Eurailing Europe

A fellow traveler asked me why I was taking photos of the trains and train stations along the way while I wasn't taking photos of the landscapes and monuments. What can I say? I love trains!

I really wanted to experience travelling around Europe by rail, so I bought a 30-day Global Eurail pass and spent a lot of my time travelling by rail. Within one month, I rode on 36 trains across 10 countries. The nicest trains are the high speed trains. I especially like Spain's AVE (Alta Velocidad Española) and Italy's Frecciarossa. I heard that Thalys, travelling between France, Belgium, Netherlands and Germany, is also good but I wasn't able to ride on it. Taking a night train is like sleeping in one city and waking up in another. For me, it's the best way to save time. The Elipsos train hotel from Paris to Madrid was the prettiest among the night trains I took but also the most turbulent. Regional and local trains are cheap and you don't need reservations when you have a Eurail pass. These trains are for travelers who don't have a tight schedule since they are slow and don't really run on time (at least, in my experience).

Did I spend more time travelling in the train than actually sightseeing? On my first two weeks, not really. On my last two weeks. Yes! And I made sure I did. I took night trains and high speed trains on my first two weeks. But since part of my goal in this trip was to experience train travel, I took my time taking slow regional trains on my last two weeks.

While my train experiences are too many to include in this post, I'm including here my Eurail travel summary.

Date	ETD	ETA	From	To	Train	Cost*
Apr 21	18:53	09:00	Paris Austerlitz	Madrid Chamartín	THT 409	75€
Apr 24	10:30	13:15	Madrid Atocha	Barcelona Sants	AVE 3103	10,35€
Apr 25	12:22	14:03	Barcelona Sants	Figueres Vilafant	ARC 217	6,75€
Apr 25	14:20	17:38	Figueres Vilafant	Valence TGV	TGV 6216	3€
Apr 25	18:44	22:33	Valence TGV	Nice Ville	TGV 6829	18€
Apr 26	05:25	06:13	Nice Ville	Ventimiglia Stazi	RE 86001	-
Apr 26	06:33	11:00	Ventimiglia Stazi	Pisa Centrale	IC 505	3€
Apr 26	13:32	14:32	Pisa Centrale	Firenze Santa Maria Novella	R 3120	-
Apr 27	09:39	11:20	Firenze Santa Maria Novella	Roma Termini	ES 9561	10€
Apr 29	06:45	10:33	Roma  Termini	Venezia Sta. Lucia	ES 9402	10€
Apr 29	21:05	08:22	Venezia Sta. Lucia	Wien Westbahnhof	EN 1036	9€
May 2	10:14	14:30	Wien Westbahnhof	München Hauptbahnhof	RJ 60	-
May 3	06:51	07:51	München Hauptbahnhof	Buchloe	RE 57582	-
May 3	08:00	08:55	Buchloe	Füssen	RB 57336	-
May 3	14:06	16:05	Füssen	München Hauptbahnhof	RE 57511	-
May 3	22:47	09:49	München Hauptbahnhof	Amsterdam Centraal	CNL 418	27,50€
May 5	10:56	11:17	Amsterdam Centraal	Hilversum	IC 4537	-
May 5	11:21	17:20	Hilversum	Berlin Hauptbahnhof	IC 145	-
May 6	12:17	13:56	Berlin Hauptbahnhof	Hamburg Hauptbahnhof	ICE 808	-
May 6	15:28	20:14	Hamburg Hauptbahnhof	Københavns Hovedbanegård	ICE 37	-
May 8	06:40	07:14	Københavns Hovedbanegård	Malmö Centralstation	NoData	-
May 8	08:11	12:50	Malmö Centralstation	Stockholm Centralstation	SJ 528	65,00 SEK
May 8	16:45	10:00	Stockholm	Helsinki	boat	55 €
May 10	14:02	16:00	Helsinki	Turku	IC 955	-
May 10	19:00	20:58	Turku	Helsinki	IC 970	-
May 12	09:45	14:16	Københavns Hovedbanegård	Hamburg Hauptbahnhof	ICE 36	-
May 12	15:36	17:25	Hamburg Hauptbahnhof	Osnabrück	IC 2029	-
May 12	17:53	20:36	Osanabrück	Hilversum	IC 142	-
May 12	20:41	21:02	Hilversum	Amsterdam Centraal	IC 4572	-
May 13	14:01	16:00	Amsterdam Centraal	Antwerpen Centraal	IC 9244	-
May 13	16:34	17:55	Antwerpen Centraal	Brugge	IC 1838	-
May 14	14:58	15:55	Brugge	Bruxelles Midi	IC 514	-
May 14	16:33	19:40	Bruxelles Midi	Luxembourg	IC 2116	-
May 15	16:30	17:16	Luxembourg	Metz	NoData	-
May 15	18:36	19:27	Metz	Bar Le Duc	34002	-
May 15	19:37	21:53	Bar Le Duc	Paris Est	39108	-

*Reservation and supplement fees on top of the Eurail pass