I woke up this morning to see that Rail Europe is having a contest for a chance to travel by train through France and Switzerland. Even more exciting was seeing that as part of the contest, the entry should describe a creative project that I am working on.
What a fortuitous convergence of so many of my favorite things! I am currently working on a collection of short stories about a writer who travels by train to visit the places in Switzerland where her favorite author was born and raised. I anticipate that my completed project will incorporate photographs as well, and read like a travel essay.
Train travel in Europe is the best way to see things, and Rail Europe is an amazing company that I have utilized before. I can tell you that when your Rail Europe envelope arrives in the mail, your heart swells and your world expands. You know that inside are the tickets that hold the potential for so many possibilities!
Most of my ideas for writing have come from my travels in Switzerland and France. (So many of my classmates can attest to that fact…they are probably tired of my stories about the swans on Lake Geneva or the tales of running through train stations to make a connecting train. But I can’t help it, I love train travel and train stations and the stories, real or imagined, that happen there.)
In addition to generating material for my collection of stories, I would post pictures of my trip and use this opportunity to expand my audience on social media. Particularly when it comes to inspiring travel, social media platforms are a great resource for planning where to go next. It would be fantastic to see my experience through the lens of #TalesOnRail with Rail Europe.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS8quTHMIXTJJRM6f_SR9rA-Vy4h1mn7zqMjpPkGud71leOV6ykxwdoQjaTYe-5KoYHb0AGwZDGj2civD4CkRRpBHaMWBf5VQeEyCqwTI0w-eYDxYJV4O4cDlr4m8nVAYGr9AO/s400/2014-06-26+12.11.45.jpg)
I encourage you to head on over to https://www.raileurope.com/blog/talesonrail/ and enter for yourself! This is a chance for all you creative types to spend a week in my favorite place, traveling by my favorite mode of transportation. If I can't be the one to win, I can only hope that whoever wins has their heart captured by this trip and produces an amazing love letter to train travel.