With our base in Dresden providing good connections across Saxony and into Czechia, we had decided to have a daytrip to another city partway through our stay. As such, on our third full day in Dresden, rather than jump on a tram from the Haupbahnhof into the city centre, we headed up to the high level through platforms ready to jump on a service to Prague. This journey would be with České dráhy on one of their Eurocity ‘Berliner’ services which, as the name suggests connects the Czech and German capitals via Dresden.

After a day exploring the Dutch city of Rotterdam, it was time to continue our journey east to Germany and our final destination of Dresden. However, before we could head east, we needed to head south as I had made a slight error when booking our tickets. So, after a quick journey with Nederland Spoorwegen, we were at Roosendaal and ready to start the next leg of our journey, an overnight trip on the European Sleeper.

The middle of August saw another trip to Scotland for work, however this time our weekend plans meant the trip started from the Midlands, giving me the opportunity to take a different route north. Burton’s location on CrossCountry’s Southwest-Northeast corridor meant I had a choice of heading north via Leeds to the ECML and then up to Edinburgh, or head southwest to Birmingham and travel along my less used route of the West Coast Mainline (WCML). Of course, one option also had the significant downside of a long-distance journey onboard a CrossCountry Voyager and so this blog starts with me arriving at Birmingham New Street ready to start a journey north with Avanti West Coast.

Back in July I was once again up in Scotland for work, although this time I had a free day in the middle of my visit and so decided to head up to my favourite spot in the Highlands for the day, Corrour. Wanting to make the most of my time and also try out a slightly different way of getting along the West Highland Line, my day started at the unreasonable hour of 0530 as I made my way to Glasgow Queen Street to catch the Fort William portion of the Caledonian Sleeper.

My arrival into Brussels from Düsseldorf marked the start of the last leg of my brief adventure into Germany. All that was now left was the journey back across Belgium, the top corner of France and under the Channel to London, a journey that can only be made with Eurostar. As with the leg from Düsseldorf to Brussels, I’d decided to upgrade on this two-hour leg and would be travelling in Standard Premier between the Belgian and British capitals.