At the time, learning how to read a map of Le Metro, the underground railway in Paris, and get from one location to the other seemed like a fun diversion in high school sophomore French class but also possibly a colossal waste of time. Of course, that was before I learned that I was actually going to Paris about 18 months later and definitely before I learned that if you can read one train map, you can read them all.

With the exception of a handful of major cities and one(?) small but densely populated region in the US, most Americans never get the chance to enjoy travel by train. I’d never been on a train of any kind that I can recall before starting my first European adventure with a few days in London. Thanks to my high school French teacher, though, navigating The Underground was easy-peasy.

1. Find the station where you are starting.
2. Find the station where you want to go.
3. Follow the lines to figure out what connects them.
4. Look at the name of the station at the end of the line you need to take in the direction you need to go.
5. Follow the signs in the station where you are starting to the platform where the train you want to take comes in.
6. Be careful of express trains that skip some stations.
7. Get on the right train and get off at the right station.

Well, ok, that’s more steps than I was thinking it would be when I started that list, but I swear, it’s easy with minimal practice.

There’s lots to love about train travel, whether above or below ground. The regularity and in some cases frequency of the routes, the lack of a need to get there two hours ahead of time, the rhythm and gentle sway of the cars and clickety clack of the tracks. What I most like about underground trains, though, is the experience of being teleported (more slowly than on Star Trek, granted) from one place to another entirely different place. Walking out of the station to ground level, trying to figure out where exactly you are and how to get the rest of the way to wherever it is that you are going. The route finding is part of the fun.

And then there are the bullet trains, which I’ve experienced in France and Tokyo, which are completely different and also entirely the same. Thankfully, they don’t go clickety clack. At the speeds they travel, hearing a clickety clack would probably be a very bad sign followed by a huge crash bang. But the beauty of the train station, the ability to see the world go by, the ability to take a walk in the middle of the journey longer than 40-50 rows of seats – these are all the same.

If enjoying life is about enjoying the journey as much as the destination, for my money, you can’t beat trains. My Eurail Pass was my ticket to ride on that first trip to Europe. I’ve had a soft spot for train travel ever since.