Travel Stuff
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North to South – Marseille to Barcelona
It had been almost two weeks since I set out for Bodø in Norway, and today was the final leg of the trip – some 521 kilometres from Marseille to Barcelona. Cross-border rail services between France and Spain are frequent, but booking a ticket can sometimes prove to be a challenge if that service is…
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North to South – Basel to Marseille
Basel, in Switzerland, is well connected to many places, but in some cases getting out involves hopping over a border. Today’s 750 kilometre journey meant a short 30-minute journey to Mulhouse in France, before continuing to Marseille on the TGV InOui service. I’d managed to get an earlier train than planned which meant hanging around…
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North to South – Bremen to Basel
Sunday, and the start of the second week of my trip across Europe. It’s over 600 kilometres from Bremen in Germany to Basel in Switzerland – a journey that takes almost seven and a half hours. And because this was the weekend before Easter, things were busy. Using a rail pass has many advantages, but…
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North to South – Lund to Bremen
I was somewhat sad to be leaving Scandinavia. Once you get over the high prices for food and drink. Norway and Sweden are beautiful countries. Going beyond the predictable locations had opened my eyes as well as my wallet. The next 600 kilometres involved two changes of trains; in Copenhagen and Hamburg. I knew that…
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North to South – Stockholm to Lund
It had been my second time in Stockholm, and I was pleased to have discovered some more of its neighbourhoods away from the Old Town. The next leg of the journey was 600 kilometres south to Lund, a town just outside Malmo, and right at the south western tip of Sweden. Today is a relatively…
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North to South – Stockholm
It’s not quite 9am when I leave the Unique Hotel to explore Stockholm. And as this is my second visit, I wanted to avoid the usual tourist traps. The hotel is located in Vasastan, a lively neighbourhood with plenty of character. The main street, Odengaten, has plenty of cafes and bars which I make a…
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North to South – Narvik to Stockholm
Narvik is Norway’s northernmost railway station, and only exists because of the country’s vast reserves of iron ore. Produced in abundance, Norway had a problem; how to export the stuff, and so the Ofotban railway was constructed. Today, Narvik is the starting point for the touristy Arctic Train, which takes passengers around 50 kilometres just…
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North to South – Narvik
Sunday morning in Bodo and I am among the first people on the street for the 0715 bus to Narvik. It’s 300 kilometres further North, and will mark the true starting point for the journey in the opposite direction towards Barcelona. It’s an oddity that while Bodo marks the official northernmost part of the Nordland…
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North to South – Bodo
The flight from Oslo to Bodo – in Norway’s far north – takes a little over an hour. The pilots of the SAS (that’s the Scandinavian Air Services airline as opposed to the British special forces) are highly experienced in navigating this region, but tonight’s strong winds prove to be a challenge. The aircraft is…
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North to South – Introduction
In recent years a lot of my traveling has been around Europe. Some routes were more ambitious than others. The Baltics and Scandinavia trip was especially memorable because of the variety between Eastern and Western Europe. So, having traversed the continent sideways, I’ve decided this time to do it lengthways – a North to South…
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