Another Ridiculous Interrail Holiday – 6,379Km and 13 Countries over 7 weeks – Terence Eden’s Blog

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Last year, my wife and I went on a 5,025 Km Interrail adventure. We got the month-long unlimited pass and saw 10 Countries in 30 Days. That was a bit too intense. So this year we got the 15 travel days in 2 months package. We grabbed the 1st class tickets when they went on sale in December.

Here's how our journey ended up:

The trip included two ferries - one overnight - which had a small Interrail discount. In total we spent approximately 40 hours on trains over a 7 week trip.

This blog post looks at the practicalities of the journey and the experience we had while travelling. You are free to decide which cities you want to visit and which you want to skip. This worked (mostly) for us - you should write a blog post about your own experiences.

London To Brussels

Eurostar St Pancras is dangerously crowded and needs tearing down. You can use RealTimeTrains to see your departure platform before it is announced - that's useful for avoiding some of the queues.

The first-class service in Eurostar is lovely (even if it doesn't get you access to the lounge). Unfortunately, you need to book vegan meals a few days in advance - a deadline I missed. The veggie option was fine though.

Made it to Brussels where we hit our first snag.

Brussels to Hamburg

We'd booked some of our tickets months in advance. What we hadn't realised is that construction work had been announced and our train would be getting is much later than we anticipated.

Neither Interrail (who we booked the seat reservations through) nor DB (who had our contact details) thought to tell us about the change in journey. Nevertheless, we jumped on a train and had a pleasant enough trip up to Germany.

The Interrail refund form is ridiculously complicated and asks for various screenshots. There really ought to be a big "DB Screwed Up" button for an instant refund. Still, after a couple of days the refund came through.

Hamburg to Copenhagen

There's a DB lounge at the station. We received suspicious stares at our Interrail passes which then necessitated deep examination of our seat reservation by two people. Begrudgingly they let us in. There were comfortable seats and some free drinks. It was mostly quiet until various children started crying.

The train was gentle and slow. 1st class got a snack included - veggie but not vegan. For the first time since leaving the UK there were passport checks which were friendly.

At one point there was a quiet announcement in German. We didn't think much of it until everyone started getting off the train. Turns out one of the carriages had suffered a failure and we were turfed out at Nyborg. Approximately 1,000 passengers attempted to board the next available train - it looked like an utter crush. So we waited for the one after that.

We were treated to a train with spectacular panoramic windows as it went over The Bridge.

A friendly guard told us where to change. Arrived a little late and filled in the Interrail compensation form again.

Copenhagen to Göteborg

The lounge in Copenhagen was basic but fine. A few bowls of fruit and a coffee machine but nothing else. Weirdly no train display.

The train had power sockets on the ceiling - along with headphone jacks! Was a little strange seeing cables dripping down from the ceiling. The 1st class seats were a little roomier than standard, but not much in it. Ticket inspector looked confused at Interrail passes but didn't challenge us.

Göteborg to Oslo

Trains were frequent enough that we didn't bother with advance seat reservations. No 1st class, but the quiet zone was spacious enough. Again, a brief glance at the tickets rather than scanning them.

I was heartily impressed to see snack vending machines on a train! Better than someone pushing a cart through I reckon.

Oslo to Stockholm

There were no signs on seats to say reserved and the service was very full. But we got our seats without a problem. There was free fruit and tea / water in the 1st class carriage. WiFi speeds were excellent.

Stockholm to Helsinki (overnight ferry)

Annoyingly, the ferry terminal is a rather long distance from the nearest tram stop which was a bit of an arse.

The check-in to the ferry warns of extra costs if you have the temerity to use the staffed counters - but the automatic check in wouldn't work with our tickets. They wanted to check that we were eligible for the Interrail discount, so we showed them the app - we didn't have to spend a travel day though. They printed out our tickets and didn't charge us extra.

The boat itself was gorgeous. Obviously not full - many of the bars were empty and the disco was dead - but surprisingly they put on a full song and dance show as entertainment. We'd made reservations at one of the fancy restaurants, which was perfectly nice. It was breathtakingly beautiful...