Olav
I think your concept of distances in Europe is, perhaps, just a teeny, tiny bit inaccurate.
I frequently hold seminars in Berlin, at least, I used to before my family situation forced me to limit my business activities enormously.
I could drive, this took at least six hours at speeds approaching 160kmh...in the middle of the night...or, closer to 10 hours at realistic speeds. I did, once, actually do the drive at over 100mph average...on a Sunday evening...on a bank holiday.
I could take a train. This is an all day or late evening to mid-morning activity. Lots of fun and four times as expensive than flying, if we count the private sleeping car, three times as expensive if we count sharing a sleeping car with two other people or nearly three times as expensive if I were to go second class...not counting three meals.
Or, for less than the cost of the petrol, I could fly. Counting the time to get from my apartment to the next airport, security , boarding (we haven't had to go through check-in here domestic flights in over a decade), flying, debarking and getting to my seminar at Alexandarplatz...not quite two hours...maximum...with mid-day Berlin and Munich traffic counted it. Done it over thirty times, so not exaggerating.
So, let's see - less than €100 round trip and two hours maximum travel time each way...more than €400 by train...about €150-200 Euros by car.
And that is the problem. Our distances are far greater than just looking at a map might suggest and we travel a great deal more than the rest of the world - which still thinks of us as all living in quaint villages and never venturing forth past the local pub (I wish) might believe.
This is a major problem. We have to find another solution as there is no way our planet can continue to support the enormous amount of carbon we are pumping into the atmosphere every day.
