Places

Here is, in chronological order, what we’ll be doing when we get off the train. Which in many cases is get on a tram or funicular railway.

Actually we’ve had second thoughts about all this racing around at the stops, we’ll probably just stop. And the route has changed a bit now also. Here’s a the list of notable stops where we’ll have at least enough time to toast the current destination, followed by some notes on what else might happen. I have also inserted the route postings into this list

The Channel Tunnel, 200 Years In The Making
London
Brussels
Thalys – High Speed in The Low Countries
Amsterdam
The Borealis Night Train
Copenhagen
The Øresund – A Big Båstad Of A Bridge
Gothenburg
Oslo
Go To Hell In Railway Heaven
Trondheim
Bodø
Narvik
The Lappland Line
Stockholm
SJ X2 + ICE x 2
Hamburg
Berlin
North – South Divide
Prague
Vienna
Pan-European Corridor IV
Bratislava
Budapest
Bucharest
Sofia
Skopje
Illyrian Odyssey
Belgrade
Sarajevo
Ploce
Split
Zagreb
Ljubljana
Nova Gorica/Gorizia
Bullet Through The Backbone Of Italy
Venice
Rome
Milan
The World’s Most Gobsmackingly Fantabulastic Railway Ride Ever
St Moritz
Zurich
Geneva
Iberia, Better Than Siberia
Barcelona
Madrid
Lisbon
The Sud Express, Lisbon to Paris, and Back to Blighty
Paris
London

Capitals we pass through but don’t stop at
Bern (well, it stops, for several minutes, so 14 blokes are going to have to jump on and off the platform, just so they can say they did 23 capitals).

and a few others major places we just change trains at

Gothenburg 40 mins
Hamburg 1 hour
Split 3 hours
Zurich all night

Other places
Trondheim 40 mins
Fauske 13 mins
Narvik (northern most point) 10 hours, all night sun
Boden 26 minutes
Ploce about an hour
Nova Gorica – an hour through town
Tirano 37 mins
Henday 50 mins

Countries Visited
Austria
Belgium
Bulgaria
Bosnia-Herzegovina
Croatia
Czech Republic
Denmark
France
Germany
Great Britain
Hungary
Italy
Netherlands
Norway
Macedonia
Portugal
Romania
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland

Which all adds up to
Countries 23
Capitals 23
Distance 17,000 km (more, we do Paris twice now, and a bit more Alps, but I cant be arsed to tot it up right now)
Plus Split, Venice, Bernina Express (route), Glacier Express (route, half of)  Arctic Circle, Barcelona, Zurich

The rest of this page is just rambling notes on what we plan to do at each stop, much of which is out of date.

London start/finish
Meet at The John Betjeman Pub in the station for a slap up English Breakfast, a a drop of champers courtesy of the Birthday Boy, no later than 7:30 AM. Meet there again on getting back.

Brussels 3 ½ hours
We have to get a train the next stop to Central Station. We are then walking distance from The Grand Place, via the Royales Galleries, eat, shop, then back to Midi station.

Amsterdam 1 ¼ hour
Not much time here. No specific plans, it will probably free play.

Copenhagen 3 ¾ hours
We’ll certainly do Nyhaven, anything else is a bonus. but the Harbour Boat would be fun then a bus through town to Tivoli Gardens, lunch, then collect a tonne of supplies, including plenty of hooch, to get us to Narvik (and back, hooch-wise) .

Oslo 1 ¼ hours
Enough time to metro it to the Nobel Centre and back ?,, probably not.

Narvik – Overnight in 24 hour Arctic Circle sunlight
We will be staying in the chalets at the campsite for the hour and being all outward bounds Scandinavian about it.

Stockholm 1 ½ hours
Metro to Kungsträdgården for the Östermalms Saluhall (food hall) then Spårväg City tram 7 from Kungsträdgården (på Hamngatan) towards Waldemarsudde. Alight at Liljevalchs/Gröna Lund. Catch the Djurgården ferry, for the best view of the harbour you’ll get. Walk, bus,  or green line metro to Urban Deli, then Green Line metro back from Skansful to the Central station.

Berlin 11  hours (overnight)
Will involve the Brandenburg Gate naturally, and a stay in a hostel (most probably A&O v.near station), and a short midnight tram trip down the best lit street in town, wherever that is.

Prague 8 ½  hours
get day tickets for everyone
Dump the bags at the statioin which we are told now has secure lockers.
Metro to I.P. Pavlova
Get the 22 tram to the funicular railway
Lanovka up to Strahov/castle area
walk across the park to Kalsterni Restaurace and eat
then go to the Black Ox and drink
then tram 22 back down the hill to Karlov Most (Charles Bridge)
walk across it and onto the Old City Square
watch the Astronomical Clock do it stuff (need to synch this with it’s hourly ritual)
Then go to somewhere near the station
More drinks
Get the bags, and go

Vienna 2 ½ hours
Metro to Stephansplaz
Picture of the Cathedral and breakfast at Aida.
Metro to Sudbahnhof or Semmering

Bratislava 20 minutes
just a train swap now

Budapest 6 ½ hours
Dump the bags and get day passes
metro line 2 to Batthyany Ter
Tram 19 or 49 to the funicular Siklo
Budapest Castle
tram 18 to Moskva Ter

then, we may either just slope off to the market, or we could include this

tram 59 or 62 to Varosmajor
Cog Railway (tram 60) up to Szechenyi-hegy
Children’s Railway back down to Huvosvolgy Station
try and work out how to get to the Central Market while using Line 1
Full shop at the Market
Back to th station, bags, go

Bucharest 2 hour
may be get to Ceascescu’s Palace and back if we are on time

Sofia overnight
TBD

Skopje ~ 4 Hours

Belgrade 2 hours
zeleni venac, “green wreath” market for supplies, about 400m away

Sarajevo All night

Split ~ 3 Hours

Zagreb 2 hours

Off to Dolac market ochin bistra

Ljubljana
an hour

Nove Gorica/Gorizia
walk between the two

Venice all night and the following morning

We’ve got enough time to do some serious damage to a 24 hr vaporetta pass. We will be able to use it in the evening to go to San Marco, and I have this plan for the morning. A Vaporetto 12 hours pass – 18 euros, 24 hours – 20 euros

Bus 1 – FERROVIA(S.LUCIA) “E” 08:04 S.ELENA SX 08:54 00:50
Bus 4.1 – S.ELENA SX 09:30 CIMITERO S.MICHELE 10:00 00:30
Bus 4.1 – CIMITERO S.MICHELE 10:45 S.ZACCARIA(JOLANDA) “D” 11:41 00:56
Bus 1 – S.ZACCARIA(DANIELI) “E” 12:11 FERROVIA(S.LUCIA) “D” 12:51 00:40

Rome 4 hours
To San Pietro and the Vatican and it’s station
Metro to Circo Massimo
walk back to the Colosseum
Metro back to Termini.

Milan 2 ½ hours
Probably just have a leisurely breakfast, it will be rush hour and we’ve got a great day coming up.

The Bernina Pass
Done in an open top railway carriage

St Moritz 1 hour

Barcelona 4½ hours
not sure, may be go to Tibidabo

Madrid 4½ hours

Lisbon 8½ hours
this lot is a bit ambitious, but we will certainly do cascais and back to Belem

bus 34 from stanta apolonia (about 400m, havent worked out exactly to where)
then tram 28e, do the eastern loop of that and then stay on to  to cais do sodre

train to Ages
tram 15 to Belem Tower
see tower
then term 15 or various buses into belem
see belem centre
bus 27 to ajuda
tram 18 to santos
tram 25e to elevador do bica
elevador do bica
tram 28e all the way to the west end and back, get off at luis de comoes
walk up rua misrecordia to elevador do gloria
elevador do gloria
avoid the hard rock cafe that is across the road, walk past it onto the elevador do lava
elevador do lava, then walk through the uni/hospital campus
then get a 28e again back to the praca do municipio
somewhere in all that we need to eat at least twice, and pick up some stuff for the train which leaves at 4pm.

Paris 6 hours

Le Train Bleu Cafe and a large metal tower, not sure what else yet