Europe by train - September 2026

This trip had been a long time coming.  Id fancied travelling Europe by train for quite a while, but it had just never happened and then once I d started to have a campervan I didnt see the point.  A recent death of my best little friend (A whippet called Sam) caused a lot of sadness, I sold my campervan and was struggling rather a lot.  I needed to get away.

I initially went down to the Lake District with my (then) partner, it was an excellent few days, she is very lovely but a few things resurfaced and we were just not meant for each other unfortunately, we did part on good terms though which was nice.  Id thought about a Whippet puppy but for a few reasons, one being im definitely not ready, it wasnt going to work out so I started booking this trip.

My head was (is?) obviously in a bad place as I made unite a few mistakes, double bookings and outright dumb errors when arranging it all.  Would have been better waiting until I got home from the lakes, live and learn.  

So here I am, roughly a week later and leaving Scotland for a very different type of Euro tour for me.

 Day 1: Edinburgh to Paris

A very early start for me - 4:30AM pick up to get to Waverley Train station for my 5:35 train to London.  Got to station with no hassle, waited for Pret to open, coffee bought and then onto train (Did you know that Pret opens at 5:15am in Waverley?  I didnt).

My train being all shiny(Waverley 5:20am)

Setup for my trip to London

Train journey down to London was very straight forward.  1st class so had a decent breakfast and a few coffees, plus a nice quiet carriage.

Then into London, a short walk over to St Pancras for the euro train, and then the wait….  Wasn’t too bad, id given myself plenty of time as id heard various stories of 90 min+ delays, I got through in roughly 7 minutes.  Off for yet another coffee, managed to find a seat (the waiting area was mobbed), and spent the next hour or so people watching.

Me in the Queue for the Paris train.

Train announcement came up and a scramble for the train.  I took my time, didnt see why the rush, had plenty of time before it left and everyone has an assigned seat, hey ho, humans being humans.

I was sat beside a what I think we now call ‘BBW’…..  FFS she liked her food, journey I think is about 2 1/2 hours and she hardly stopped (and this is coming from someone that likes their food).

PARIS:

Ive kinda been put off Paris due to all the negative press around alleged muggings, attacks, etc etc, however id forgotten what a beautiful city it is.

I walked from the station to my hostel (The People’s hostel) and I think my first ever shared room in one of these (where I dont know the other people), oh, and very probably the last.  It was ok but ive done it now, ✔️ and I’ll go back to my own rooms again 😊.  The hostel was pretty good, with amazing views from the roof section, thankfully my room was up there so easy to pop out and see the views.

Eiffel Tower from my room door, and then a nice french sunset

Id thought I wouldn’t bother visiting the tower but that all changed the next day.

Day 2: Paris full day (Being a boring tourist)

I got up early, went down and had a very leisurely breakfast in the hostel and then headed out for the day.  I wasnt really looking forward to it but seemed a waste not to do anything while there.  Wow, amazing city.  I stuck to the main tourist attraction type things as I only had one day (or as I said to someone ‘full on white tourist mode - nothing dangerous’.  

Where I was staying is apparently a bit dodgy, while the people there were very mixed in origin I didnt feel under threat at any time.  I did see three blokes getting arrested at one point but not sure what for (possibly drugs).  Anyway, got the underground which seemed incredibly efficient and easy to use.  then a walk along to Notre Dame Cathedral for a tour.  Even the walk there was pretty good, some. Amazing views and incredible architecture.   The cathedral tour itself was good, I even sneaked in with some catholics to see what the private prayer bit was all about, lots of crossing and holding of the beads, with a wee curtsey as they left, all pretty standard and no proddie sacrifice which I was pleased about 😈.

On the walk there I had to cross a bridge over the Seine, not bad at all

Then it was up to the Cathedral.  It’s a pretty stunning building and a bonus is they dont charge to let people in.  Someone famous, pope something or other, is visiting later this week so they were all excited about that (im guessing he is a good singer or something?)

Ive always found my fascination with cathedrals / places of worship weird.  Im not religious at all and when growing up had a hatred for it given some experiences.  I do love those buildings though, some of the architecture and glass work is amazing. 

He died for our sins apparently

A very sunny day

 Something that always amazes me when visiting these sort of things - A LOT OF TOURISTS go to them.  It took me roughly 3 mins to book my free timeslot online, I then walked up in a queue of two people in from of me.  The queue if you didnt pre book was huge and im guessing would have easily taken 45-60 mins, oh well. Kept it nice and easy for me.

Tour of the cathedral done, what next.  I thought about doing one of those city bus tour things, then spotted a bus boat trip with stop offs at various prime locations.  Onto the boat it was.  Really nice trip before getting off to go along to the Louvre, not somewhere I had been going to bother with but thought now im on the boat why not.  The walk from the river was stunning, beautiful buildings the whole way along.  I got to the Louvre and as I thought its pretty meh, but ive been so all good.  The various buildings close by it much more impressive.

On the walk to Louvre

Mini Arc over from Louvre with a big shiny dome behind it

Entrance to go see the Louvre, far more impressive than this picture shows.

 From there I decided to walk up to Pantheon, followed by another walk up to Arc Triumphe.  I enjoyed the walk more than the actual structure but the historic relevance of it makes it worth a visit.

Impressive building, had loads of tiny humans around it but I edited them out, not sure it really worked very well.

Was going to go back to the boat but was enjoying my walk so much I decided to walk the distance to Eiffel Tower, was enjoying taking in the contrast of tourists like me with shorts and sweaty t-shirt on and the well to do folk coming out of all the fancy high end stores.

Made it to the tower, it is a pretty cool structure and was happy id gone along.  It also helped that the boat thing had a pick up place right beside it as my feet (and body) were in close down mode.  It was an incredibly hot day.

Anyone know what this is……

This one was from the boat as I was waiting for it to leave

This is pretty famous (lots of folk  taking photos from the boat), I thought Id join in but no idea what significance it has.

Did a bit longer in the boat to take in some more sites but stayed in my seat of stood out back for a breeze.  Then off at the cathedral, walk to underground, stop off for some incredible Vietnamese food, back to hostel and had a very relaxing evening - Well I say relaxing but Interrail messed up my coming home booking.  Thankfully I was double checking everything last night and spotted I wouldn’t actually have got onto the euro train to London.  Lots of what ifs on various journeys and then managed to get it all booked.  It’s a bit of a crazy tour of Europe to get back from Prague but it will all hopefully work.

Day 3 - Travel to Venice

Another early start…..

Up early (5:40am - thats very early for me) showered and headed down to wait for my taxi.  Managed to scam a free coffee while waiting which was nice. ☕️

Taxi done, plenty of time, another coffee for start oof journey (Bought this time) and onto the train I got.  This first one was Paris to Zurich, a nice train but made me very sad (not really but all for effect) that first class doesnt get you included munchies over here 😭.  Anyway, a nice window seat, and all very relaxed. 

 Train 2: Zurich to Milan: I didnt get to look around Zurich station as I had 4 mins to get onto next train (platform right beside mine so all good).  This train was a bit run down however comfy enough and yet again no free snacks.  Sat back, relaxed and watched some of the incredible mountain scenery go by, especially around Lugano area 

We had some adventure on this train as at Como roughy 15 police officers got on and were searching for something (although two of them seemed to think ‘questioning’ the very attractive young woman nearby was the most effective way of searching (weirdly they didnt bother with me…).  After a while they all got off, no idea what it was about but interesting to watch. 

Train 3: Milan to Venice (final train for today) 

We were cutting it tight for this one, hold up with the police caused a significant delay.  I was lucky though, my next train was right next to the current train.  On and within moments the doors closed to leave (phew).  Another window seat and a big bonus as I was seriously flagging, some free snacks and an espresso - happy Dave.  Another window seat across from a very friendly Italian man who helped me with my stuff (I must have looked like it was needed).  I sat back and again watched the mainly nice scenery go by.

Venice:  My ** to be updated **