My name is Lara and I am a journeyer
I grew up in a small village, and my travel abroad was limited to school trips. At nineteen, I applied for an internship in Paris and that was my first proper taste of independent travel. After uni, I moved to London, but I was still restless…
One rainy November afternoon, I dragged myself to a local London library and borrowed a book because I liked the title and the cover.
That book (Bruce Chatwin’s The Songlines) changed my life. I realised I was born to travel, and nothing was ever going to make me as happy.
As I racked up the air miles and flew further and further away from home, I started to crave different ways to travel…
I wanted my holidays to feel like journeys and to make every second count. I tried driving, and train journeys – and combinations of the two. And I realised it was rewarding in a way airports and planes were not…You could go from the Alps to the coast in one day and enjoy everything in between.
Let’s go back to the Bruce Chatwin book. Chatwin was obsessed with the idea that humans were born wanderers, and that sedentary life is a limit imposed on mankind by the discovery of agriculture. He was fascinated by nomadic societies, by travel as a journey, a quest for experience.
His depiction of Kalahari and Aboriginal mothers carrying their children with them as they move across the land inspired me to spend my maternity leave travelling around the world with my baby. Instead of our cramped London flat, I wanted to expose her to the colours, voices, smells and textures of four continents.
There have been many more travels after that, to other continents, but in the last few years more and more through Europe. Most of them, I realised, were made in the spirit of Chatwin, finding joy in the moment, in the unexpected, that occurs along the way rather than at the destination and remains in your forever.
European journeys are both fast and slow. Fast because you can have a beer in Munich, catch a night train and have lunch in Rome. Slow because train and car travel allows you many intermediate stops, so you can almost accidentally create your own unique European holiday – exploring the great highlights of Europe as well as alternative destinations, off the beaten track but as rich in culture, monuments, and natural beauty as any other.
My love of flightless travel has made me a sustainable tourist by accident, but the more I read about the impact of plane travelling and mass tourism on our beautiful planet, the more self-aware of my travel decisions I become.
I hope Alps2Coast shows you that respectful travel decisions do not limit the opportunity for exploration and adventure. They actually increase it.
And I hope it inspires you to design your own amazing European train or road trip!
Join the slow lane
Letters from the Road
Weekly dispatches about train and car journeys through Europe, city and destination guides, hidden gems, and the philosophy of travelling without rushing. No spam, just stories.
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