Travelers' Intercom

Here is a new pastime I use to help counter the COVID-induced travel doldrums. I grab my newly arrived copy of “Europe by Rail” (authored by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries), randomly select a page and begin an armchair train journey.

I just turned to page 266, “Route 29 Maritime Cities.” The route takes me from Amsterdam to Oslo the slow way, via train, with complete information about frequency and distances of trains for nine stops along the way. For example, with trains leaving hourly, it takes two hours to get from Hamburg to Flensburg, Germany (on the...

While on a multicountry tour in 2014, our group was staying at a hotel in Budapest. It was a Sunday morning, and since my husband, Jerry Liedl, and I had some free time, our guide said we might want to visit St. Stephen’s Basilica.

She gave us directions, and the two of us set off, but after a few blocks, our way was barricaded for what we later discovered was a marathon run. We turned aside but confronted several other blocked streets. Finally, we saw in the distance a red dome with a cross on top.

“That must be the basilica,” we thought, so we headed in...

Years ago, I visited Ávila, Spain, which has a beautiful, well-preserved wall surrounding the entire city. Before I left my hotel in Madrid, I took a screen shot of the bus schedule going there and returning. I also calculated the time I needed to allow for getting back to Madrid an hour or two before sunset.

For finding the points of interest I wanted to visit, I relied on the wonderful app Maps.me, available for free from app stores. On the app, I bookmarked the places I wanted to see, using symbols, dots or asterisks in different colors.

I also bookmarked bus stations,...