2013/08/20-21: Southwest Chief

There are five transcontinental railways in Northern America which are served by passenger trains: Vancouver – Toronto (“The Canadian”); Seattle/Portland – Chicago (“Empire Builder”); San Francisco – Denver – Chicago (“California Zephyr”), Los Angeles – Albuquerque – Chicago (“Southwest Chief”) and Los Angeles – San Antonio – Chicago/New Orleans (“Texas Eagle” / “Sunset Limited”). Three of them I travelled five years ago, The Canadian I travelled some weeks ago. The Southwest Chief was missing on my train-travels-not-to-miss-list. Since this afternoon I can say that I travelled all five transcontinental train routes in North America. My favorite is The Canadian, probably because on the most northern route not only the landscape between Pacific and Rockies is very beautiful, but also the eastern part through Northern Ontario. None of the routes in the United States can claim that its eastern part, reaching Chicago’s suburbs after hundreds of kilometers through wheat and corn fields, is a must have seen.
Walt Disney invented Mickey Mouse while riding on the Southwest Chief. It must have been while he was travelling on the less thrilling eastern part of the route, in the western part the landscape is too interesting to invent any comic figures. The Rocky Mountains aren’t really rocky in New Mexico and Southern Colorado, but you also cross the Red Cliff Mountains and interesting high deserts. Especially in New Mexico you see the Spanish influences as well as the poverty of many First Natives, living there in easy corrugated iron huts in or near Indian Reservations. The biggest cities – and the only ones with a longer stop – along the route are Albuquerque and Kansas City. As expected, the highlights of the last day were the bridges over Missouri and Mississippi River. Meanwhile we arrived in Chicago, where I spent the evening with Bruni, a friend of mine I got to know in Berlin some years ago, and her fiancé.