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