We have been quite apprehensive about this trip. We feel older and we remember talking to people about inter-railing as a simple, carefree jaunt. You jump on a train to there, stay as long as you want and then pootle off to the next place. Inter-railing in 2026 is not like this as far as we can work out. With the app, the journey planning, the hotel bookings to match and the seat reservations, it seems much more rigid nowadays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonetheless we have a good trip planned and even though we have an early hiccup (supposed to pick up our first night train in Dortmund, but now the train isn\u2019t stopping there) we are going to make some magical memories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And we are off! We began our journey at an unholy hour from Whitchurch towards Waterloo. The benefits of a first class inter-rail ticket mean it is quiet and comfy although in England the difference between first and standard is negligible. Our train arrived in good time so we mooched straight over to St Pancras on the Bakerloo and Victoria lines. St Pancras was wild, as always and we checked in without realising that after this point if you want coffee and tea you will be doing that at Pret! Would be better to arrange something else before you submit your ticket in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Eurostar was a breeze, the train left on time and we whisked our way through Southern England and under the channel tunnel to a breakfast of pastries, yoghurt, coffee and orange juice. Quite civilised all round. That took us to Brussels-Midi and we probably should have had something more sensible to eat but it is Belgium so we had a waffle with chocolate sauce. It was delightful actually but my head was telling me it was going to need something else to avoid the sugar rollercoaster headache it was circling around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The connection in Brussels to Amsterdam on the Eurocity Direct was the new piece of itinerary because of the Dortmund hiccup. This was exceptionally smooth and I write this on that train about 40 mins until we arrive. The next piece is the most potentially stressful because we have to pick up the train we would have been on at the beginning of its journey and we don\u2019t have a reservation! This is the NightJet to Vienna and is one of the most expensive reservations we have so it needs to work out. Stay tuned for the next update!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have been quite apprehensive about this trip. We feel older and we remember talking to people about inter-railing as a simple, carefree jaunt. You jump on a train to there, stay as long as you want and then pootle off to the next place. Inter-railing in 2026 is not like this as far as … <\/p>\n