Food

There are 3 critical supply centers where we need to seriously stock up on goodies or we’ll all end up hungry, sober and miserable.  These are Copenhagen, Budapest and Milan. I’ve started pages for those 3 as we need a fairly detailed plan and shopping list at these, and an idea about how much food per person we are going to want. We will also be stocking up with chocolates and affordable alcohol in Brussels.

There could also be things taken on board in Stockholm, Berlin and in Spain, but they arent critical. The above 3 though are, there will be next to nothing at all to eat on the train in Romania, also in Switzerland. and Sweden and Norway isnt going to be much fun either. Just thank God we arent doing 2 weeks solid on British trains!.

Each of these mega picnics needs to last for a day and a half, so my initial estimate for how much food to get per person is as follows.

• 300g bread
• 300g meats & cheeses
• 200g nibbles (e.g. olives, pickled watermelon etc)
• 200g salad, cucumbers and tomatoes and whatever else is going
• 200g cake or similar
• 4 pieces or 300g fruit

We will also need fresh butter and a range of native condiments. There will be at least one allocated bread board and knife carrying person for every 4 people.

We also need to work out what alcohol we buy, in particular in Budapest where there are all kinds of specialties like Tokaj, and also in Milan where it’s just going to be pre-ordered and delivered packaged up. For the north we may try and load up the booze in Brussels where it will be a fair bit cheaper.

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here are the initial thoughts on food:-

Here is a list of places where we need food plans developing. It will end up with addresses and shopping lists. Further consideration of the problem has revealed that we’re only going to pull this off if we locate one stop solutions to fill the picnic hamper at a lot of places. we’ve expanded our Budapest stop and will do the shopping at the Great Market, but we need a fine detail shopping list. pickled water melon and fire sausage are two specific delicacies, but if you are Hungarian please give us other ideas. If you know of a great deli that can do the job in one shot in any of Brussels, Copenhagen, Stockholm (I’ve got Urban Deli but if you know better), Istanbul,  Trieste or Venice, or Lisbon, then let us know. I’ve found something ideal in Stockholm and I’m sure in this day and age we can work out places that I can do some kind of deal with for all of the above. We’ve a contact in Milan. It will be early morning so I’m hoping to get our man to turn up with a cart load of food to get us through our alpine assault.

Brussels We’ve got an hour and half here as a result of the new improved schedule. Waffle outlets are all over the station from what I remember. We need a deli identifying. Beer and chocolate are staples of course for this place. We’ve now realised we are arriving and departing from Brussles Midi, not Centraal, so we may have to get an earlier train to make Belgium more feasible.

Amsterdam, what’s the dutch official drink other than advocaat, gin ?.  We’ve only an hour here, so we’ll probably have to get the supplies in at Brussels.

Copenhagen, breakfast option, and then a picnic for the afternoon and evening, possibly going on into the following day. Also any hard liquor supplies for the next 3 days. There’s some great local recipe ideas here http://www.mindspring.com/~cborgnaes/smrrbrd.html. We’ll do lunch in Tivoli, it’s full of places, but we’ve a long haul up to Narvik for 36 hours. We will also need to get all the alcohol we intend to consume or pay a heavy price, quite literally, for not doing so.

Trondheim. We have very little time here, so whatever the station has to offer we’ll have. But I need to check out what the eating situation on this train is. if it’s minimal then we’ll need to have a hamper full of stuff on leaving Copenhagen

Fauske. What ?, you’ve never heard of it ?!.  I’ve got details of where there’s supposedly a supermarket. I think we’ve got an hour and a half here before getting the bus up to Narvik, where we’ll arrive round about 23:00.

Narvik. We will be able to get stuff in the morning before getting the 10:00. The super’ opens at 9:00. I’m sure there’s some cured fish that we’ll all have to confront. if you are an expert in northern Scandinavian cuisine please tell us what we need to consume to be culturally fulfilled. We are all going to want some amount of sleep, so these huts will need booking. If you are coming as a twosome and want one of the twin cabins then I would imagine you’ll need to book well in advance.

Boden. We’ve got just half an hour here, I think platform burger is all we can hope for.

Stockholm, 3 1/2 hours starting at 6:30 am. We need a picnic good enough for 24 hours. I have Urban Deli, and hope to get multiple varieties of Smörgåstårta.

Berlin, we’ve got natives on the case for this one. It wil be late, we land at 23:10 and leave at 08:45. if you no a good sausage and beer stop not too far from the station open between either of those times let us know.

Dresden, Radebuel Ost station to be precise. have you been there ?, is there any food on offer ?.

Vienna, has been reduced to an early morning dash. We need a breakfast to go option near Sudbahnhof.

Budapest. We’re going to do a massive shop at the Great Market. We know about picked water melon and fire sausage, and tokaj. We’ll need a full list, written down, so we can just hand it over to the relevant stalls.

Istanbul. We’re going to use Metropolis (if they aver reply) and rent a mini dorm or two, we are here for 14 hours so too long to tramp it all day. The tourist thing is two mosques and the most amazing get lost bazaar on the planet. Finding an eatery is hardly a problem, but suggestions most welcome.  We should stock up on baklava and anything else non perishable. I guess we’re on the ouzo here, we’re north of the Bosporus .

Sofia. 8 hours. I’m leaving this to our Balkan office

Belgrade, 4 hours, bread, yogurt, cured pig, and more polinka. very early arrival, a medium sized day picnic would be in order.

Ljubljana, Night in a cell. We should be able to arrange for them to serve some grub on impact being a decent sized group.

Trieste, I’ll want to dip my big toe in the Adriatic here, the station is on the shoreline. I plan to do ceremonial toe dipping in the Amstel, North Sea, Baltic, Danube (Vienna), Danube again (Budapest), Bosporus, Venice, Mediterranean (Siracusa), Atlantic.

Venice. A bit like Amsterdam from a tourist point of view, you just walk out of the station and let it happen. We’ll need a decent sit down meal.

Rome, It’s going to be late and we’ll be rushed.

Milan. We’ve got a man on the ground for this, and I have an Italian gastronome in the crew.

Barca, 5 1/4 hours. 9:45 till 3 in the afternoon. We have serious on the ground contacts here so I await your suggestions. We will definitely be wanting to pig out at a proper table at this stage.

Madrid. 2 1/2 hours only, but enough time to do some more pigging out on tapas.  It will need to be < 1km from the station.

Lisbon, Almost 9 hours, including getting to Cascais and back.  I need to take a look at the tram map and see how we can elegantly do everything. we will need a final picnic sorting out though.

Paris We’ve got all afternoon here, the choice is endless, so we need to whittle that down a bit.