Public Transportation

I learned to love the train system in Europe, in large respects to my Eurorail pass (highly recommended). You can get anywhere you want in a fairly decent time without and hassle crossing borders. We only had inspections once and it was coming from Belgium into France. That is one of the beauties of the European Union. When we weren't on a train, we were on the metro or bus. I love not having to drive to get to where I want to go. Although there are Europeans who still have cars, many are choosing to go public. We went out to lunch with some friends who live in Amsterdam and they told us that in Amsterdam they are trying to limit the use of vehicles by narrowing the streets. In more efforts to reduce car usage, they have community cars where you pay a low monthly fee and then you can drive it whenever you want (as long as no one else is using it), and you pay a low fee for the miles you drive. We also saw a three tier parking terrace for bicycles! It was impressive. In Paris, they rent free bikes that can be ridden all over town and dropped of at different locations. It is very common to see people biking to work. In Salzburg, we were eating in the courtyard of a castle that had been converted into a museum when a well dressed man rode his bicycle into the courtyard. Soon after, we saw him walking around with another man inspecting the building that was under reconstruction-he appeared to be a cite manager, but I couldn't help but think of the difference from the States, because in the States he probably would have pulled up in a big gas-guzzling truck.