of Bucharest
for the Black Sea resort of Constantsa. From Belgrade, Yugoslavia, through
Sofia, Bulgaria (the "greenest city in Europe"), the video's last route
looks eastward toward the gateway to Asia: Istanbul, Turkey. 60
minutes
Volume 4 - Europe:
The second European volume in the Travel
the World by Train series is a grab bag of locations from western Portugal
to northern Finland, at the edge of the Arctic Circle. The first trip
departs from Paris and traverses the Loire region of France. This line
might well be called the "Castle Express." Then one boards the super- fast
TGV to the province of Bordeaux, producer of arguably the world's finest
wine. Ancient Roman history permeates the very air here.
Another train
runs through France's Basque country, passing the resort town of Biarritz,
a favorite surfing spot. We cross a bridge into Spain and we're now in
Spanish Basque country, in the picturesque Pyrenees Mountains. One of the
more affecting Spanish sites is the town of Guernica, destroyed by Nazis
in 1937 and immortalized in Picasso's powerful painting of the same name.
After journeys through Portugal, it's on to
Luxembourg, Belgium, and Holland. Memorable sites here include gorgeous
Belgian Art Nouveau architecture and dazzling Dutch fields of tulips and
windmills. When the train leaves Stockholm, Sweden, we are suddenly in a
very different environment. The Scandinavian trains pass towering,
dramatic fjords, sparkling lakes, and huge evergreen forests where reindeer run.
These trips are shot in summer in a land where the sun barely sets at
midnight: the effect is magical. As with all the videos in this series,
the cinematography is impressive and the narration enlightening. 60
minutes.
Volume 5 - Africa:
Africa is given a fascinating introduction
in this volume of the Travel the World by Train series. The Morocco train
departs from exotic Marrakesh, traverses endless plains of scorched earth,
and stops at ancient Oujda, "The City of Fear," whose labyrinthine bazaars
evoke the movie Indiana Jones and the Raiders of
the
Lost Ark.
Carthaginian ruins enhance the journey through Tunisia, which
ends at the azure Mediterranean resort of Djerba, refreshing travelers
since the days of Homer's Odyssey. The Egypt excursion follows the Nile
River to the ancient pyramids of Giza and Luxor's enigmatic City of the
Dead.
Riders departing Nairobi, Kenya, pass vast
expanses of savanna in Tsavo National Park, where elephants, zebras, and
ostriches run free. In the middle of nowhere, this train picks up Masai
tribesmen, in full regalia, en route to market.
Outside looms 19,340-foot
Mt. Kilimanjaro. On one train in Uganda, the leather seat upholstery has
been ripped out, to be made into handbags. Another Ugandan passenger line
is a former cattle car, with no seats at all. Then there's South Africa's
luxurious Blue Train from Johannesburg to Cape Town, where
pure gold coats the windows to filter out the ultraviolet rays, and wine
is served in crystal goblets.
The video prompts us to remember that this,
after all, is Africa, continent of stark contrasts. 60 minutes.
Volume 6 - Central America:
Superb cinematography showcases stunning
vistas in otherwise inaccessible areas of Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica,
Cuba, and Jamaica in the Central America/Caribbean volume of the Travel
the World by Train series. The video also opens a window onto the diverse
peoples and cultures one meets along the routes.
The footage in Mexico is most impressive.
Embarking from the beach colony of Los Mochis on the Gulf of California,
the Chihuahua al
Pacifico
Train climbs the arid Western Sierra Madre Mountains.
Viewers accompany
thrill-seeking tourists on a wild and wooly ride, ascending 10,000-foot
peaks and traversing truly treacherous-looking bridges. Vultures soar in
the wind, as though waiting for a snack of fallen passengers.
The train
stops in a village where smiling mountain tribes-people sell handmade
baskets. Next, it passes through breathtaking Copper Canyon--four times
bigger than the Grand Canyon. The Mexico City-Yucatan Peninsula route
stops at the towering ancient Mayan ruins of Chichén Itza.
This journey is
indeed atmospheric: the sticky air clings to the skin; monkeys jump from
tree to tree in the jungle outside.
The trip from Guatemala City on the Pacific
Ocean to Puerto Barrios on the Atlantic is a market route: antiquated
trains on rickety tracks transport adventurous tourists amid Guatemalan
families toting livestock.
Little separates passengers from the elements:
rain sprinkles into the train through glassless windows; the only source
of illumination is the conductor's flashlight. Further intoxicating "South
of the Border" adventures await viewers of the excursions through Costa
Rica, Jamaica, and Cuba. 60 minutes.

Volume 7 - South America:
"Awesome" is the only word to describe the
vistas in the South America volume of the Travel the World by Train
series. When the train departs from Quito, Ecuador, passengers are
permitted to sit atop it, on the roof! (No virtual reality
for
these thrill seekers.)
The conductor warns riders to duck under low
bridges as intrepid food vendors make their way along the tops of the
swaying cars. We ascend into the Andes Mountains, overwhelmed by the sheer
immensity of the natural world.
The tourist excursion from Cuzco, Peru, is
cushy by comparison. The views from the train windows may be just as
spectacular as those on the Ecuadorian route: 9,800-foot mountains, raging
rivers.
But here, comely train attendants serve passengers coca tea for
altitude sickness. The ride terminates at mind-blowing Machu Picchu, the
mysterious lost city of the Incas. Another Peruvian trip provides rare
aerial panoramas of the baffling line drawings of Nazca: hundreds of
colossal, two-dimensional figures of monkeys, condors, and lizards etched
into the desert hillsides centuries ago. The sight of 3,200-square-mile
Lake Titicaca, at 12,500 feet the highest navigable lake in the world, is
equally stunning.
A wood-powered steam train shoos cattle off
the tracks in sleepy, agricultural Paraguay. Journeys through Brazil,
Chile, and Argentina (including rugged Patagonia) complete this
fascinating train tour of South America; all in all, it's a splendid
initiation into the myriad beauties of this vast and varied continent.
60 minutes.
Volume 8 - Asia:
Beginning amid the Buddhist temples of
Myanmar, the railroad odyssey featured in Travel the World by Train: Asia
takes the viewer aboard trains in six nations in Southeast Asia before
leaping
to Beijing, where the final leg of the trip is an amazing 5,700-mile jaunt
through China and across Kazakhstan to the final destination of Moscow.
This video often leaves the rail route for side trips to temple ruins and
other equally startling sights in the countries along the way, and the
footage of scenery as well as of trains is always professional and often
quite striking. The trip through Vietnam, from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City,
aboard the Reunification Express surprises with its appreciation for the
natural beauty of the Vietnamese countryside.
The video really doesn't offer much
information about how Westerners could book such a trip for themselves,
and some shots aboard the trains indicate that some of the accommodations
(hammocks swinging in crowded train cars and lunches of chicken feet
served on skewers) probably wouldn't entice most Western tourists anyway.
But what the video lacks in practical instruction it makes up for with
glorious footage of trains and remarkable scenery. 60 minutes.
Volume 9 - Middle East:
The Near and Middle East volume of the
Travel the World by Train series takes one on a captivating journey to the
cradle of civilization. We begin in Istanbul, Turkey: the entrance to the
Islamic world.
On the
Marmara Express, Muslim faithful chant prayers
on the train. In Efes, on the Aegean Sea, looms the colossal Artemision
Temple, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. The Umayyade
Mosque, the oldest in existence, can be seen in Damascus, Syria.
Also in
Syria is the island of Arwad, once home to the ancient Phoenicians. The
Israel trip begins in Jerusalem with views of important sacred sites: the
Muslim Golden Dome of the Rock, the Christian Church of the Holy
Sepulcher, and the Jewish Wailing Wall.
Tel Aviv's beaches and skyscrapers
and the bustling Mediterranean port of Haifa highlight the Israeli trip.
The train's tracks abruptly end; in more peaceful times they continued to
Damascus.
Boarding in the capital, Teheran, the
Iranian train traverses one of the globe's most arid regions, stopping in
the astonishing ancient city of Esfahan. Travelers on India's Royal Orient
Express from Delhi luxuriate aboard a gorgeous re-creation of a luxury
steam train used by Maharajas.
The exotic cross-India trip from Bombay
chugs by sacred cave temples in Ellora and rice paddies on the Bay of
Bengal before debarking in teeming Calcutta, where passengers bathe in the
river outside the station. 60 minutes.
Volume 10 - Australia & New Zealand:
This video tour begins in Sydney's
neo-Gothic central train station and spends 42 minutes touring Australia
by rail before hopping across the Tasman Sea to New Zealand's South Island
for the remaining 18 minutes.
The Australian portion
visits the well-known cities of Sydney, Adelaide, and Perth, as well as
Cairns and Rockhampton (inland from the Great Barrier Reef) and Alice
Springs and Longreach (deep in the outback). While offering sample views
of kangaroos and the flavor of the cities, the tape concentrates on the
locomotive experience. Viewers will get a feel for the style and formality
of the individual trains.
Although the focus tends to be on compartments
and first-class dining on the luxury trains, the cameras do take a peek
into coach travel, especially on the inland-bound lines.
One, The Ghan,
offers slot machines and videos to break up the 23-hour trip through
relentless red dirt. The two New Zealand tours begin in Christchurch, one
heading north through Kaikoura to Picton, featuring views of the
snowcapped Southern Alps on one side and humpback whales weaving through
the waves of the Pacific on the other.
The second train heads south to the
Scottish municipality of Invercargill, which brags of being the closest
city to the South Pole. 60 minutes
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