cold, wet, short days, thick dresses: There are people who like the Winter. The frolic on the ski slopes, cross-country skiing and ice-skating rinks, or in saunas, Spas and Wellness oases of warm-up. Other miss but sun and heat and still not want to travel by plane to distant shores.
It’s not really need to be the Caribbean, the Maldives or the Red sea. Also in southern Europe pleasant places where it is in the Winter, Sunny and mild to find. And: These places are all accessible by train.
Trieste (ITA)
photos: Pixabay
“My soul is in Trieste”, wrote the Irish writer James Joyce, who lived from 1905 to 1915 there when Trieste belonged to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This atmosphere is still being felt today, such as in the monumental buildings of the former Maritime insurance institutions, and especially in the coffee houses. Winter temperatures eight to ten degrees, although not really spring-like. But a walk along the sea, stroll in the beautifully restored old town or a visit to the Castello di San Giusto and Cathedral of San Giusto above the town votes a mild.
From Zurich, the journey time is eight hours: with a Change of trains on the high speed train Freccia Rossa in either Milano Centrale or Venezia Mestre.
Puglia (ITA)
Warmer, up to 15 degrees, it is located in Puglia in the “heel” of the Italian boot. The area’s numerous tourist attractions and attractive places, such as the Baroque city of Lecce, the port cities of Bari and Brindisi, the back of the white city of Ostuni, on a mountain, Alberobello with the characteristic round houses, the Trulli, or the medieval Otranto. Puglia is famous for its olive oil. The viticulture is widespread. Together with the catch from the sea as culinary delicacies come to the table, the man incorporated like.
A train trip to Puglia takes time: from Zurich 14 to 15 hours. From Milano Centrale there are direct trains to Bari, Brindisi and Lecce. Or you drive to Milano Centrale, change there onto a train to Piacenza, where one takes the night train to Bari or Brindisi and the journey asleep behind brings.
Catania (ITA)
In Sicily, the winter months are still mild: 15 to 20 degrees. You travel, for example, to Catania, one of the fantastic late Baroque towns of the Val di Noto, which include Modica, Ragusa, Scicli and more. Their attractiveness is partly thanks to a destructive earthquake of 1693, after which you can in native style have been reconstructed. The Unesco started in 2002 as an “outstanding testimony to the exuberant Genius of late Baroque art and architecture” to the list of world cultural heritage. Around Catania there are extensive beaches that invite in the Winter, not for swimming, but for long walks.
17 to 19 hours by train you have to expect from Zurich: From Milano Centrale, the Freccia Rossa to Rome Termini or Naples and take the direct night train (eleven hours from Rome, eight from Naples), the crossing of the Gulf of Sicily on a ferry.
nice and Cannes (FRA)
Much of the South of France, Côte d’azur is closer. And yet it is, for example, in Cannes or nice in the winter months, up to 15 degrees warm enough to approve during the day in the sun with a coffee or an Aperitif on the beach promenade. This is in nice Promenade des Anglais seven kilometres long; in Cannes is called La Croisette and has a length of two kilometers. Nice streets of a big city with many churches, museums, shopping and an attractive old town with many small Bistros. Cannes is much smaller, but as a meeting place for the Rich and Beautiful.
The train journey from Zurich with a Change of trains in Milano Centrale take around nine hours. Alternatively you can take the TGV to Dijon and from there the TGV to nice.
Barcelona and Valencia (ESP)
The million city of Barcelona, with maximum temperatures around 15 degrees, a pleasant winter climate. However, the metropolis of Catalonia, is one of the Hotspots of urban tourism, and there is a risk, to push in the Winter, crowds of people, especially on the promenade of La Rambla, around the art Nouveau Cathedral Sagrada Familia, and in the “Gothic quarter”, the old town. Those looking for more warmth (16 to 25 degrees), continue towards the southwest, for example, to Valencia. The city, the place of origin of the National dish, Paella, offers numerous cultural and architectural treasures, museums, historical bridges, and a famous party-mile of the Ruta Destroy.
by 2012, there was a night train between Zurich and Barcelona, the Pau Casals called. This is a story. But, still, you come in around eleven hours in the capital of Catalonia, via Paris Gare de Lyon with the TGV, or with a Change of trains in Geneva and Lyon, and from there, with the Spanish AVE high-speed train. According to Valencia from Barcelona, once again, three hours by train.
Lisbon (POR)
The capital of Portugal on the Atlantic ocean, is one of the most attractive European destinations. The city dates back to the 18th century. Century, because the city in 1755, it was destroyed by an earthquake, a Tsunami and a major fire completely. The city exudes a very special, slightly melancholic atmosphere, expressed in Fado, the Local presented music that expresses the whole world of pain. In Lisbon you can expect in the Winter with maximum temperatures of around 16 degrees. Warmer, in fact, up to 20 degrees, it is in the Algarve, for example, in the seaside resort of Albufeira.
The “night train to Lisbon” has become, thanks to the bestselling book of the same Name, is sweeping the nation. In the novel the train to the city of Irún in the Spanish Basque country operates, in reality, from the French neighbouring town of Hendaye. The way to get there is tedious, especially because you have to change in Paris to the train station (from the Gare de Lyon, Gare Montparnasse). Overall, this results in a travel, want to do, probably only for die-hard railway fans: a full 24 hours, 13 of them in the night train. Who would like to travel to Albufeira, you must expect two and a half hours.
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Created: 05.11.2019, 21:37 PM
