Sunday Times Travel supplement - 14 page rail special

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Printed edition - From my local newsagent before the crack of dawn ...

[GBM]

Fame! 

[grahame]

Online version - and with a different picture

https://www.thetimes.com/travel/advice/meet-the-interrailers-the-best-part-is-discovering-underrated-towns-tc80kzdgq

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.

In pedant mode - a couple of dates got mixed in translation and I describe the city in Lithuania as "Interesting" rather than "Charming".

[johnneyw]

Bah, I should have picked up a copy while I was out today.
I've got various ambitions for visits to Europe by rail spanning from a few days duration to a week or two.  A European railcard suggests itself for multi location tours however, for short one or two location visits spanning just a few nights this might not be the cheapest option but making comparisons is proving not easy.... especially when you take getting to Europe from (in my case) Bristol into account.
Can anyone suggest any website that can give a total price for station to station rail return to a European destination from the UK^▸ (United Kingdom)?
My particular research right now is getting from Bristol to Braine l Allued in Belgium for a couple of nights in spring.
Any suggestions welcome.

[ChrisB]

Try this

[johnneyw]

Try this

Punning aside, this might be just the ticket.  I'll bookmark the site....many thanks.