Paris Gare de L’Est to Stuttgart – SNCF/DB in 1st Class

Having started my Meander to Moldova with a Eurostar service southward from London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord, it was time to begin heading east. The next leg of my trip, a 3 hour 20-minute TGV journey, would take me from the French capital to Stuttgart, my first overnight stop where I’d spend around 27 hours before continuing onwards towards Moldova. And so, having made the easy 5-minute walk from Gare du Nord to Gare de L’Est, I arrived at the latter around 35 minutes before my train was due to depart.

London St Pancras to Paris Gare du Nord – Eurostar in Eurostar Plus

With the Christmas and New Year festivities having come to an end, the start of January saw me preparing for my first trip of 2026 and, in keeping with tradition, this one was a proper adventure. For previous January trips I had ticked off (Not Quite) All the Small Things and Snoozed my way to Split, so my 2026 trip needed to be as much of an adventure if not more than the trips that had come before. So, for this January trip, I would be Meandering to Moldova, via France; Germany; Austria; Hungary; and Romania with the trip, as always, starting at London’s St Pancras International.

Munich to London Heathrow – British Airways in Euro Traveller

Having enjoyed a great long weekend exploring Munich and its multitude of Christmas markets, it was time to head home. Our return flight was back to London Heathrow, once again with British Airways (BA) in Euro Traveller and so after a 40–45-minute S-bahn ride from the city centre, we headed towards the BA check-in. We’d got to Terminal 1 just over two hours before our flight, around 1345, and I was glad we had as it was quite a walk from the S-bahn station to the check-in and bag drop in zone A, before then heading back to security in zone B.

Munich – The City with a Heart – Part 2

This blog covers the second half of our time staying in Munich back in November 2025. Part 1 ended with us having spent the morning of day two enjoying a couple of the City Sightseeing bus tours and so part 2 starts with us heading to find some lunch. Our destination had been somewhere we had spotted whilst on the Schwabing bus tour, the Park Café in Munich’s Old Botanical Gardens, which was about a five-minute walk from where the bus tours start and finish outside the Hauptbahnhof.

Munich – The City with a Heart – Part 1

Having arrived in Munich late the night before, it was nice to be able to wake up in the city rather than at an airport hotel ready for an early flight. The first thing on our plan for our stay was to join a free walking tour, as these are a great way to see the sights and learn some of a city’s history. And so, after a bit of a lie in, we made the 15-minute walk into the city centre to Marienplatz to find some breakfast and join the tour we had booked.

London Heathrow to Munich – British Airways in Euro Traveller

The end of November 2025 saw us having a weekend away to visit one of the European Christmas Markets and so, after much deliberation earlier in the year, we had booked return flights from Heathrow to Munich with British Airways. Wanting to maximise our time in the German city, we had booked an evening flight and so, after Beth had finished work for the day, we met in the check-in area of Heathrow Terminal 5. Unfortunately, the journey didn’t start as smoothly as I had hoped, mainly through my own error.