Europe 2026

Writing this from the last leg of the journey back home.  I took the local train from Paderborn to Bielefeld this morning.   I realised I must have travelled this before, because I flew to Paderborn for a PhD collaboration with a researcher in Bielefeld.  Luckily Bielefeld (still) exists. Then it was a slightly delayed ICE READ MORE

I had a wander around town after the computer museum;  the center is quite small, but was pretty. It’s German Reunification Day today, so a lot of places are closed. I then took the bus out to Schloss Neuhaus, to the NW of the Paderborn.  It was very pretty, and there was (the end of) READ MORE

After a quick post Parkrun shower, I headed off to the Heinz Nixdorf Forum museum, which is the largest computing museum in the world. It’s situated in the former HQ of Nixdorf Computers. It’s quite expansive in its scope; it starts off with the development of counting systems, before moving onto printing presses, adding machines, READ MORE

I’d planned on doing the Parkrun in Paderborn, but wasn’t sure if I’d be up in time after yesterday’s travel issues.  I awoke in plenty of time, and got the bus out to Padersee (which is a small lake on the river Pader (which is the shortest river in Germany apparently)) It was a quite READ MORE

I had the morning in Dessau, to look at the remaining Bauhaus sites. I’d planned to hire a bike for this, but the weather was pretty wet first thing.  Instead I walked to the Meisterhause (Masters’ houses).  These had been extensively rebuilt/refurbished. The first, which served as an exhibtion space had had most of its READ MORE

It was a fairly early start this morning, as I was booked on the 0730 train to Berlin.  The hostel wasn’t that near the main station; I’d planned on getting a tram, but then realised there was a suburban train station quite close, so thought I might as well take full advantage of the Interrail READ MORE

I took a train to Poznan this morning. The journey was about 3 hours through undramatic scenery; mostly rolling farmland. As well as being a convenient place to stop on my gradual way home, I was keen to see the enigma museum. This had timed entry slots (I’m not sure why; it wasn’t busy), and READ MORE

After the morning’s history,  I decided to head to the seaside.  The guide book had mentioned the costal resort of Sopot along the coast to the NW of Gdansk.  There looked to be beaches on the map a little closer, so I took the tram to Brzezno The beach was lovely, part of a wide READ MORE

The Solidarity museum had been recommended to me so I headed there this morning.  The museum covers the rise of the Solidarity movement in the early 80s, which started from striking dockers and was instrumental in the fall of communism in Poland. Before that I headed to the adjacent shipyard, that had been the start READ MORE

I’d booked a boat trip along the Elblag Canal, as it’s got a unique feature I was keen to see. The start of the journey could’ve been on the Norfolk Broads, with the flat landscape, and the channel opening up into wide, shallow lakes: It was very peaceful, though rather chilly on top of the READ MORE

The sleeper to Gdansk (and beyond) arrived on time.  I’d paid for a proper bed, rather than just a couchette. This was a bargain £30 (without interrail; I’ve saved those days for more expensive countries) I didn’t meet any other emfcamp attendees on this one. One guy was heading to Gdanya, north of Gdansk, the READ MORE

I was intrigued to see more of Nowa Huta, and saw a tour advertised online for the steel works and shelter. I arrived a bit early, so had a wander round the adjacent park; this was pleasantly busy,  and it was a nice walk around the lake. The tour turned out to be a really READ MORE

Atlas Obscura has a quarry in the south of the town listed… Tram The quarry is next to the Krakus Mound, which is supposed to be the resting place of Krakow’s founder, King Krakus It was a lovely clear day, and there were good views from the top It was a short walk down into READ MORE

I’d booked a tour of the Wieliczka Salt Mine yesterday.  It’s situated south east of Krakow.   I took a (rather late and busy) bus journey out to the mine for the tour. The mine itself was very impressive; apparently it’s the largest in the world, and is on the UNESCO world heritage list for its READ MORE

After popping back to the hostel for a shower, I decided to check out the Science and Technology museum.  This wasn’t huge, and was OK, but not great. They’d got a special exhibition on the history of the kitchen, which was an additional cost.  I didn’t realise at the time that almost all the signage READ MORE

(Splitting the posts up into “things” rather than days, as they get awkward to edit on the mobile if there are too many pictures) I planned to do the Krakow Parkrun while I was visiting. It would be my 100th run, and doing it somewhere other than my “home” run of Eastville seemed like a READ MORE

The sleeper arrived on time at 0715, so I was in Krakow early.  The weather was awful when I arrived; heavy drizzle.  I’d signed up for a walking tour of Nowa Huta, which was a planned city built in the communist era for the adjacent steelworks.  Before that I’d got a couple of hours to READ MORE

After an early night, and a bit of a lie in I was feeling a bit better this morning.   I was torn between going to the Deutsches Museum or having an arty day. Having somewhat OD on techy stuff, the art won out. I decided to head to the Pinokothek Der Modern.  There are two READ MORE

A rather quieter day today, as I was developing a bit of a cold yesterday, and am not feeling much better today, so having an early night to try and shift it. I headed out on the U-Bahn to take a look  at the Olympic Park.  The station is also by the BMW museum.  They also READ MORE

I’ve arrived in Munich. Though this train seems to be lost

We took the train to Stuttgart this morning (taking advantage of the 36Euro for 2 day tickets).  F. was keen to see the Mercedes Benz museum, so we took the S-Bahn to there. Stuttgart’s station is undergoing some major rebuilding at the moment, with the Stuttgart 21 project (opening date, erm, 2031), essentially converting it READ MORE

We’ve spent most of the day at the Technical Museum in Speyer. I’d first heard of this in an article in The Register, and thought it sounded good.  It was a lot bigger than I was expecting; I’d thought it might take a morning, but we were there almost until it closed. We’d paid a READ MORE

We left Slaffhausen quite early this morning, and got a quick picnic breakfast from the supermarket at the station, before getting  a local train to Karlsruhe.  This was a little slower than the Intercity, but much cheaper – we got a Baden-Württemberg Ticket, which was only 36Eur for both of us and gave us unlimited READ MORE

We took the Bernina Railway today, ending up in Schaffhausen, close to the German border. The railway went though stunning scenery.  We stopped of en route at Pontrenesa, and had a look round the village. An advert on the train for the railway museum also led us astray for a couple of hours. Landquart was READ MORE

After I wrote my last post on the sleeper, I had to change compartment, as it transpired when the ticket checker came round, that there were only 5 couchettes in the compartment, but 6 people.  I was redirected to another compartment, but the couchette in there was faulty, so after much discussion between the train READ MORE

I started my trip this morning from Bristol.  I’d got an earlier train than the suggested connection, so had a bit of time in London before my Eurostar to Brussels. An easy (and free) cross London transfer on Interrail by getting the Elizabeth Line and Thameslink (changing at Farringdon) to avoid the underground. I’d had READ MORE

Europe here we come