Railing thru Europe: Stop 12.1 Germany – Hamburg and Berlin

After about 22 hours of travelling and crossing 3 countries in the process (taking the overnight train from Bergen to Oslo, another short train ride to Trollhättan before connecting via coach (as railworks were taking place) to Göteborg and onto the train again to Malmo and Copenhagen and finally onwards via ferry crossing towards Hamburg), we finally reached Hamburg Hauptbahnhof (Central Station) in the night and couldn’t wait to check... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 10.1 Finland – Helsinki

The alternate way to travel to Helsinki from Stockholm is by the Viking Line, a cruise ship which takes you from the Stadsgården in Stockholm to the Viking Line terminal Katajanokka in Helsinki. Although the journey time is about 16hrs, rest assured that there are entertainment such as Xbox 360 consoles with Guitar Hero, wifi, bars, shopping, a kids corner that broadcasts Disney cartoons and of course food. Before you know it, you’re already... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 8.1 Denmark – Copenhagen

From the lowlands of Amsterdam, we arrive in the land of Vikings and our first stop in Scandinavia, Denmark. But of course, Danish vikings aren’t the only attractions in Copenhagen as we were looking forward to paying a visit to Hans Christian Andersen whose children’s stories like, ‘The Ugly Duckling’ and ‘The Little Mermaid’ (whose statue in Copenhagen is a major tourist attraction) accompanied us as we were... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 7.1 The Netherlands – Amsterdam

Under normal circumstances, the train journey from Paris to Amsterdam should take roughly 4 hours. However, upon realizing that we would need to top up an additional 40 Euros or so each for reservation despite having Eurail passes, we decided to opt for slow local trains instead. See, the problem with the Eurail pass is that some countries in Europe made reservation a compulsory even though the first class carriage is often quite empty but still you... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 6.2 France – Paris Disneyland~!

“To Infinity…and Beyond!” I’m sure many of you would have heard that phrase from Tim Allen’s character Buzz Lightyear in Disney’s Toy Story, but in french? Oui Oui… We took the 40 mins Suburban train ride to reach the town of Marne-la-Vallée where Paris Disneyland is located. Along the way we could see many families carrying all sorts of disney merchandise and one family of 4 (dad, mom, son and daughter)... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 4.2 Italy – Florence

Some of you might ask why are we going back to Florence again when we had just been there 4 months ago? Well the reasons being we really love and miss the city lots and since we are already in Italy, might as well just make use of our rail pass and head back there again. We also wanted to see how Florence would look like in summer, buzzing with so many tourists. Being there the 2nd time, you really get to appreciate the city more as most of the attractions... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 3.1 Southern France – Montpellier

About 4.5 hrs train ride away from Barcelona, Montpellier is the 8th biggest city in France. Our main purpose of a stop-over here was to meet up with Yee’s cousin and also to use the city as a base to make day trips to the other cities in the Provence region like Marseille and Avignon. Our impression of the city (based on conversations made with Yee’s cousin before we arrived) is its a city for students rather than a tourist place though... Read More

Railing thru Europe: Stop 2.2 Spain – Barcelona

Barcelona, a city hosting some of the world’s  most famous and unique architecture is just about 2-3 hours away by train from Madrid; even though it takes a longer traveling time, we chose to take the night train instead so that we can spend a little more time in Madrid and also to save on accommodation. We would also be able to reach Barcelona early in the morning and gain an extra few hours for sightseeing. Finally reach Barcelona Sants... Read More