After a great, but too short, time exploring Nantes, I was up early to make my way to the station ready to catch a train back to La Rochelle. Having booked a specific train in advance, the fares were reasonable and so I decided to spend a few euros extra and try out first-class onboard SNCF’s Intercités product.

Having arrived in La Rochelle on a Ryanair flight from Stansted, I spent a couple of hours having a late breakfast and wandering around the port before making the short walk to the town’s stunning Gare de La Rochelle Ville.

With a week off work that should have involved almost a dozen trains having turned into a week off work with none, I decided to make the most of my evening alone in Manchester and make the quick run up to Preston and back to tick off some stations and compare the operators running on the route, Northern and Trans Pennine Express (TPE).

After a packed stay in Bratislava, it was time to head back to Hlavna station to start the final leg of my trip. Heading to Prague for the final couple of nights of the trip, this leg was starting with a four-and-a-half-hour journey across Slovakia and Czechia onboard the Hungaria.

After less than 36 hours in the Hungarian capital and a day of aviation geekery that didn’t quite go to plan, I was back at Nyugati station ready to take the second international train of the trip, the Metropolitan from Budapest to Bratislava in 2nd class.

Having arrived into Prague on a Lufthansa Cityline flight from Munich (read about that here), I had intended to make my way into the city using the AE100 bus direct to Hlavní station, however somehow ended up getting on one of the local buses and heading into the city via Veleslavín and a local train to Masarykovo station.