On The Rails---A Kid's Guide To Brenner Pass

You can get very bored on a long train ride, but you won't get bored if you know what is ahead on the tracks. Brenner Pass is a beautiful place, and the exciting thing is that you can see it by train! If you want, you can even stop at one of the many train stations along the way and stretch your legs and talk a walk around one of the several lovely small towns. Brenner Pass is a feast for the eyes. Have your children count how many church steeples they see along the way, or how many small villages they see. Watch for hikers and take in the breath taking beauty.

With photography by John D. Weigand and poetry by award winning author, Penelope Dyan, you can delight in the sights and impressions of these two travelers as you talk to your children about what happened along the pass.

Brenner Pass served mule trains and carts until a road was opened in 1777. The railway, completed in 1867, is the only trans-alpine rail route with no major tunnel. At the end of World War I international borders shifted. Control of the area has shared between Italy and Austria ever since. During World War II, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met there to celebrate their Pact of Steel on March 10, 1940. And Brenner Pass was a Nazi escape route after the collapse of Germany in 1945.

The pass is beautiful to behold, and with or without its colorful history, the journey is fun and interesting. Travel the pass through the pages of this book, and pretend you can hear the sound of the rails going clickity clack, clickity clack as you trave along the railroad's track.