After an afternoon exploring the Belgian capital, I headed back to Brussels Midi/Zuid station with plenty of time to collect my back, grab a waffle and an overnight picnic from some of the shops in the station and get my self ready for a journey with Europe’s newest Sleeper operator. From Brussels I was travelling with European Sleeper to Berlin
Back at the start of January it was time for my annual ‘big’ trip and this year I’d named it ‘Snoozing to Split’ as the majority of my travel would be onboard some of Europe’s night trains. However, despite some undelivered ambitions in the 1980s as the Channel Tunnel was being constructed, there are no night trains between the UK and Europe. As such my trip started as many do, with a train to Kings Cross and then a walk across the road to the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras International.
Having spent the morning and early part of the afternoon exploring the city of Geneva, the weather had turned and my own decision paralysis led me to falling back on a safe bet, the railway! With Geneva being at the western end of the Swiss rail network, the city is served by a mix of both ‘InterCity’ and ‘InterRegio’ services and I decided a run along Lac Léman and back to compare them both was required.
Having had a few days in Glasgow for work it was time to head home. After my disastrous journey north via the West Coast Mainline, I had decided to travel home via my more traditional route of LNER and the East Coast Mainline (ECML) but with a slight difference as I was getting the only direct train from Glasgow to Peterborough.
Having made most of my trips to Scotland via the East Coast Mainline during 2023, a work trip in September provided the opportunity to try out a different route and see what Avanti West Coast (AWC) was offering via the West Coast Mainline. Having headed down to London on a Thameslink service, I made the short walk through the back streets from St Pancras to Euston, arriving around half an hour before my 1130 departure was scheduled to leave.
Having arrived in Paris the day before on a TGV from La Rochelle, we’d spent the evening and morning exploring the city of lights a bit more before heading to Gare du Nord ready to start the final leg of our journey home. Just a few weeks before the Thalys brand disappeared, our journey from Paris to London St Pancras was with the original Eurostar onboard one of their newer class 374 e320 trains.
Flights & Times 