Di is our host for Truthful Tuesday while PCGuyIV takes a break. There is only one question but it must be answered truthfully. Luckily this week’s question is an easy one for me.

My question this week is

How do you prefer to travel  (plane, car, boat, bike, train, other)

There are a couple of different answers I can give for this as it depends on the type of travel we’re talking about. If it is commuting to get to work, shopping, school etc the choices are a bit different. My first choice for this would always be a train. Trains are much faster than buses as you don’t get held up in traffic and there is less likelihood of being delayed by accidents or roadwork. At least that was my experience when I lived in Adelaide. Trams/ Light rail are also options that I’d be happy to use. Adelaide also has an O’ Bahn guided busway which is quite fun to travel on once you get to the guided part, in the city it’s just another bus.

If I lived in a city where they were an option I’d love to commute by ferry. I love the Sydney ferries. I think that would be a great way to go to and from work.

Holiday travel gives a few more options. Again I’d often opt for a train. I enjoy long distance train travel. You relax in your seat and watch the changing scenery. You can get up and move around, to stretch your legs, go to the toilet or get something to eat and drink. I spend a lot of time watching YouTube videos of trains I’d like to travel on. The Indian Pacific is on my bucket list and I hope I might be able to do it in the next couple of years. But I’d also like to travel on trains like the Eurostar from London to Paris, the California Zephyr or the Southwest Chief in the USA or across Europe through Holland, Germany and Switzerland.

I like ships too. We came by sea when we emigrated to Australia and a month on an ocean liner gave me a taste for it. I have been on two cruises with Naomi and will be doing a solo trip to New Zealand next year. I do think that some of the big, modern mega ships seem more like floating resorts than ships; not really my thing. I like being on the ocean though watching the waves and looking for dolphins or flying fish from the deck or from my balcony if I’m lucky enough to have one. It’s a relaxing way to travel and you only have to unpack once.

Currently my bucket list holiday is to take a Rhine River cruise from Amsterdam to Basel and then catch trains all the way back to Paris and London. The scenery on that route looks wonderful and I’d get the best of both worlds, boats and trains.

Road trips by car can also be a lot of fun as you have the freedom to stop whenever you want to and you can go places in a car that other types of transport can’t take you. If I could drive myself cars would probably be further up my list. I would love to try holidaying in an RV but sadly that is something that will never happen.

A motor cycle might be fun for a joy ride but I don’t see it as a comfortable way to travel long distances. I never learned to ride a bicycle so that form of transport is not an option for me. Cycling in traffic or on a highway looks really dangerous and I would look terrible in lycra.

How about planes you ask? I don’t actually mind the flying part so much. I enjoy it when we’re flying low enough to see the land or sea beneath us. Flying over Tasmania is like looking at a map. However, there are a lot of things on the con side for flying. Airports for a start. They are very expensive places to hang out in and there is always a lot of waiting and queuing and airport staff who won’t help you even when you are struggling with heavy bags and unfamiliar check in procedures. Boarding a plane is always a nightmare. Why don’t they make people get on in some kind of order, all the window seat people and their travel companions first for example? It’s so annoying when you are trying to get to your seat and there are people standing in the aisle lifting luggage up or waiting for the people they are sitting beside to move so that they can get into their seats. I can never reach those overhead lockers myself so I try not to use them. If I do I know that whatever I put up there will be halfway down the plane when it’s time to get off and I’ll have to find someone to help me retrieve it; if they pause long enough from their race to get off the plane the minute the engines are turned off. You’d think they were on The Amazing Race. Let’s not forget those people in front of you who always put their seat back when you are eating a meal causing your food to go all over you. Nope, flying sucks. Unfortunately when you live in Australia you are a long way from everywhere else so there is no choice but to fly sometimes.