Training through Europe

Been spending a lot of time looking at train options for our trip.

We have 3 main train components in our plans. The first is from London to Paris. Second is Paris to Berne and lastly the train journeys through Switzerland.

The rail networks throughout Europe are quite extensive [for example, here is Switzerland's] and very well run and maintained. They also compare very favourably to air travel. A vast difference to the Australian rail network which is abysmal by comparison. Once you start looking at train options, there is a wealth of information of varying usefulness out there. Many sites are just fronts for travel agents or ticket agencies and don't give to a lot of pricing information unless you go through their booking process.

The official rail websites for France and Switzerland [www.sbb.ch] on the other hand were very useful for getting timetable and ticket price information. The Swiss one in particular was extremely good. Give it your starting point and your destination and it will tell you all the connecting journeys required as well as produce a map of your journey. Very useful but a little dry on useful details on the best options.

By far the best site I found was an independent site called The Man in Seat 61 [www.seat61.com]. Started as a hobby this site is amazingly full of detail. He discusses the best options for travelling by train, including when and how to buy your tickets, details of what you will see on each train journey, photos of the trains, inside the trains and the stations, when and where to change trains, whether to get a rail pass or not, seat maps on some services and details of the food and other services available. Full of links to the various official train sites and ticketing agents. I used this site extensively to get up to speed with the options available to us and recommend it as a first point to visit for anything to do with train travel in Europe.

Itinerary Version 5

Some more tweaks to our itinerary. We have added an extra day in London and we have decided to stay in Paris for a week rather than just 3 days. The plan is to do day tours from Paris to other parts of France rather than try and move around too much.

Itinerary v5

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Apr 11	Apr 12	Apr 13	Apr 14	Apr 15	Apr 16	Apr 17
		Sydney	Fly	Fly/ Dublin	Dublin	Wicklow Area
Apr 18	Apr 19	Apr 20	Apr 21	Apr 22	Apr 23	Apr 24
Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Cork Area
Apr 25	Apr 26	Apr 27	Apr 28	Apr 29	Apr 30	May 01
Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Galway Area
May 02	May 03	May 04	May 05	May 06	May 07	May 08
Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Northern Ireland
May 09	May 10	May 11	May 12	May 13	May 14	May 15
Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Dublin
May 16	May 17	May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 22
Dublin	Ferry/ Train/ London	London	London	London	London	Train/ Paris
May 23	May 24	May 25	May 26	May 27	May 28	May 29
Paris	Paris	Paris	Paris	Paris	Paris	Train/ Bern
May 30	May 31	Jun 01	Jun 02	Jun 03	Jun 04	Jun 05
Bern	Train/ Wengen	Wengen	Train/ Zermatt	Zermatt	Train/ Luzern	Luzern
Jun 06	Jun 07	Jun 08	Jun 09	Jun 10	Jun 11	Jun 12
Train/ Zurich	Zurich	Zurich	Fly/ Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Fly
Jun 13	Jun 14	Jun 15	Jun 16	Jun 17	Jun 18	Jun 19
Sydney

Ireland Accomodation Sorted

Well, stage one of the trip planning is done. We have sorted out our accommodation in Ireland.

Here's the rundown....

Dublin
15th April-17th April
We will be arriving in Dublin from Zurich at 10:35 am on 15th April. We will be staying at Egans Guesthouse in the suburb of Glasnevin. Egans Guesthouse is a 3 star B&B, just 15 mins walk north of Dublin City and comes fairly highly recommended by Tripadvisor.com as well as many other travel sites. In many respects, its just a place for us to catch our breath after our 3 leg flight from Australia. We are only spending two nights here as most cottage rentals start on Saturday.

Wicklow Area
17th April-24th April
First stop after Dublin will be in Cottage No 2 in Avoca, County Wicklow. This cottage is located in the scenic valley of Avonbeg River, close to the Meeting of the Waters and the Vale of Avoca (location of Ballykissangel). Its apparently a very scenic area close to the Wicklow Mountains and Glendalough. This will be our base for a week, while we tour the areas in and around Counties Wicklow, Carlow, Waterford, Wexford and Kilkenny.

Cork Area
24th April-1st May
Next stop will be Mill House Cottage at CastleOliver Farm located between Cork and Limerick.
According to their website, Mill House Cottage is "a charming, enchanting and beautifully restored 17th Century Cottage, set in a very scenic location with panoramic views of the Ballyhoura mountains. It offers a very safe environment and an exceptionally comfortable and excellent touring base for exploring Killarney, Kerry, Waterford, Tipperary and the South and West of Ireland." Which is everything that we are planning on using it for.

Galway Area
1st May-8th May
From CastleOliver Farm, we will be moving on to Cottage 206 in Craughwell, County Galway. Located in a quiet farming village and surrounded by meadows yet only 14 miles from the centre of Galway City. 2 miles from the village of Craughwell, and close to the Dunkellin River, 6 miles from the sea and only 15 miles from The Burren in Co. Clare. This will be a perfect base for us to explore the West Coast of Ireland.

Northern Ireland
8th May-15th May
After Galway and the wilds of the West Coast, we will be moving onto the "wilds" of Northern Ireland. Our base here will be Stable Court just outside of Antrim on the shores of Lough Neagh. Stable Court’s close proximity to the main arterial routes provides easy access to Belfast and Northern Ireland’s major attractions, such as the famous North Antrim Coast and the Giant’s Causeway as well as the Midlands north of Dublin city.

Dublin
15th May-17th May
We will return to Dublin from Antrim on 15th May. Once again, we will be staying at Egans Guesthouse. It will be somewhere familiar for us to re-gather our strength after our 4 weeks in Ireland before we embark on the next stage of our trip to London and beyond to mainland Europe.

For those with Google Earth, here is a KML file showing details of where the cottages are located.

Itinerary version 4

Some more minor tweaks to our itinerary. The split between Northern Ireland and the Midlands area has gone and has been replaced by a full week in Northern Ireland. We have dropped the time in Dublin the second time around to two nights only. This gives us an extra night in London. We have also decided to catch the ferry from Dublin to Holyhead and then travel by train to London. This will give us a chance to save a little money and see a little bit of Wales and England, albeit from the inside of a train.

Itinerary v4

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Apr 11	Apr 12	Apr 13	Apr 14	Apr 15	Apr 16	Apr 17
		Sydney	Fly	Fly/ Dublin	Dublin	Wicklow Area
Apr 18	Apr 19	Apr 20	Apr 21	Apr 22	Apr 23	Apr 24
Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Cork Area
Apr 25	Apr 26	Apr 27	Apr 28	Apr 29	Apr 30	May 01
Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Galway Area
May 02	May 03	May 04	May 05	May 06	May 07	May 08
Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Northern Ireland
May 09	May 10	May 11	May 12	May 13	May 14	May 15
Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Dublin
May 16	May 17	May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 22
Dublin	Ferry/ Train/ London	London	London	London	Train/ Paris	Paris
May 23	May 24	May 25	May 26	May 27	May 28	May 29
Paris	Paris	"France"	"France"	"France"	"France"	Bern
May 30	May 31	Jun 01	Jun 02	Jun 03	Jun 04	Jun 05
Bern	Train/ Wengen	Wengen	Train/ Zermatt	Zermatt	Train/ Luzern	Luzern
Jun 06	Jun 07	Jun 08	Jun 09	Jun 10	Jun 11	Jun 12
Train/ Zurich	Zurich	Zurich	Fly/ Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Fly
Jun 13	Jun 14	Jun 15	Jun 16	Jun 17	Jun 18	Jun 19
Sydney

Flights Booked

Well, today we made our first major step ... we have booked our flights.

Our flights are as follows.

Flight	Departure	Origin	Destination	Arrival
QF 87	14Apr 14:20	Sydney	Hong Kong	14Apr 21:55
LX 139	14Apr 23:15	Hong Kong	Zurich	15Apr 06:10
LX 400	15Apr 09:20	Zurich	Dublin	15Apr 10:35
LX 138	09Jun 22:45	Zurich	Hong Kong	09Jun 16:40
QF 128	12Jun 21:10	Hong Kong	Sydney	13Jun 07:55

The Swiss Air Zurich-Dublin flight is a free "sidetrip" special offer. We are only taking advantage of the outward leg of this "sidetrip". The return leg between Dublin and Zurich will be overland via ferry and train. [Though this may yet change to a flight]

The observant of you who are reading this [you are reading this aren't you?] will realise that this changes our itinerary a little.

Itinerary v3

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Apr 11	Apr 12	Apr 13	Apr 14	Apr 15	Apr 16	Apr 17
		Sydney	Fly	Fly/ Dublin	Dublin	Wicklow Area
Apr 18	Apr 19	Apr 20	Apr 21	Apr 22	Apr 23	Apr 24
Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Cork Area
Apr 25	Apr 26	Apr 27	Apr 28	Apr 29	Apr 30	May 01
Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Galway Area
May 02	May 03	May 04	May 05	May 06	May 07	May 08
Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Northern Ireland
May 09	May 10	May 11	May 12	May 13	May 14	May 15
Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Midlands Area	Midlands Area	Midlands Area
May 16	May 17	May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 22
Dublin	Dublin	Ferry/ Train/ London	London	London	Train/ Paris	Paris
May 23	May 24	May 25	May 26	May 27	May 28	May 29
Paris	Paris	"France"	"France"	"France"	"France"	Bern
May 30	May 31	Jun 01	Jun 02	Jun 03	Jun 04	Jun 05
Bern	Train/ Wengen	Wengen	Train/ Zermatt	Zermatt	Train/ Luzern	Luzern
Jun 06	Jun 07	Jun 08	Jun 09	Jun 10	Jun 11	Jun 12
Train/ Zurich	Zurich	Zurich	Fly/ Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Hong Kong	Fly
Jun 13	Jun 14	Jun 15	Jun 16	Jun 17	Jun 18	Jun 19
Sydney

Second Draft Itinerary

Well, first snag encountered. Most cottages in Ireland are rented on a Saturday to Saturday basis. So we have moved the Irish leg of the itinerary around a little to cater for this. We have also added an extra night in Paris.

Draft Itinerary

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Apr 11	Apr 12	Apr 13	Apr 14	Apr 15	Apr 16	Apr 17
		Sydney	Fly	Fly/ London	Dublin	Wicklow Area
Apr 18	Apr 19	Apr 20	Apr 21	Apr 22	Apr 23	Apr 24
Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Wicklow Area	Cork Area
Apr 25	Apr 26	Apr 27	Apr 28	Apr 29	Apr 30	May 01
Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Cork Area	Galway Area
May 02	May 03	May 04	May 05	May 06	May 07	May 08
Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Galway Area	Northern Ireland
May 09	May 10	May 11	May 12	May 13	May 14	May 15
Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Northern Ireland	Midlands Area	Midlands Area	Midlands Area
May 16	May 17	May 18	May 19	May 20	May 21	May 22
Dublin	Dublin	London	London	London	Paris	Paris
May 23	May 24	May 25	May 26	May 27	May 28	May 29
Paris	Paris	"France"	"France"	"France"	"France"	Bern
May 30	May 31	Jun 01	Jun 02	Jun 03	Jun 04	Jun 05
Bern	Bern/ Wengen	Wengen	Wengen/ Zermatt	Zermatt	Zermatt/ Luzern	Luzern
Jun 06	Jun 07	Jun 08	Jun 09	Jun 10	Jun 11	Jun 12
Luzern/ Zurich	Zurich	Zurich	Fly	Fly/ Sydney

Accomodation options

During our trip we plan on using a number of 'bases' that we can treat as home for a week.

In Ireland, we are looking at renting cottages for a week at a time, one in each area. For example, here is one place we are looking at.

Living in cottages has the advantage of being self catering, gives us a touring base that we can do day trips from and allows us to relax in our own 'home' each night. Most surprising is the cost — to rent a cottage is roughly the same or less than using B&Bs or hotels. We were expecting it to be higher, given that many are advertised as 'luxury' cottages.

In Paris, we are looking at renting an apartment for the time we are there. There is a myriad of choices of these ranging widely in price and facilities. But they appear to be much cheaper than hotels and give us the option of self catering.

The only places where we won't be using this type of accommodation is London, Dublin and throughout Switzerland [which is another story in itself].