Five cities, nine days and on track

Europeans have long been fans of rail travel. They recognise its inherent convenience: with trains departing from the very centre of cities, including Paris, Rome, Frankfurt and Zurich, there's no time wasted travelling to satellite airports. Add the ease of EU freedom-of-border-crossing security measures; even for international train journeys within the EU there's no need to present a passport at borders and no lengthy check-in procedures at the beginning of the trip. If a train departs at 7pm from Platform 19, you're free to arrive at the station at 6.50pm.

A few hours after leaving Rome I arrived at Milano Centrale, Mussolini's concrete lovesong to fascist architecture, and discovered another benefit of travelling by rail: many hotels, including the one that had been booked for me, are literally across the road from the main train stations in Europe. The same held true days later at the Grand Hotel Suisse-Majestic in Switzerland's ritzy Montreux and then at the Sofitel Dijon, a hotel with even more French charm and style than that country's new first lady, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy.

From Milan I took a day-trip to Venice, glorious in the autumn sunshine. Santa Lucia train station is right on the Grand Canal; instead of taxis, a fleet of speedboats and ferries line up to transport passengers to Piazza San Marco. As much as I would have loved to linger longer in the backstreets of Venice, the task of finding affordable accommodation there was arduous. I was happy enough to take the train back to Milan in the early evening with a memory card full of photos to remind me of that fascinating city.

A day later it was on to neighbouring Switzerland. Seen through train windows, the landscape changes so quickly. One minute we were oohing and aahing over the Italian Lakes District and wondering which one was George Clooney's villa, the next we were in the Swiss Alps. A hearty operatic version of The Sound Of Music from one of our crew accompanied the chocolate-box-pretty scenery. Cameras clicked at Swiss chalets proudly displaying the national flag and farmyard animals chewing on lush green grass (no drought here, evidently). After a few days of cheese and chocolate appreciation in Montreux, it was back on the train, this time to Dijon. Good thing our bags weren't weighed, stuffed as they were with emergency supplies of Lindt and Toblerone. Forget about being slugged with excess-baggage fees: on trains there is no maximum baggage weight allowance; if you can stow it, you can take it.

There was a single moment of panic as we waited for the Dijon train when one of our party realised she had left her passport at the hotel. Trains wait for no man (or woman). The on-time performance is as regular as, well, Swiss clockwork. The Thalys trains for instance, run on schedule 95 per cent of the time.

Our story had a happy ending thanks to fast legs and the proximity of the hotel. Compare all this with the palaver that often comes with a flight on a European no-frills airline and suddenly that cheap air ticket doesn't seem so appealing. Five countries in nine days by air? No way would I have attempted it by air.

I would have spent more time waiting around in airports and less time walking along the Seine, sampling Belgian beers and checking out the world-class museums of London. For savvy Europeans, it's not enough for trains to just be convenient. They want style. They want breathtaking speed. They want razzle-dazzle. They're getting it in spades.

The TGV East, a high-speed train operating from Paris to Champagne, Alsace and other cities in France and Switzerland, set the new world record for train speed at almost 575 kmh. Perhaps even more importantly to Parisians, the interiors of TGV East were designed by Christian Lacroix. Lacroix, sweetie! Naturellement, he chose hues of bright orange and shocking purple.

In Paris we saw more of Lacroix's handiwork in a shop window on a stroll along the Champs-Elysees, the Eiffel Tower glowing blue in the distance.

All too soon we left the most romantic city on earth for Belgium where the beers were good but the service at our hotel was sadly lacking. At least it had taken us only a couple of hours to get there on TGV.

Nearing the end of a wonderful nine days, we laughed off the Fawlty Towers-style service and looked forward to the next and final destination: London. In just under two hours on Eurostar we reached Old Blighty from Brussels; the lovely Ambassadors Bloomsbury Hotel was a three-minute stroll from St Pancras station. I was sipping a cup of Earl Grey in my hotel room in the time it would have taken me to check in for my flight and clear security and customs at a busy airport.

I wouldn't even consider trying to drive or fly to destinations that can be reached in less than a day by train. For my money, it's the new way to go.

TRIP NOTES

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) offers flight connections from Australia to Europe via Copenhagen and Stockholm. Phone 1300 727 707, see flysas.com.au.

Rail Europe sells the widest range of European rail products online, in real time, with prices quoted in $A. See raileurope.com.au.