5 stops, 13 trains – a little European rail diary

Tomorrow I set off for a journey lasting just over two weeks, mostly for work but with a little holiday in between. The whole trip is by train. Here’s the schedule, and how I booked at at the lowest price possible:

1. Thu 19 Apr – London-Paris Eurostar – £73.00 (€86.37), standard class Eurostar. Booked 3 weeks ahead of the journey, so rather costly. Booked through Eurostar.com
2. Thu 19 Apr – Paris-Berlin – €56.75, 6-berth couchette CityNightLine. Booked 3 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
3. Fri 20 Apr – Berlin-Köln-Brussels – €123.00, 1st class ICE (EuropaSpezial – all 2nd class EuropaSpezial tickets sold out). Booked 3 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
4. Thu 26 Apr – Brussels-Köln – €29.75, 2nd class ICE (EuropaSpezial). Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
5. Thu 26 Apr – Köln-Copenhagen-Stockholm – €79.25, 6-berth couchette CityNightLine + SJ X2000 2nd class (EuropaSpezial). Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
6. Mon 30 Apr – Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Berlin – €74.50, 1st class X2000 + ICE (EuropaSpezial). Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
7. Mon 07 May – Berlin-Köln-Brussels(-London) – €48.00, 2nd class ICE (EuropaSpezial). Originally booked 10 weeks ahead of the journey and booked through to London. Now to be used only as far as Brussels. bahn.de with a BahnCard 25
8. Tue 08 May – (Aachen-)Brussels-London – €44.00, 2nd class Eurostar (EuropaSpezial). Booked Aachen-London to profit from the DB Eurostar special prices documented here. Booked 7 weeks ahead of the journey at bahn.de with a BahnCard 25

All tickets are eTickets except Stockholm-Copenhagen-Hamburg-Berlin where a paper ticket was mailed to me. All prices include seat reservations. Each line above represents a separate booking made. EuropaSpezial only works for journeys starting or ending in Germany – hence the two bookings for 26 April.