Railway Jaunts, Ongoing

I decided that I needed a page to keep track of my expanding catalog of European train journeys - and for brevity I'm going the limit the list to travels since 2013 (with a few exceptions) which were essentially flight-free.

1980    First taste of independent international travel - to Paris, mostly by train

1981    Interrail - Alps (Chamonix, Grindelwald, Toblach, Zermatt, Vienna)

1982    Interrail - Italy (Venice, Ravenna, Sienna, Taormina)

1995    Brussels - Royal Microscopical Society (First trip through the tunnel)

                (Oxford - London - Brussels - London - Oxford)

2012    Scandinavia (Stockholm - Oslo - Bergen and Narvik - Copenhagen by train)

            (Oxford - London - Stockholm - Oslo - Bergen - Hurtigruten - Svolvaer -
                                Narvik - Copenhagen - Torshavn - Copenhagen - London - Oxford)

2013    Switzerland - Re-imagining of an early Thomas Cook tour, but with added Eurostar 

            Oxford - London - Paris - Geneva - Leukerbad - Kandersteg -
                                Wengen - Grindelwald - Lucerne - Basel - Paris - London - Oxford

2013    Brussels - Arctic Futures Symposium

            Oxford - London - Brussels - London - Oxford

2014    Norway (Oslo - Trondheim - Bodo, by train)

            Oxford - London - Oslo - Trondheim - Bodo - Svolvaer - A - Svolvaer -
                                Bodo - Oslo - London - Oxford

2014    Brussels - Arctic Futures Symposium

            Oxford - London - Brussels - London - Oxford

2016    Achensee

            Oxford - London - Brussels - Frankfurt - Salzburg - Pertisau - Salzburg -
                            Frankfurt - Brussels - London - Oxford

2020    Achensee & Innsbruck    (flying via Innsbruck) 

           Our last (pre-lockdown) international travel for several years.

2023    Lake Iseo & Boario Terme (International travel restarts thanks to Parkinson's Disease)

            Oxford - London - Paris - Turin - Milan - Brescia - Clusane - Iseo - Sulzano -
                                Boario - Milan - Zurich - Paris - London - Oxford

2023    Boario Terme & Val Senales

            Oxford - London - Paris - Zurich - Milan - Brescia - Boario - Certosa -
                                        Verona - Turin - Nice - Paris - London - Oxford

2024    Boario Terme (just 1 week)

            Oxford - London - Paris - Zurich - Milan - Brescia - Boario - Brescia -
                                    Milan - Zurich - Paris - London - Oxford

2024    Norway (train & Hurtigruten & bus)

            Oxford - London - Harwich - Hook of Holland - Amsterdam - Hamburg - Kiel -
                            Oslo - Bergen - Hurtigruten - Kirkeness - Alta - Narvik - Bodo -
                                        Mo i Rana - Trondheim - Oslo - Gothenburg - Hamburg -
                                                Brussels - London - Oxford

2024    Boario Terme & Val Gardena & Stubai Tal

            Oxford - London - Paris - Turin - Brescia - Boario - Brescia - Val Gardena -
                            Innsbruck - Zurich - Paris - London - Oxford

2025    Boario Terme (2 weeks)

            Oxford - London - Paris - Turin - Brescia - Boario - Brescia -
                            Turin - Paris - London - Oxford

2025    Boario Terme & Achensee

            Oxford - London - Paris - Turin - Brescia - Boario - Brescia -
                              Verona - Bolzano - Innsbruck - Pertisau - Innsbruck -
                                            Zurich - Paris - London - Oxford

2026    Boario Terme & Bergamo

           Oxford - London - Paris - Nice - Turin - Milan - Brescia - Boario - 
                                Brescia - Bergamo - Milan - Turin - Paris - London - Oxford

2026    Boario Terme & Sicily & Malta

            Oxford - London - Paris - Zurich - Lugano - Milan - Turin - Milan - Brescia -
                    Boario - Brescia - Milan - Turin - Naples - Taormina - Pozzallo - Valletta -
                            Pozzallo - Siracusa - Milan - Basel - Strasbourg - Paris - London - Oxford

Monthly Report, October 2026

I've been travelling.

Trains on Tracks (Val Camonica)

Trains on Boats (Strait of Messina)

I left Oxford on the Oxford Tube on 1st October and got back on the 31st October (also on the Oxford Tube), having travelled on four buses, four boats, six taxis and 29 trains.

Numbers

Reporting Days: 31

Locations: Italy and Malta

Distance Walked: 269 km

Distance Trained: 5179 km

Distance Driven: 0

Days including a train ride: 16

Part One: Back in Boario

Always good to be back in Boario to spend quality time with the folks at REGEN.  This visit was similar to most of the previous ones - lots of gym time with support from a personal trainer, and lots of time doing exercises to improve my posture and gait - including boxing, nordic walking and Power Moves too.

Brief stop in Turin en route to Boario

Liberty Dome in Boario Terme Park

Old Montecchio Bridge

Pisogne, Lake Iseo

Part Two: South to Sicily

We often add a bit of pure holiday time to the REGEN visits, this time adding on a few days in Sicily (travelling all the way south by train). 

 

Taormina

Smoking, Mount Etna

Greek Theatre

Part Three: Malta

And having come all the way to the southern tip of Italy, why not pop across to see Malta too (to add another European country to the 'visited' list).

Valletta Waterfront

Grand Harbour

Valletta Skyline

Turrets & Forts, Valletta & The Three Cities

Part Four: Back North

Siracusa - Milan - Basel - Strasbourg - Paris - London - Oxford.

Having travelled south slowly, we headed back by a rather more direct route.

Archimedes in Siracusa

Duomo in Turin

Logistics

This trip was a little bit more complex than some of the railway jaunts that I've done recently so I decided to ask Tailor Made Rail to lend a hand.  

It was my first Interrail jaunt since Summer 1982 - back in the 1980s most of the trains, except for couchettes, didn't need pre-booking you could just turn up and travel (as far as I can recall) - nowadays most of the long haul trains need to be reserved.

The itinerary this time between London and northern Italy was essentially the usual 'London - Paris - Turin' option (which is more often than not subject to variation).  This time the closure (for maintenance) of the Frejus rail tunnel meant that we needed to go to Turin via Zurich, Lugano and Milan.

REGEN is in Boario Terme in the Val Camonica, which is easy to get to by train from Turin (changing at Milan and at Brescia).

The journey south from Turin to Taormina in Sicily was by day-trains (with an overnight hotel stop in Naples) and the return north was a direct (18 hour) sleeper from Catania to Milan.  I remembered (from 1982) that the trains between mainland Italy and Sicily went onto a special train-boat, and I guess that I just assumed that either a bridge or a tunnel would have been built at some point in the last 44 years. I was rather pleased to find that the bridge plan hasn't yet come to pass, so the trains still get shunted onto the boat for the 45 minute crossing.

The onward travel to and from Malta was by train (and bus, and taxi) to the port of Pozzallo on Sicily and into the Grand Harbour in Valletta by high-speed catamaran.

Next month

Not so much train travel...

Monthly Report, September 2026

 A southern month - based in Oxford but with days out in London and a weekend trip to Bristol.

Numbers

Reporting Days: 30

Locations: Oxford, London, Bristol

Distance Walked: 290 km

Distance Driven: 42 km

Days including a walk in Bury Knowle Park: 20

In Oxford

Lots of folks come to Oxford as tourists, so it's a fun challenge to try and take pictures without (many) people in them.  That means quite a lot of early walks and, sometimes, careful framing.

And, perhaps inevitably these days, Oxford time means catching up with the NHS and various medical-related research projects that I've signed up for.

Radcliffe Camera

Giant lilies in the Oxford Botanics

Signs of autumn in Bury Knowle Park

Aslan in Bury Knowle Park

Life & Mind Building

In London

The proximity of London and the ease of catching the Oxford Tube (the coach service between Oxford and London) means that I wind up going into London most weeks - sometimes as a tourist, other time just to hang out in the bookshops and coffee shops.

St Paul's and the River

Kew Gardens

London Victoria

In Bristol

It's been a while since we last stayed in Bristol, so a birthday seemed like a good excuse to do that.  One day spent around the docks, the other around some of bits of Bristol Museum.  The conclusion is that we should spend a bit more time in and around Bristol!

Next month

Travelling. Mostly by train. Regular (usually daily) updates on Instagram and BlueSky.

Monthly Report, August 2026

A month in two parts.  With the puffins at Sumburgh Head, then around Oxford and London. 

Puffling (and Puffin) at Sumburgh Head, Shetland

Numbers

Reporting Days: 31

Locations: Shetland, Oxford, London

Distance Walked: 272 km

Distance Driven: 1020 km

Days including a visit with the puffins at Sumburgh Head (Shetland): 8

Days including a walk in Bury Knowle Park (Oxford): 14

In the North

The puffins were ever-present while I was still watching the Sumburgh cliffs.  In early August the breeding puffins (and their offspring) start to leave the cliffs, leaving the non-breeding puffins to get up to what can only be thought of as teenage-antics.  And this involves a lot of sitting around on the cliff tops (and posing for pictures).

From the photographers perspective, it seems as if the puffins have had a reasonable year - last year (when I did spend a lot of time on the cliffs) I saw very few pufflings.  This year I've seen (and photographed) a lot of pufflings.  

Drawing any conclusions from a single data point is always a bit dubious but it's been good to see lots of pufflings this year. 

Watching Puffin, Sumburgh Head

Being watched by a Puffin, Sumburgh Head

Beak Down, Sumburgh Head

At the Burrow, Sumburgh Head

Three's A Crowd, Sumburgh Head

Staring Out To Sea, Sumburgh Head

In the South

It's always a shock being back in Oxford - traffic, people, trees, and this year the parched earth!

Oxford doesn't have the wild spaces that I spend time in on Shetland - but it is good to have Bury Knowle Park for morning walks and both the Botanic Garden and Christ Church Meadow nearby.

And easy trips to London too.

Bury Knowle Parched, Oxford

Not Much Green Grass, Bury Knowle Park, Oxford

Punts at Magdalen Bridge, Oxford

 Oxford Botanic Garden & Magdalen Tower

By the River Thames in London

'Erasing to Create' Emilio Isgrò exhibition
at the Estorick Collection, London

Jubilee Bridge, Christ Church Meadow, Oxford

Next Month

Mostly more Oxford.