(Inspired by the recent History and Nostalgia thread on people's first memories of train travel)
What was your first experience of train travel in a country other than the one where you grew up? If you know of any earlier journeys that you were too young to remember you can mention both those and what you actually remember; and if the country where you grew up wasn't the UK, perhaps you could say where it was so we know what you would have been comparing things with.
In my case, although I remember briefly going on board a stationary train at Calais Maritime in 1977 when I was 6 (I was struck by having to climb up steps from the unfamiliarly low platform), the first time I actually went anywhere on a non-UK train was in 1989, from Schleswig to Hamburg (Altona) on a diesel-hauled semi-fast train. The journey included a surprise highlight in the shape of the Rendsburger Hochbrücke, of whose existence I had previously been unaware.
What was your first experience of train travel in a country other than the one where you grew up? If you know of any earlier journeys that you were too young to remember you can mention both those and what you actually remember; and if the country where you grew up wasn't the UK, perhaps you could say where it was so we know what you would have been comparing things with.
In my case, although I remember briefly going on board a stationary train at Calais Maritime in 1977 when I was 6 (I was struck by having to climb up steps from the unfamiliarly low platform), the first time I actually went anywhere on a non-UK train was in 1989, from Schleswig to Hamburg (Altona) on a diesel-hauled semi-fast train. The journey included a surprise highlight in the shape of the Rendsburger Hochbrücke, of whose existence I had previously been unaware.