Bonus Blog – Coming Up in 2026

With us coming to the end of the seventh week of 2026, I’ve already got two trips under my belt and 2026 is going to be another year of travel and exploring for me. Of course, if you follow me on social media (check out my Threads, Insta and Facebook if not!) you’ll have seen my Meander to Moldova back at the start of January and my daytrip to Paris last week. Those trips are just the beginning though and by the end of the 2026 I’ll have visited at least 11 countries this year and have passed the 40-country mark in my total countries visit. This bonus blog is to give you a bit of an idea of what’s coming up in 2026 and what to look out for on my socials and on the blog.

Hamburg – Tor Zu Welt (Gateway to the World)

Hamburg is one of my favourite cities in Europe and so when I had the opportunity to visit it again as a day trip during our holiday in Germany back in September, I wasn’t going to turn it down. Whilst I arrived in the city pretty much on time onboard a DB ICE service from Hannover Messe, the timings didn’t realistically work for me to make it over to the Rathaus in time for an 1100 walking tour. However, there’s still plenty to see and do in the city and so I started my day by heading outside and jumping on one of the sightseeing bus tours.

Hannover Messe to Hamburg – Deutsche Bahn ICE in 1st Class

With just a few days left in Germany before we began our journey home, I had decided to have a solo day trip whilst the rest of the group had decided to visit the town of Wolfenbüttel. With our base in Hildesheim being less than a couple of hours by train from one of my favourite cities, it felt only right that I headed there for the day and so I set off from Hildesheim to begin my journey to Hamburg. Unfortunately, whilst Hildesheim is on the east-west Berlin to Hannover high-speed line, services to Hamburg generally run along the north-south lune and so I would have to change trains at Hannover.

Wernigerode & Braunschweig – Exploring Some More of Lower Saxony & Saxony-Anhalt

Our base for the second half of our holiday in Germany was the Lower Saxony town of Hildesheim and whilst the town had a good bit of history and culture of its own to explore, its location also provided a great opportunity for some easy day trips elsewhere. One day, whilst I headed off to Hamburg (read about that in a couple of weeks), the rest of the group headed to the town of Wolfenbüttle which is known for having the largest collection of timber framed buildings in Germany and is somewhere I’d like to check out in future based on their reviews. However, we also did two day trips as a full group, one to the nearby city of Baunschweig and another to the town of Wernigerode in neighbouring Saxony-Anhalt.

Hildesheim – The Town With a 1,000 Year Old Rosebush

Having travelled from Dresden via Berlin by way of DB Intercity and ICE services, the Lower-Saxony town of Hildesheim was our base for the second part of our holiday. Located to the south-east of Hannover, Hildesheim was founded more than 1200 years ago, however, was unfortunately heavily bombed during the closing months of World War 2 with much of the city being destroyed. Following the end of the war, the city was rebuilt, with key buildings being restored to their historical conditional and as a result Hildesheim has been home to a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1985.

BER-HIL DB ICE – 1st Class

Our arrival into Berlin Haupbahnhof (Hbf) had been by way of a slightly delayed DB Intercity service which had dropped us off in the depths of the station’s low-level platforms. For the second leg of the journey, we’d be travelling on a DB Intercity Express (ICE) service from Berlin to Hildesheim, the town in Lower Saxony that would be our base for the second half of our holiday. So, with around 45 minutes until our next train was scheduled to depart we made our way upstairs to the entry level of the five-tier station ready to get on with the second part of our travel day.