A decent trip around Europe

TL;DR – scroll down if you just want to see the madness of my route…

In March of 1996, I should have been writing up my PhD thesis. I had a rough outline of what I wanted to do, but still quite a bit of work to do, and not fully ready to commit to the final push.

But, I had an urge to go travelling before it was too late (whatever that means) – and specifically travelling around on a 30 day Interrail pass. I’d been on a few holidays in Europe before, including trips around France, Germany and Switzerland. There are photos of me barefoot on the glacier at near top of the Jungfrau (for a dare). Two things changed vague wishes to actual plans.

First, an unexpected and short-notice trip to Rome late in 1995 on research-related business to help with a technical demo (friday afternoon email: “who has an in-date passport, no weekend plans and fancies a trip to Rome?”); but it allowed an overnight stay and my first few hours exploring Rome, and gave me the confidence to survive on a few words of the relevant language, judicious pointing, and otherwise my charm & wit.

Second, picking up a copy of “Europe by Train” by Katie Wood and George McDonald in a local bookshop, which filled in the more practical details and some essential knowledge. I should also mention the other important book that went everywhere with me: the Thomas Cook European train timetable. It covered the main routes across the whole of Europe, and pretty heady stuff for a nerd. I still have my battered copy from 1996.

I almost did go with a friend from undergrad days, but they got cold feet shortly before. I was slightly nervous about single travel, especially given the changes happening in Europe in the 1990s, plus my parents insisted I write a will before I went (not that there was much to write about…). But it turned out fine and I’m glad I went ahead with it. Single travel also allowed me a lot more freedom in the end.

And so I began on a chilly afternoon in Sat 16th March 1996, local bus to the train station, heading to Newcastle and then to the North Shields ferry port for the boat to Bergen in Norway. My interrail ticket didn’t start until Tues 19th March, so I had one night on the North Sea, one night on the boat in Bergen, then caught a late train on the Monday to get to my real starting point, 18 minutes into the first day of my pass. And I kept travelling until 22:33 on the last day of the pass.

Below is the full set of train journeys taken during that 30 day period, including the departure and arrival times. I’ve also got a rough diary (about 50 pages) which fills in the gaps, written from memory soon after I got back to the UK. I might release it some day after a bit of tidying. Friends who have read it describe it as “the hunt for food around Europe”. There is an element of that, but if you’ve tasted freshly cooked Pretzels in German stations, you might write about it too.

At a rough calculation, my route over 30 days covered something like 27,000 – 28,000 km, and meant about 390 hours on a train (compared to 720 hours for 30 days – so about half of the time spent on the train). For comparison, the best number I’ve seen over the same 30 day segment 35,223 km, based on the comment at https://www.reddit.com/r/Interrail/comments/d3zc83/comment/f07rd85/.

Even though I was happy to sit on a train and look out the window for long periods (and think about my PhD – honest), I wasn’t aiming to do a huge distance – though I do subscribe to the view of “every pound a prisoner” and wanted to make good use of the pass. It happened more accidentally, after I discovered the fun and convenience of night trains and started picking routes to make good use of them. The routine of looking for a cheap hotel or youth hostel each night got stale quickly. Much more fun to sleep overnight on a train and wake up somewhere new.

I also didn’t have a fixed plan in mind. Just a few places I wanted to include if I could, primarily Narvik, Rome, Sicily, Venice, Trieste, Porto. Why Narvik? not because it is (or was at the time) the most northern point on the European rail network; more something to do with one of Isabelle Adjani’s films… Porto was for the port wine connection, and because I wanted to see the vineyard area. Apart from that, the route was what I felt like on the day and what fitted in with the night trains.

I did get a decent amount of sightseeing in as well. About three days wandering around Paris, two in Rome, almost a full day in Venice – particularly getting to see the famous square before the crowds appeared. A few places like Trieste and Sicily I opted to stay in a normal bed and spend more time there. In many other places I saw much more than just the inside of their main station. Plus I’ve been back to key places for more relaxed visits since (especially Porto!)

So, here’s the route! Times are all local times, and hhmm+1 means arrival the next day.

Date	Leg	Dep	Arr
19 Mar	Voss – Oslo	0018	0700
	Oslo – Stockholm	0820	1447
	Stockholm – Boden	1740	0721+1
20 Mar	Boden – Narvik	1030	1700
21 Mar	Narvik – Boden	1030	1652
	Boden – Haparanda (bus)	1710	1930
	Haparanda – Tornio (walking over the border! and it was **** cold)	–	–
22 Mar	Tornio – Kemi (bus)	1230	1330
	Kemi – Tampere	1422	2052
23 Mar	Tampere – Joensuu	1302	1922
24 Mar	Joensuu – Helsinki	1247	2058
25 Mar	Helsinki – Turku	1106	1306
	Turku – Stockholm (ferry)	1930	0700+1
26 Mar	Stockholm – Göteborg	1212	1625
	Göteborg – Oslo	1758	2222
	Oslo – Trondheim	2300	0725+1
27 Mar	Trondheim – Oslo	0930	1727
	Oslo – Copenhagen	2137	0700+1
28 Mar	Copenhagen – Hamburg	0920	1428
	Hamburg – Berlin Zoo	1501	1840
	Berlin Zoo – Paris Nord	2059	0840+1
29 Mar	Paris Lyon – Roma Ostiense	2114	1430+1
30 Mar	Roma Termini – Venezia S.L.	2215	0600+1
31 Mar	Venezia S.L. – Trieste	1422	1625
1 Apr	Trieste – Salzburg	1219	1853
2 Apr	Salzburg – Budapest	0116	0753
	Budapest – Paris Est	1540	0934+1
3 Apr	Paris Est – Zurich	2240	0657+1
4 Apr	Zurich – Interlaken	0830	1119
	Interlaken – Luzern	1136	1336
	Luzern – St Gallen	1344	1558
	St Gallen – Buchs	1703	1801
	Buchs – Innsbruck	1810	2058
	Innsbruck – Wien	2310	0632+1
5 Apr	Wien – Salzburg	1700	2000
	Salzburg – München	2018	2200
	München – Dresden	2308	0702+1
6 Apr	Dresden – Praha	0837	1102
	Praha – Dresden	1831	2105
	Dresden – Frankfurt	2317	0600+1
7 Apr	Frankfurt – Basel	0628	1023
	Basel – Zurich	1051	1200
	Zurich – Milano	1507	1935
	Milano – Palermo	2020	1555+1
8 Apr	Palermo – Agrigento	2015	2215
9 Apr	Agrigento – Catania	1545	1935
10 Apr	Catania – Messina	0830	1030
	Messina – Villa S.G. (ferry)	1130	1200
	Villa S.G. – Reggio Cal.	–	~1300
	Reggio Cal. – Sibari	1440	1900
	Sibari – Taranto	1910	2032
	Taranto – Bologna	2252	0740+1
11 Apr	Bologna – Firenze	1040	1151
	Firenze – Livorno	1350	1454
	Livorno – Pisa	1618	1634
	Pisa – Torino P.N.	1724	2134
	Torino P.S. – Paris Lyon	2248	0722+1
12 Apr	Paris Est – Basel	0842	1405
	Basel – Zurich	1425	1523
	Zurich – Geneva	1703	2001
	Geneva – Irun	2154	1050+1
13 Apr	Irun – Medina del Campo	1315	1847
	Medina – Avila	2103	2149
	Avila – Santiago	2320	0722+1
14 Apr	Santiago – Vigo	0945	1130
	Vigo – Porto Campanhã	1255	1600
	Porto Campanhã – Regua	1631	1841
	Regua – Vila Real	1844	1940
	Vila Real – Regua	1945	2040
15 Apr	Regua – Porto S. Bento	0845	1108
	Porto S. Bento – Coimbra	2004	2216
16 Apr	Coimbra – Lisboa	1121	1514
	Lisboa – Hendaye	1600	0904+1
17 Apr	Hendaye – Bordeaux	1044	1316
	Bordeaux – Nantes	1405	1808
	Nantes – Roanne	2258	0520+1
18 Apr	Roanne – Lyon	–	–
	Lyon – Nantes	0911	1557
	Nantes – Auray St Anne	1612	1805
	Auray – Rennes	1919	2040
	Rennes – St Malo	2140	2233

One comment worth adding – in all of this travel, I can only remember two late trains. One delayed train in Frankfurt where I had to change plans slightly, and the train back from Prague being an hour or two late as it was coming up from Bucharest (which complicated the Frankfurt situation too, iirc). It’s seriously impressive how everything else was pretty much on time back in 1996. Then when I got back to Britain (ferry from St Malo), the first train I caught got delayed when the driver went missing… I was home (-:

PS. Noticed the Trondheim section? I literally did just have breakfast there and come back. I was thinking of going up the coast to Tromso, but decided against more time in Scandanavia and thought it was time to head for central Europe instead. It was a very decent breakfast too.