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5 stops, 13 trains - a little European rail diary

Jon Worth

• 2 min read

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

TOTAL: €541.62 (could I have done it cheaper with an InterRail? But I didn't book all at once... Hmmm)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.