When I travel I always rent a car but last year I had to go from Barcelona, Spain to Toulouse, France. The Hertz people advised me not to drive alone over that area, since I had to go across the mountains. So the solution was going by train. It turned out to be quite an experience.

When I bought my ticket, about a week prior to boarding, I asked for a first class ticket. I am one of those who finds it impossible to travel light so I had quite a large rolling suitcase.

The train turned out to have only one class and three quite high steps to get aboard!!! No rolling the suitcase into the train!!!! If an angel of a young fellow had not appeared to lift my suitcase, it would have been impossible for me to lift it.

During the trip we had to change cars once and at the frontier change trains. All had the three steps. And unbelievable as it may seem each time that fellow showed up to lift and lower my suitcase. He was really my guardian angel on that trip.

All this just to let you know that some trains in Europe have quite a hard way of getting on and off.

Distances in Europe are short but even so, it is better to go to fewer countries and have more time in the places one goes to. One enjoys them so much more,

Susana Sao Paulo, Brazil