I may have covered some of this in earlier posts, but as we get to the end of the trip, these are the main things I think we’ve learned.
- This kind of trip is awesome. Stay a few days somewhere and move on means you’re never too upset by anything, and you never get bored. We’ll definitely do more multi-stop train-based holidays.
- Not sure interrail pass is great value IF you book things far in advance.
- Get seat reservations if you possibly can (which for sleeper trains and the Baltics may involve emails, not just”add to basket”). We had a couple of cases where we can’t imagine what it would have been like without reserved seats having 2 young kids.
- Food is tricky with the kids. We did pretty well, juggling restaurants with picnics, as real home cooking wasn’t practical. Given most restaurants, most cities, are shit for choice for kids menus, it’s not simple. Asian (especially Japanese) works well for our kids, to have a change from pizza, burger, chips, chicken nuggets. 😐
- There were few trains with full table seats. So my vision of playing lots of card games didn’t pan out more than a couple of times.
- Most trains had at-seat power, but there were exceptions – Valga-Riga, Ljubljana-Zagreb and Zagreb-Split.
- Tap water was great everywhere (especially Vienna).
- We had never considered attending a concert overseas – we’d looked at Taylor Swift tickets for Wembley, but hadn’t got in on the ballot and £1000+ per ticket is just not going to happen. We met a couple travelling to Stockholm from Canada for Bruce Springsteen, mainly as it was more cost-effective. I think the same would have been true going to Swift in Munich. Of course, this thinking came before the Southport stabbings and apparent terrorist plot in Vienna which are forcing various calculations for Swift fans. 😟 But we’ll still consider it in future.
We were incredibly lucky with logistics, weather, not losing stuff, not getting ill. Of the mishaps, really there were just:
- few trains delayed, 2 trains started from alternate stations (Tallinn and Copenhagen)
- one apartment wasn’t the one we’d booked (Riga)
- Warsaw jam explosion
- My throwing away a cappuccino in Riga that Aurélie hadn’t finished yet
- My wallet slipping out on the bus back from the salt mine in Krakow, and on the bus from Bled. Dangerous shorts. One I noticed (and jumped back on the coach sharpish!), the second a helpful chap saw before I did.
- Booking the wrong Bratislava station for the train from Vienna…coupled with my Uber not working.
- Some damp clothes antics due to impatience, a bad dryer, or in one case, because the clothes were on hangers in a wardrobe… which was then closed by someone trying to be helpful…
So really nothing significant. And I the positive side, we have loads:
- Very effective planning
- My old Pixel 5 was amazingly useful for the girls for Spotify and Netflix during journeys.
- We all had eyemasks and were happy to use them.
- The Kipsta bags from Decathlon were fantastic! Coupled with the packing cubes, this was easier than I thought it could be.
- A phone stand would have been handy on some trips for the girls to watch TV. We always found a way to wedge it though.
In terms of activities, one teensy regret from me is not going to the Kunsthalle in Hamburg – I’d considered it for me/all of us, but I hadn’t realised Caspar David Friedrich’s Traveller was there, which I wouldn’t mind seeing. But no big deal – I can go another time!
Oh, and whilst planning Aurélie’s birthday lunch, I saw Bratislava sometimes has brunch cruises… unfortunately not every weekend. Looks good though, and we liked Bratislava.
I need to add a couple more posts – one on the apps that were essential to the trip, and of course the all important round-up of which were our favourite cities! Stay tuned.
Timsformational 