trans-siberian railwayThe Trans-Siberian Railway steamed into my office earlier this week. Not the real train, mind you, but Sustainable Travel’s new guide to this legendary route, which remains one of the world’s great overland adventures.

The book begins with a two-page color map, and just staring at that, tracing the route from Moscow to Beijing, sent heady whiffs of wanderlust into the office air. As I flipped though the pages, images unrolled in my mind: I was sitting in a train compartment, nose pressed to a grimy window; endless plains passed by, then horsemen galloping across a horizon, a long line of tall green shimmery trees, a dusty, windswept station platform and a grizzled vendor pushing a cart piled with unfamiliar foods wrapped in greasy paper and twine.

These were all creations of imagination, but these dream-trains soon pulled rail cars of memory into mind.