Amazing Train Journeys
Season 8
Each of the episodes presents one (or several) countries, through a route on the national railway lines. From stage to stage, we discover unusual, archaic or ultramodern trains, country twists or rolling palaces, on tiny or immense routes.
Where to Watch Season 8
7 Episodes
- Namibia
E1NamibiaBeginning of the journey on a railway line in the middle of the wild life; in the savanna giraffes, antelopes.A woman arrives and explains that they must wait for a moment; the train may be late.And then train arrives: only a wagon for passengers, the other wagons are for freight.On board many students, mothers and children.Philippe stops his travel and visits a baboons sanctuary: there a man is taking care for orphan baboons, Philippe enjoys this moments with these baboons.Then Philippe takes again the railway line to Windhoek.A very short stay in Windhoek and departure for the Desert of Namib.Philippe enjoys the landscape but a young Namibian woman doesn't enjoy this landscape ( she dreams of white spaces with spring water).The train stops: sand on the railway line: A special team has come to take off the sand from the railway line.Further at Sossusvlei Philippe walks in the desert: another planet with sand, clay and dead trees.Suddenly Philippe meets a marathon runner, a 49 years old woman who is training in the desert.Then in the north of Namibia at Tsumeb Philippe takes a train towards the Kalahari desert, Namibian passengers are happy to speak with Philippe; we are now in the bush and Philippe will encounter Cashe, a bushman.On the morning Cashe, the hunters and Philippe will try to catch porcupines or small antelopes, they walk a lot and come back with only a big frog : the bushmen explain him that they live with simplicity, the nature gives all that they need. - Colombia
E2ColombiaPhilippe begins his journey in the region of Antioquia: there is a railway track but no trains: there people adapted a type of table with wheels pushed by a motorcycle (motomesa): so people can travel from village to another village.Then Philippe goes to the mountains, he visit a banana farm.To cross from a slope to another slope they use a hamper (called "garrucha") pulled by cables.In Bogota Philippe takes a cable-railway to climb a mountain.Then a short travel in a touristic train.On a place of Bogota Philippe see how works the trade of emeralds.Then Philippe goes to Medellin: there everybody is proud of the Medellin metro.Later Philippe meets a man who shows him the Pablo Escobar neighborhood.Then next stop Cartagena: there Philippe meets Alejandro, a fisherman who invites Philippe to visit the mangrove and look for oysters. - Canada
E3CanadaPhilippe begins his travel in Canada in Sept-Iles (Eastern Quebec).On the train he meets a father and his son; they speak about the great spaces of the North of Canada and the father invites Philippe to spend a night in his log cabin.So the train stops, they go down and walking with snowshoes to the log cabin.As they need water they go the frozen lake, break the ice and collect water. In the night they go early to bed and in the morning Philippe look at the nature.Then he goes back to the tracks of the train: he has to wait 3 hours and the weather is very cold.Philippe discovers Montreal : in a park people practice snowga, yoga outside.He has a pleasant talk with yoga teacher.Then takes a train from Montreal to Toronto and from Toronto Philippe takes the Canadian: Toronto-Vancouver, 4.466 kilometers, about 4 days of travel.It's a very comfortable train and at the dinning car the passengers speak together.But Philippe will stop a Winnipeg (Manitoba): from this town he goes to a village near the Winnipeg lake: he meets there Dale and Ely, who invite him to go fishing.There have a "Bombardier" to drive in the snow and over the frozen ice of the lake.They make a hole in the ice ,send a little submarine under the ice over a distance of 100 meters: there there make a hole to recover the submarine and so they can put the fishnet in the lake.They go to another hole and take off the fishnet with some fishes.They enjoy fishing. Philippe gets back to Winnipeg and takes again the Canadian train to Vancouver: a mild place in the winter.Last experience: the observation of killer whales (or orcas) in the sea: thanks a hydrophone Philippe can listen to the killer whales. - Ireland
E5IrelandBeginning of the journey in Dublin: Philippe takes the Grand Hibernian luxury train to Cork and Galway: bar, dining room, pleasant sleeping cabin and pleasant talk with the employees.Now Philippe is in Connemara, a region with wet soils (peat): he meets a sheep breeder who will shear his sheep(Scottish black face breed).Then train from Ballinasloe to Kilkenny, talk about the elves(leprechauns) and the traditions in Ireland.Then meeting with a female druid, ceremony of the Celtic summer (looking for the harmony with the nature).Then from Tralee to Mallow a travel in a train with the oldest steam locomotive of Ireland.Philippe speaks with the locomotive engineer and also with the passengers, locomotive fans.Return to Dublin: Trinity College: date with Mr.Joseph who shows him the Library with its ladders: a very old book of 1543 about human anatomy.Then Philippe travels from Dublin to Belfast.There Philippe takes a taxi and begins to speak with the taxi driver about the history of Northern Ireland (peace agreement in 1998): then the taxi driver shows him the metallic doors which are closed every night at 10 pm , doors between the Catholic neighborhoods and the Protestant neighborhoods. - Taiwan
E6TaiwanBeginning of the journey in Taipei: at the central railway station a great space for encounters: people sitting on the floor talking, eating and drinking.Philippe takes a suburban train: there he meets women wearing face masks (a protection against the air contamination specially in crowded places).Then Philippe goes to a temple: young people are praying to Yue Lao (the old man under the moon, god of the marriage and love) and they hope to meet a good companion.Later Taipei by night, a festival of lights.In a night market Philippe tries to eat stinky tofu.Then Philippe travels to Alishan and takes the train at 4.30 am. to Zhushan: a lady explains him that all the people have come to see the sunrise.In the forest of Alishan Philippe meets a maintenance team who is changing the railway sleepers, then they see with him sacred trees (Taiwan red cypress-Chamaecyparis formosensis); specially two 2000 years old trees : couples come here hoping that these sacred trees will give them a long marriage.Philippe leaves the mountains and in the countryside he meets in a colorful village a drum producer who will tune a great drum for a Buddhist temple.In Taichung Philippe takes the high speed train (Shinkansen technology) to Taipei.Later Philippe visits a cat paws house; records made with cat meowing.Later Philippes takes the Taipei underground and notices that the train is very clean: it's forbidden to eat or to drink in the underground.Philippe speaks with a passenger about the respect of the law in Taiwan.In this train Philippe meets a young woman with a Lolita fashion clothing, she invites him to go to a Lolita fashion clothing shop and all the young Lolitas and Philippe dressed as a prince have a photo shooting. - Portugal
E7PortugalA nice journey of Philippe Gougler from Porto ( the famous Dom Luís I Bridge built by the French architect Théophile Seyrig- disciple of Gustave Eiffel-, now Unesco World Heritage site, the young Victor Hugo and Rafael jumping into the the waters of the Douro river, the tourists giving money for the spectacle, the railway station of Porto with its azulejos) to the region of Tras o Montes ( the woman plowing the field with a donkey, the donkey works better than a tractor, Philippe plowing the field, the riding on the donkey to the village, the veterinary Mario taking care for a female donkey with teeth problems) passing the train of the kings,queens and popes transformed into a gastronomic train ( the preparing a fish soup, the dining car, the talk with the passengers,the Porto wine, the mussels and the beautiful landscapes of the Douro river) by Porto again (the fishmonger Fatima selling fishes in the street, the walk along the banks of the Douro, the meeting of Fatima with other women at the Municipal wash house, the washing of the clothes and the songs of the women, the importance to be together, the community clothesline near the wash house), by Lisbon ( the Alfa pendular train, the talk with a lady about the "saudade", the Portuguese melancholy, the arrival at the modern Oriente station, Lisbon with its funicular railways, tramways and the Santa Justa lift, the tramway line 28 going to Alfama, Graça and Baixa, the shop with the bacalhau, the Rossio square and the railway station in Manuelin style) and by Sintra (the train full of visitors from all the world, the Palace of the Pena built for the King Ferdinand II of Portugal and the Palace of Montserrate built for the English merchant Francis Cook).
