A long weekend in a small country

I’ve always been drawn to little countries. You know, the sorts of places that are so small that there’s only room for two symbols on their television weather forecasts. Perhaps it’s due to being Scottish or growing up on an island, but there’s something quite captivating about a small nation that exists independently and sustains…

Zurich to Graz

Scouring the departures board at Zurich’s main railway station, there was a moment of mild alarm when our intended Graz sleeper train wasn’t there. In its place though, at exactly the same departure time, was a train to Belgrade. I thought for a minute, and realised that given Belgrade was beyond Austria, this was indeed…

The Great Olympic Bargain Berth Fiasco

Friday morning was the last cog in the wheel in terms of planning our summer’s European rail adventure: three weeks, seven countries, and eleven trains.  You’ll of course be hearing more about this trip in due course. Over the past few weeks I’ve been watching various European  train operators’ websites like a hawk, waiting for…

Planning the next adventure

I’ve got two trips for this year bubbling away in the planning stage, and they’re both rail-based. The second one, scheduled for the summer, is the bigger of the two.  Nicole and I will be travelling Europe by train, overlapping with the southern France leg of Niall’s world wonder hunting and taking in a total of six countries.…

The advantages of being delayed

I spend a lot of time on trains.  Too much, at times.  I’m at the stage where I recognise train conductors, can recite stations along routes my most regular routes, and have often found myself at the whim of the vagaries and foibles of ScotRail.  Mostly, to be fair, ScotRail does a good job, though…

Going off the rails?

You may have read a wee while back about the Scottish Government’s consultation on rail services in Scotland beyond 2014. When launched, it made a few headlines because of eye-catching questions like whether alcohol should be banned from trains or whether the sleeper service and daytime cross-border journeys between the north of Scotland and England…

The waiting game

Nicole and I are heading off to France in September.  It’ll be a chance to catch up with a few friends we have over there, and while we both really like the country I’ve not seen too much of it and my French could do with some significant practice. We’ve decided we’re going overland, which…