Loving travel planning almost as much as travelling itself, I had drafted plenty of possible paths between London and Tirana in advance of the race. Poring over maps and timetables I had abstracted the major European cities into a network whose connections measured not physical distance, but hours of journey time. Working backwards from my goal, I could gauge how much progress I would need to make each day along any chosen route.
Months before the event I had taken a gamble and booked a ferry from Bari, Italy to Durres, Albania. Opting for a Friday sailing immediately ruled me out of the speed and frugality contests, but this could allow me to bypass the Balkans – where my interrail pass would be worthless, and I’d be far out of my comfort zone using long-distance buses.
I say ‘could’, because I wasn’t working with perfect information… There was an unknown element in the form of a series of intermediate checkpoints, whose number and location would only be shared at the start line. From my research, the last of these could only be so far east to be able to reach it and backtrack to the port before my ship set sail. So on departure day I nervously awaited the big reveal which would determine the broad shape of my week…
Choosing Checkpoints
Given my plan, I was thus thrilled to find that one of the two choices for checkpoint four was Rimini. Located on Italy’s Adriatic coast, I would need to pass through on any sensible route to Bari from the previous, compulsory, stop – Graz, Austria – so this was no detour at all! I immediately discarded the alternative – Timișoara, Romania – and with it any lingering worries of eastern European night buses 🙂 .
The first checkpoint had been released in advance – Bruges, Belgium – so the main question was which of three candidates I should pick for checkpoint two. My options were:
- Contra Dam, The Alps
- Plönlein, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
- Oberbaum Bridge, Berlin
Berlin had featured in my network, and seemed the simplest logistically – a bit of a detour north, but high-speed rail links should compensate, and accommodation would be easy to find in such a large city. However, it’s somewhere I’ve visited before, and I was seeking novelty on this trip.
Rothenburg ob der Tauber would certainly offer that – I’d never even heard of it – and was most sensibly located between Bruges and Graz. But I was intrigued by the far less practical Contra Dam, accessed via Tenero in Switzerland. I had hoped to work in some Swiss trains, and venturing into the Alps by rail proved irresistible.
So before I even left London I had the skeleton of my tour – fleshing it out, however, would be a week-long process of review and revision. Wanting the luxury of hotel accommodation – rather than pressing on with round-the-clock travel – gave me even more options to evaluate, as did a desire for some sightseeing. Decisions and sub-decisions were easy to second guess once in motion, and even if I was set on a day’s plan it could be thrown by train delays or difficulties in finding a bed for the night. I’m ultimately happy with what I put together – although I’ve not tried to re-plan from the comfort of home to see if there was a better solution!
London to Bruges
With this checkpoint known, I had locked in both transport – Eurostar to Brussels, with a free onward connection to any Belgian station – and accommodation (an AirBnB in Bruges) well in advance.
In retrospect, I made a couple of mistakes here. The first was not including these initial journeys as part of an interrail pass – when I started making bookings I hadn’t yet committed to one of these, but adding an extra day would have been significantly cheaper than my standard premier ticket. The second was calling it a day in Bruges – whilst I didn’t know where I’d be headed next, returning to Brussels was almost inevitable, and continuing further east would surely have been useful progress.
On the other hand, by bouncing straight out after hitting the checkpoint I’d have missed the opportunity to explore Bruges, which is a delightful city I’d long wanted to see. And at a mere £38 my pre-booked room was by far the cheapest stay of the trip.
Bruges to Tenero
Zurich had emerged during my prep as a natural waypoint, with the extra benefit of being a familiar city (and station!) I’m always happy to visit. I’d estimated it as nine hours by train from Bruges, which should be achievable in a day. I could then devote the next one to getting to and from the checkpoint. Tenero’s station wasn’t too inaccessible, but the dam itself would need a serious mountain hike unless I linked up to one of the handful of daily buses. I even considered booking two nights in Zurich, so I could travel lighter on this Alpine excursion.
But to do that I’d have to actually get there, and tying together five trains across Belgium and Germany on a Sunday proved too much once I factored in my need to eat and (eventually) sleep. I got tantalisingly close, navigating changes in Brussels, Cologne, Stuttgart and Boblingen. Although my final train would eventually call at Zurich, I bailed just a few miles from the border in the small German town of Singen – which I had never heard of until that afternoon. Continuing on would have meant 12 hours on the rails and a hefty bill for a Swiss hotel, so instead I claimed a night at a Holiday Inn Express via IHG Rewards points.
The next morning I made my way to Zurich where I picked up supplies before boarding one of the best trains of the whole adventure – both in terms of the hard product, and the scenery rolling past the windows. Better still, it perfectly aligned with a bus to the dam – the first in two hours, with a 90 minute wait had I missed it. Hiking up wouldn’t have been an option, thanks to both unexpected 29C heat and terrifying switchback roads and tunnels. Whilst the race rules permitted simply making a transaction near the station, I would have been disappointed to have come all this way and then miss out on the view!
Tenero to Graz
I could figure out no better onward plan from Tenero than to return to Zurich, so that’s essentially what I did, albeit via a connection – and late lunch break – in Bellinzona rather than on a direct train. As with the previous day, I hoped to end in another country, but once more fell short.
I was aiming for the Austrian city of Bregenz, on the shores of Lake Constance. Whilst there was just enough time to reach it from Zurich, by the point I was sure of that, the hotel I’d wanted had sold out. However, Ibis offered up a superior alternative – cheaper, nicer, and nearer – in St. Margrethen.
Thus I again called it a night just shy of a border, and made claiming my next country the first order of business the following morning. I came temptingly near to yet another – the diminutive Liechtenstein – as I positioned myself via Bregenz to Feldkirch. There I joined another stand-out journey: an eight hour epic across Austria all the way to Graz on one train.
For simplicity I booked a night at the checkpoint (the charming Palais-Hotel Erzherzog Johann) and allowed myself some sightseeing – refreshingly sans backpack – around the city. A leisurely morning helped me recharge for the next two legs – by this stage the stresses of the project were definitely catching up with me.
Graz to Rimini
This next section caused me the greatest logistic difficulty – at one point I even entertained undoing all of my progress and returning to Zurich to cut across the Alps and connect through Milan. A less intense back-track to Innsbruck and a dive down to Verona was also considered, but ultimately I decided to enter Italy from the east and work my way along the coast.
This didn’t go well. OBB Train 967 from Graz to Klagenfurt turned out to be a bus – not a replacement bus, but a service which is always operated by road. Returning to the rails, I feared disruption at Villach, but it was in Italy that things ground to a halt. An unexplained stop ended up lasting 75 minutes – ruining plans for a sunset arrival into Venice. Instead of dinner by a canal, I subsisted on snacks: the train had a dining car, but their card machine was broken and I foolishly had no cash.
Under-fed and over-heated, I left at Venice’s mainland station, Mestre (aka Bad Venice: in a small-world coincidence, I watched this season’s Jet Lag premiere on a train to a featured location). From there it was another half hour’s hike to the Mercure hotel, chosen purely for a heavily-discounted industry rate.
With a lunchtime Friday sailing booked, I had originally planned to complete my Bruges-to-Bari journey by Thursday. Before I even left the UK that service was cancelled, and I rebooked to the next one, just before midnight. This would give me six travel days, and allow a night elsewhere – but I only had a five-day rail pass.
The relatively short Venice – Rimini portion would be better funded out-of-pocket, saving the last of my pass days (which don’t have to be used consecutively) for the longer push to Bari. My chosen high speed trains were eye-wateringly expensive without the pass, but I could swap to cheaper, slower regional services – provided I left Venice 45 minutes earlier.
Unfortunately I only realised all this the morning of travel, so I frantically cancelled my pass tickets (eating 2 lots of reservation fees, an annoying feature of interrailing in Italy), booked myself onto a train as far as Bologna, skipped breakfast and dashed back to Mestre.
Bologna station is needlessly complicated, but I found my way to the right platform 3 (there are three…) and thus made my connection to Rimini. This was my swiftest checkpoint visit: I completed the requirement of photographing the Grand Hotel before returning to the station where I paused the race and took a detour to my first new country of the trip: San Marino.
Rimini to Tirana
Returning from my excursion, I boarded the last train of the trip: Rimini to Bari. But this was another highlight: five hours on a Frecciarossa, in business class thanks to my saved interrail day. That delivered me to Bari’s central station only 20 minutes late, where I (eventually) was able to take a bus to the port.
I’ve written up the ferry experience separately, as it’s far from obvious what to do as a foot passenger! My later departure – we didn’t set sail until well after midnight – meant I spent most of the crossing asleep in my basic but functional cabin.
After dispensing with border formalities, I entered another new country: Albania! I was really on the home stretch now, but Durres is not Tirana, so step one was to get to the capital. The bus station was easy to find, but a world away from, say, the Swiss train experience. Forget timetables or price lists – just find a coach with your desired destination on the front, take a seat, and it will leave once a profitable number of passengers has been collected. It’s only then that you pay – and the fee may vary based on what notes you have…
Tirana’s ‘South and North Albania Bus Terminal’ was a few miles out from the centre, and, crucially, the final checkpoint. Placing my faith in other racers, I joined them on a local bus which – whilst not taking the route we expected – did lead to more recognisable parts of the city. And so, almost exactly a week after I’d set off from Trafalgar Square, I crossed the finish line!
Here’s my itinerary in full, ignoring local transport within checkpoint zones but including the side-trip to San Marino. The fastest competitors got the whole thing done in under 72 hours; the savviest for less than £300 in travel expenses; and the most ambitious ticked off 20 countries along the way. But I am happy with my comfortable mix of trains and tourism – and enjoyed the experience so much I’ve already signed up for another one.
| Date | Route | Transport | Journey Time |
| Saturday 17th August | 15:03 London St Pancras – Brussels Midi / Zuid 18:38 | Train 8192 Eurostar Standard Premier | 2h34m |
| Saturday 17th August | 19:04 Brussels Midi / Zuid – Bruges 19:59 | IC540 SNCB 2nd Class | 56m |
| Sunday 18th August | 10:09 Bruges – Brussels Midi / Zuid 11:07 | IC1509 SNCB 2nd Class | 58m |
| Sunday 18th August | 12:25 Brussels Midi / Zuid – Cologne Hauptbahnhof 14:25 | ICE315 DB 1st Class | 1h57m |
| Sunday 18th August | 15:02 Cologne Hauptbahnhof – Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof 17:55 | ICE2409 DB 1st Class | 2h53m |
| Sunday 18th August | 18:54 Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof – Böblingen 19:18 | RE21776 DB 1st Class | 24m |
| Sunday 18th August | 19:38 Böblingen – Singen (Hohentwiel) 21:36 | IC389 DB 1st Class | 1h58m |
| Monday 19th August | 08:32 Singen (Hohentwiel) – Zurich HB 09:26 | IC181 DB 1st Class | 54m |
| Monday 19th August | 10:05 Zurich HB – Tenero 13:20 | IR46 SBB 1st Class | 3h15m |
| Monday 19th August | 15:51 Tenero – Bellinzona 16:11 | S20 25660 TiLo 1st Class | 20m |
| Monday 19th August | 16:47 Bellinzona – Zurich HB 19:27 | EC320 SBB 1st Class | 2h40m |
| Monday 19th August | 20:03 Zurich HB – St. Gallen 21:03 | IC533 SBB 1st Class | 1h |
| Monday 19th August | 21:25 St. Gallen – St. Margrethen 21:47 | RE3503 SBB 1st Class | 24m |
| Tuesday 20th August | 08:30 St. Margrethen – Bregenz 08:44 | SBA 5742 OBB 2nd Class | 14m |
| Tuesday 20th August | 09:11 Bregenz – Feldkirch 09:41 | RE5561 OBB 2nd Class | 30m |
| Tuesday 20th August | 10:20 Feldkirch – Graz 18:13 | EC163 SBB 1st Class (panoramic car) | 7h53m |
| Wednesday 21st August | 13:45 Graz HB (Busbahnhof) – Klagenfurt HB 15:36 | ICB 967 OBB 2nd Class (bus) | 1h51m |
| Wednesday 21st August | 16:21 Klagenfurt HB – Venice Mestre 21:04 | RJ133 OBB 1st Class | 4h43m |
| Thursday 22nd August | 08:58 Venice Mestre – Bologna Centrale 10:52 | RV3967 Trenitalia 2nd Class | 1h54m |
| Thursday 22nd August | 11:34 Bologna Centrale – Rimini 13:07 | RV3915 Trenitalia 2nd Class | 1h54m |
| Thursday 22nd August | 14:46 Rimini Statione F.S. – San Marino Centro Storico 15:39 | Bonelli Bus | 53m |
| Friday 23nd August | 11:01 San Marino Centro Storico – Rimini Statione F.S. 11:50 | Bonelli Bus | 49m |
| Friday 23nd August | 12:44 Rimini – Bari Centrale 17:47 | FR9805 Trenitalia Business Class | 5h03m |
| Saturday 24th August | 23:22 Bari – Durres 08:30 | Adria Ferries, Interior Twin | 9h08m |
| Saturday 24th August | 09:30 Durres – Tirana 10:04 | Bus | 34m |
42h03m on 20 trains, 4h07m on 4 buses, 9h08m on a ferry |
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