Europe top to toe by train
Two rucksacks and a European rail map. Crampons, a woolly hat and our big coats. Thermals for the Arctic; jeans for early spring in Sicily. 5 nights of hotel reservations, a set of half-baked plans for a route across Europe, and a flight out of Sicily booked for early February. Let’s call that all set and ready for an adventure.
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Rewind six months and we’re sitting in our favourite cafe over breakfast, making the kind of plans that bounce around after a little too much caffeine. Six weeks off. Possible? 100%. Where shall we go? It’ll be January, so south, obviously. South America? Asia? Australia? Sunshine, freedom, skipping out on a British winter.
‘Or, hear me out,‘ (and this is probably where the caffeine is really working overtime), ‘what if we didn’t go south? What if we went north first?’
‘North? Colder? Darker?’
‘Exactly. Maybe with a rucksack. And … an Interrail pass?’
Clearly, a crazy idea. Who goes backpacking in the Arctic circle in January? When it’s polar night and probably about -15. When the beaches and sunshine of the southern hemisphere are calling?
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And that’s how we find ourselves now, on December 27th, about to head to Heathrow for a flight to ‘The Paris of the North’, Tromsø. The plan: first to Narvik, Norway, to find the most northerly station on the European rail network. And then, over the next six weeks, to make our way to Pozzalo on Sicily, home (when it’s operating) to the most southerly. The Arctic Circle is busy at new year with holidaymakers hunting out Santa and the Northern Lights, so we have bookings to take us through to the new year. Frozen-north transport permitting, and all that.
After that – who knows. We vaguely aim to swing through the Baltic states and then head for the Alps, before making our way down through much-loved Italy. We’ll start in the twilight of the Polar Night (the sun won’t rise again in Tromsø until 15th January) and gradually head south, seeking out winter cosiness and a good coffee or two on route to the first stirrings of spring in the south.
I’m writing this blog for myself really, to document an adventure we’re so lucky to be taking. Stop by and take a look if you’d like to know where we are – and I’ll try to share a glimpse into some different shades of winter along the way. Arctic snow, city lights, some mountain views and a healthy dose of sitting and watching the world go by from a train window. Bring it on!
