Planning a big European train adventure

I will be turning fifty next year. Half a century. And, because I fully intend to live until I’m a hundred¹, I am treating this as the half-way marker on my journey through life. As such, it requires a big celebration of some kind.

For almost the last decade I have assumed that the big celebration for my fiftieth, would be a really big party. Maybe a shared party with one of my friends who are also turning fifty next year. But as it grew closer, I realised that I don’t actually want a big party. I’ll almost certainly have a few smaller celebrations with close friend groups and close family. But a big party where I’d need to mix multiple separate friend groups and different branches of family? Where I would get to spend at most ten minutes with each group, and still less with the most special people? Nah. That sounds more like my idea of hell (well, hell would probably also include a bunch of people I really really can’t stand, but purgatory at least).

What I wanted, I realised, was something big and memorable that would be something to look back on with joy and gratitude, but that could also be a starting point for what I want a lot of in the next few decades. And what jumped out at me was travel. I started really diving into travel in 2019 and the start of 2020, then this big global thing happened to stop it. And I haven’t left the country (the UK that is – I have made it to both Scotland and Wales) since. What I was doing then was a LOT OF flying (after more than a decade of no flying at all and as someone who doesn’t drive, so I didn’t feel TOO guilty about it), but the pandemic made me rethink that a bit – not just for the benefit of the environment, though that is definitely a big factor, but also in terms of slowing the heck down. I had already decided that my next trips would be by train, rather than super-quick, super-fast (though, actually, when you’re going to Europe, not that fast when you have to sit and wait in the airport for hours and queue for hours in passport lines) short-haul flights. I would save flying for the further afield trips.

So I decided that my big celebratory thing that I will do some time between this October (my 49th birthday) and next October (the big FIVE OH) will be to buy an interrail pass and run off for a month. The kids are (or will both be by then) teenagers and, while they MIGHT miss me a bit, they’re not going to be detrimentally affected by my absence. To be honest, they probably wouldn’t have been if I’d done it five years ago, or even ten, but it would have been unfair to Chris to leave him to hold the fort entirely on his own when they still needed walking to and from school and multiple activities and supervising constantly at home (and I’m pretty sure I would have been seriously miffed if he wanted to take off for a whole month back then!). Mostly these days, though, all we need to do is make sure the house has plenty of food in and their bank accounts and school/college lunch accounts are stocked and they sort themselves out the rest of the time. Family dinners still happen, though not every evening like they used to, and we do hang out and chat a bit, but a lot of the time they are off doing their own thing, in their rooms, or out with friends. What’s App, Skype, etc. mean we’ll still be in touch plenty and I frequently settle sibling disputes via What’s App rather than in person now, so could probably still do so from across the Channel, if it were needed. Though I would be leaving in the very capable hands of their other parent, and happily return the favour another time.

Planning a solo interrailing trip

I haven’t decided when exactly I’ll be taking this trip, other than some time between October 2022 and October 2023. I do know I probably want to be home for my actual fiftieth, so it would definitely be before then. I also know I don’t want to go during the school holidays, as I’d like to be available to do stuff with the kids then, and also because it’s likely to be busier in the holidays, especially the summer holidays. (I’m also quite into the idea of doing a shorter version with the rest of the family, or any of them who want to come along, at some point. Maybe I can wangle what I did with my travel in 2019/2020 and have a separate trip with each member of the family! That way I get to have multiple trips. Though that does sound a TAD selfish, plus excessive, and a little bit expensive! We’ll see.)

I’m also still very much in the research stages and need to decide what I want out of the trip and what sort of travelling I want to do. I am fairly certain that I don’t want this to be a super speedy rush around the whole of Europe spending a single night in all the big cities. I want to go slowly. Maybe taking a handful of the super-quick trains, but then using the small regional trains (that mostly don’t need extra seat reservations and other fees) and maybe even deciding to hop off a train in a town that looks interesting and seeing if I can find somewhere to stay there, rather than booking everything in advance.

I had thought I’d mostly go with AirBnB style accommodation, booking flats where I can cook for myself, but have since thought that I will probably go with rooms in (fairly cheap) hotels. I don’t need to eat at a restaurant every day, but can pick up snacks from street stalls or picnic food and then maybe have a restaurant lunch one day and dinner another day. I also don’t have to have three courses every meal, so it doesn’t have to be a super expensive thing to feed myself. Since it’s just me, I don’t have to worry about my snoring waking people up or having enough space for everyone to have privacy (which is why we’ve taken to booking AirBnB style accommodation when we go places together, rather than cramped hotel rooms).

So… I definitely can’t cover the whole of Europe in a month, if I’m slow travelling. I will need to decide where to narrow down my trip. Whether to concentrate on two or three countries very close together, or make one or two of those fast trains I include take me from one side of Europe to the other, or from North to South and have two or three separate chunks for the trip. I’m currently leaning toward concentrating on France, Spain, Portugal and Italy, and leaving the rest of Europe for another trip. But … I may well change my mind. What I’m definitely getting from all my research is the certainty that this won’t be the last trip of this kind, but rather the first of many.

I’m reading a lot of blog posts and articles about European train travel, solo travel, and solo travel particularly as an older woman. I have bought a copy of Europe by Rail [affiliate link], which is amazingly useful and an enjoyable read. And, of course, looking at The Man in Seat 61 a lot!

I think I’ll probably write a few posts about the planning and research (for example, to work or not to work, what to pack and what sort of bag(s) to take, how many books to take, how not to buy stuff while I’m travelling (I do have a tendency to come home with a lot of extra books, art supplies and pretty bits and bobs, which would obviously be difficult to carry on such a long trip) and there’s a fairly decent chance I’ll write some while I’m actually travelling, too. Hopefully, I’ll also get into travel illustration of some kind during the trip, which I’ve been awfully rubbish at so far (see below for some of the few pictures I’ve drawn while traveling), but I’m making no promises on that. Definitely will depend on whether I am taking work of any kind with me.

I’m hoping some of you will enjoy reading about this trip (before, during and after!). I know I love reading about this kind of thing myself, anyway, so I’m sure I can’t be the only one.

¹ Yeah, I’m definitely going to need to step up my getting healthy and fit efforts to have a chance of achieving that. But I do think a positive attitude has a significant effect, too.