Taking the train over flying

[Delk]

Typically im an infrequent lurker here and pop in every few months to see whats going on but i was reminded of this forum (see below for why!) by my recent travels and thought id share some of my views!

In a nutshell, i spent last week on a holiday in Sweden however due to medical reasons for the person i traveled with air and sea travel were both out of the question which resulted in my organisation of a rather epic journey from the North of England to the middle of Sweden.

Unless someones particularly interested i shan't bore you with the gorey details however suffice to say i was pleasantly surprised at just how much fun it was. Definately something I would do again but not in a hurry! Seeing Europe from the ground is fantastic (Google Oresund for example) and being able to stop at a number of major cities and have a brief look around made the trip even more worthwhile.

Anyway, the reason i thought of you all, while on the 'Nachtzug' (night train) I saw a rather happy chap snapping photos in...if i recall correctly Odense and ended up coming here to see if it had appeared here!

Alas a pleasent experience overall, although looking back theres a few downsides.
1.5 Days on a train leaves you a bit wobbly and very tired!
It would be nice if there was more efficient ways of booking long, connecting international train journeys.
And lastly your a slave to late trains, however the only ones which were consistently late were the German ones (Totally against my expectations), go figure!

Overall lots of fun. Im certainly not what youd call a train spotter etc but i still have a 'boys' obsession with big machines, which made it all the more fun!

[Dave]

Regarding booking international journeys, you really can't fault Deutsche Bahn's website.

I can't remember the exact link, but there was some fun on the forums planning very long journeys all over the world. I think the winner was Glasgow to Beijing, with just 4 changes in about 6 days.

[prissi]

Once we actually got to the counter at Berlin-Zoo and asked for Berlin-Angarsk. He happily printed the schedule, then looked at it an throwed it away. "Why", I asked. "Well, here is written 117 hour, one time changing. Must be an error in the database."

Indeed, that was the train I wanted. (Invited to a wedding in Angarsk, next to Irkutsk.) However, not all international train in russia are in the DBAG database, only the more expensive ones.

[The Irish]

As for the ticket, you should be able to book the so called "Eurodomino" ticket, where you define on how many days in total and in which countries you want to travel. That should then be valid for all trains, even night trains and ICEs. On the Eurorail tickets, you have to pay an additional fee on ICEs and night trains.

We did something similar once with France, Belgium, Holland and Germany (when I still lived in Switzerland), it was really fun.

[orudge]

I can't remember the exact link, but there was some fun on the forums planning very long journeys all over the world. I think the winner was Glasgow to Beijing, with just 4 changes in about 6 days.

Some time ago, I planned out, in quite some detail, a journey by rail from Britain to Beijing, via the Trans-Mongolian line, then on to Tibet, and back home via Kazakhstan and Russia (the old Silk Route). It was rather enjoyable - sadly, time and money has so far prevented me from doing the actual trip.

[doktorhonig]

The Austrian National Rail Company gives away international tickets for 29 Euro. These Destinations are available. There are similar trains in other countries, but I don't know if you can book them for that price. 29 Euros for Vienna->Paris or Vienna->Hamburg are a great price.

You can also order international tickets at Gleisnost. They also have Transsib-Tickets, see the link for prices. Sorry, there doesn't seem to be an english page.

[Dave]

Isn't Gleisnost a bit too close to Glasnost?

[doktorhonig]

Too close? Glasnost doesn't mean anything bad. And "Gleis" is just a rail-track.

EDIT: Me stupido. This is the english link: hug me