In 2010, I spent almost the entirety of October on an InterRail trip through Europe.
I recently finished documenting the entire trip in a series of blog posts, which you can find linked below.
InterRail 2010 – A Travelogue
InterRail 2010 – Part 18: Going Home
After almost a month of traveling, I was starting to get homesick.
It was starting to be more tiring than fun to move location almost every day, so Venice would be the last new place I visited on my journey.
InterRail 2010 – Part 17: Venice
After visiting Rome, I headed straight to Venice.
It is a beautiful city filled with sights unlike anywhere else.
I didn’t spend too much time here, but I did stay for the night.
InterRail 2010 – Part 16: Rome
I arrived in Rome from Pisa late one evening, and promptly rented a room for my stay.
I started exploring Rome early the next morning, and left the day after that, so I had a full day of Rome goodness!
InterRail 2010 – Part 13: Nancy
After visiting Paris, I started heading south, toward Italy.
I was going to take the train through Switzerland to get there, so I had to change trains in the French town of Nancy.
I had some time to kill before my train departed, so I decided to have a look around.
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A thing I saw that really caught my attention is a sculpture I think I have identified as a World War I Moselle memorial, but I could not find anything concrete online to be sure, and I failed to get the plaque in the picture.
I like the symbolism of a golden heart atop a mass of blackened hearts, even if I fail to draw the connection to World War I.
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I did not have enough time to see very much of the town, but what I saw seemed peaceful and beautiful, and I am glad I got to see a different side to France than just Paris before I left the country.
But just as soon as I had arrived, I was on my way to Switzerland!
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InterRail 2010 – Part 11: Traveling to France
After visiting Hogwarts, I started my journey southward.
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I took a train directly to London, where I bought a ticket on the Eurostar to Paris.
The Eurostar line goes in a tunnel under the English Channel, and is run by a company separate to the InterRail coalition, but I did get a discount.
I had to wait for my train for quite some time, but as I were a bit tired from the journey so far, it was nice to just relax at the station with some entertainment I had brought.
I had an iPod filled with all the songs by Jonathan Coulton (that had been released at that point) and all the episodes of the Rooster Teeth Podcast (then called The Drunk Tank), and a book called ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ (a collection of shorts stories written by Neil Gaiman).
All of these things helped to keep me entertained in the lulls during this whole month of travel.
The train-journey was comfortable enough but, as you can imagine, the view was nothing to brag about.
When I arrived in Paris it was already so late that I just found a place to stay for the night.
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In the next part; Exploring Paris!
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InterRail 2010 – Part 10: Alnwick Castle
After visiting Cardiff I took the train back to England, and traveled north up to Newcastle, Northumberland.
After dropping my rucksack of at a hotel, I hopped on the bus out to Alnwick Castle.
I had traveled to this particular castle because this was the castle which had been used as the filming location for Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies, ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’ and ‘The Chamber of Secrets’, and had as a result informed the look of Hogwarts in all subsequent films.
In the movies there were of course a lot added to the castle in post-production, mostly in height, but I did not mind. Hogwarts was a place I had wanted to visit ever since I devoured the books as a child.
While doing research for this post, I learned that the castle had been used to film many other things than just Harry Potter, but one of them made me really exited.
In February of 1983, Rowan Atkinson and his co-stars were filming around Alnwick Castle, as it would double as King Richard IV’s castle for the first Blackadder season, titled ‘The Black Adder’.
Blackadder is one of my favorite comedy shows, so I wish that I would have noticed that when I was there.
After I was done soaking in the Hogwartsian atmosphere, I took the bus back to my hotel.
And after a night in Newcastle, I started my journey southwards, to France!
InterRail 2010 – Part 9: Cardiff
After having seen Stonehenge, I took the train to Cardiff, the capital of Wales.
I had been wanting to travel to Cardiff for a few years, ever since I got into ‘Doctor Who’.
Cardiff had been the home and main filming location for the British science fiction program
InterRail 2010 – Part 5: The Concert
In 2010, A-ha were going on a farewell tour.
They have had tours since then.
After my first night in Amsterdam, I met up with the guys I were going to the A-ha concert with.
To the best of my memories, they arrived early the day of the concert, and I met them in the reception for the hotel we were staying at.
This hotel was considerably more fancy than the motel I had stayed at the night before.
I did not ask, but I doubt I would have been able to buy any “cheese” in that reception.
We spent most of that day “getting ready” for the concert.
Even after what happened to me over a year earlier, I had still not gained the good sense to just stay away from beer entirely.
I am incredible lucky that my gout did not ruin the rest of my trip.
I don’t think that I even brought any of my medication.
The concert was held in the Heineken Music Hall
InterRail 2010 – Part 4: Amsterdam’s Cheese
After my little stop in Köln I had finally arrived in Amsterdam, late that same evening.
I had plans to meet two of the guys I served with during my year in the Norwegian Airforce, as they were planing on traveling there to attend an A-ha concert.
Why they decided to travel all the way from Norway to the Netherlands to see a Norwegian band perform, I’ll never know. But I decided to attend the concert aswell, since I was going to be there anyway.
They were arriving the day after I did, so
I had to find somewhere else to stay
InterRail 2010 – Part 3: Köln
After exploring Berlin, I moved on towards Amsterdam, and to get there I had to travel via Köln, also known as Cologne.
InterRail 2010 – Part 2: Exploring Berlin
After my unsavory experiences in Hamburg, I was very happy to finally start doing some real touristy stuff in Berlin.
Not a lot interesting happened to me in Berlin. I just had a nice day, walking around, taking pictures. Then I moved on to Amsterdam.
A lot of places in Berlin had this very interesting mix of old majestic architecture and new degradation.
It was also interesting to see regretful war memorials for World War 2. Most war memorials I have seen other places, were put there by the victorious forces.
All in all, I very much enjoyed my day in this lovely city.
In the next part; Köln!
If you want to see more of the pictures I took in Berlin click here 🙂