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Graham Ellis, 70, retired IT trainer from Melksham, Wiltshire

Graham Ellis found that much of interrailing was simpler than expected

Graham travelled with his wife, Lisa, 70

I did an Interrail trip around Eastern Europe and the Baltics in 2022 and utterly enjoyed it. So I did another one last spring, with my wife joining me for part of it. I got a three-month pass, the longest one you can get, and made three separate trips. Lisa got a shorter pass and joined me for a fortnight, going down to Sicily via Switzerland, then back through Austria and Paris.

I found a lot of it much simpler than I anticipated. But when you get somewhat remote it can be testing at times. When I was on my own, I went across Poland, up through the Baltics and across to Finland, and that was interesting because sometimes you have to make a seat reservation when you’re already in the country. There’s only one train a day from Lithuania into Latvia and unfortunately it was full, so I had to spend an extra day in what turned out to be a rather charming town called Siauliai. I just went online and booked a B&B.

One of the nice things about interrailing is that while everyone goes and stays in places like Amsterdam and Prague, you can stop in some very lovely little towns 20 or 30 miles away and use the pass to get in and out. You’ve got a chance to see more of the country; it’s almost like the opposite of cruising.

I have another ticket booked for this year and Lisa is going to join me for about half the time. We’re probably going to go across on the Harwich to Hook of Holland ferry, then over to Rostock on the Baltic coast of Germany, on to Gdansk and down through Austria, across the south of France to Spain and then back home on the ferry.