Jan-Erik's never-ending journey

A retiree's life in Sweden, juxtaposing the U.S. commonly multi-equipped RV's and a retirement on wheels for... retirement on rails. 

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  Jan-Erik, one of only three Guld-kort carrying Swedes, is on a never-ending journey on SJ’s trains.

• Meet Jan-Erik—he traded his life as a pensioner to that of a traveler. Jan-Erik Kaiser, 66, is one of only three people in Sweden who carries SJ’s Årskort Guld. This fancy card (which costs a whopping SEK 80,400; $12,550) gives him unlimited train travel in Sweden and also allows him to eat as much as he wants onboard Statens Järnvägar, the main train operator in Sweden.

• When Jan-Erik first retired, he’d hang out at the library and cafes in and around his hometown of Haninge, near Stockholm. “Not much fun,” he says. Thus the Guld-kort.

• “I bought the first card because it was a bit fun. Then the year came to an end, and I took a break. But after a week, I was bored, so I bought another card. Now, I’m on my third Guld-kort.”

• Jan-Erik starts his day early, usually at 5 a.m. Sometimes he sleeps on an overnight train, but more often he’s back at home come evening. He always travels first class (his card allows him to choose).

• “I bring my laptop along, and blog from the train. I read newspapers, I eat, I look out the window. There’s always something to do. Sometimes I sleep.” He goes to new places or revisits old favorites, but summertime is for traveling to where the sun is. “I don’t go where it’s rainy.” Jan-Erik’s favorite routes are: Kiruna-Narvik: “Open landscape, mountains and raw nature. You see everything.” Stockholm-Göteborg: “It’s very pretty to Södertälje and from Alingsås to Göteborg.” Malmö-Lund: “Very pretty in the evening. The Skåne plain is extremely beautiful when you see Lund in the horizon. It’s postcard perfect.”
  Jan-Erik’s blog:
  http://arskortguldsj.wordpress.com/