2026 february interrail

A little report from the latest interrail trip of mine. Third time in a row now I wanted to go to fosdem in Brussels. The main open source event in Europe. I wrote a bit about it in another post. Me and my partner decided to meet in Paris and spend a week there thereafter. And then I wanted to visit my daughter in Glasgow. I will spare you the details of lunches, dinners, museums and such and focus on the actual trip. I had a 10-day card to one entry per day.

Day 1 - Stockholm - Malmö (- Travemünde)

As I was catching the late ferry to Travemünde I set out from Stockholm after lunch. An uneventful but somewhat late train took me to Malmö with lots of time to spend before getting to the ferry. Getting to the ferry terminal in Malmö is a bit of a sad story. There are local buses but you need to change somewhere and it takse some 40 minutes to get there. Once leaving the bus the tiny ferry terminal is right there. Checking in and then waiting for shuttle bus to the actual ferry. I was the only foot passenger on a thursday in late January.

Day 2 - Travemünde - Hamburg - Köln - Brussels

On this day all trains would be late or cancelled. Not great PR for train travelling. I waited for the shuttle bus at the reception of the ferry and when it finally came the driver realized that I could catch my train if he drove me to the old train station for the Skandinavienkai (I realized when returning - more on that later) and sneak me out through a back door. Otherwise my plans would have blown up straight away. The train was somewhat late to Hamburg but no worries I had plenty of time for my train to Köln via Hannover. But the train from Hannover and onwards was cancelled. It seemed to be problems for all trains going that route. This was bad news since I needed that train to get to my planned train to Brussels. The direct train to Köln would miss it by some 10 minutes. And there is only one train every other hour from Köln to Brussels. So I got on the direct train to Köln instead. It turned out to be quite late and so was the train from Frankfurt towards Brussles. But not late enough. The next train to Brussels it had to be. Adding to it all was a strike in Belgium. From the last stop in Germany people were standing and sitting on floors. Quite busy. I had figured this out early and managed to get a seat reservation. Normally you don’t need to have one on these trains.

Day 3 - Brussels - Paris

A continental Eurostar from Brussels to Paris. Uneventful really.

Day 4 - Paris - London

A late departure had me stay a night in London so I took the tunnel train (that I despise) in order to get there. Waiting for Eurostar in Paris is much better than in London though. There is actually some space to move around in. I noticed thath security was a bit tougher and had to remove laptops and belts and such. Just like flying…

Day 5 - London - Glasgow

I arrived in London on a Saturday and sadly the Caledonian sleeper does not run on Saturdays. So I took the first Sunday morning train out of Glasgow. A bit od luck here - the day before the Euston to Watford part had been competely broken for some time. The route is really beautiful from the lake district and northwards.

Day 6 - Glasgow - Edinburgh - Glasgow

A waste to spend a day on this but otherwise the day would have been waste. Took the fast train there and the slow train back.

Day 7 - Glasgow - Edinburgh - Newcastle (- Amsterdam)

It felt wise to check the status in the morning and it turned out that there were somde delays due to have rains. So I leftsomewhat earlier then I had initially thought. The Newcastle - Amsterdam ferry leaves at 17 and there is a shuttle bus from the train station at 14:30 and another one at 15:30. I aimed for the early one. The train route involved a change in Edinburgh and also a late train that changed tracks right before departure. Hectic. Also a scenic view by the ocean parts of the route from Edinburgh and south.

Day 8 - Amsterdam - Hannover

In Amsterdam there is also a shuttle bus going to Amsterdam Centraal. Very convenient. And what a nice setting for the main train station on the waterside. Magnificent. I only had ont train to day - 4 hours to Hannover where I was gonna spend the night.

Day 9 - Hannover - Hamburg - Lübeck - Travemünde (- Malmö)

Getting from Hannover to the ferry terminal in Travemünde involves two changes of trains. It seems that sometimes the train from Hamburg transforms into the Travemünde one in Lübeck. While getting on the train in Lübeck I was still of the impression that I should get off at Travemünde-Skandinavienkai. But on the train when approaching Lübeck-Kücknitz it was announced that this was the proper station to get off and then find a shuttle bus. There was supposed to be signs. I didn’t see any signs so started waiting by the first bus stop I saw. Two buses and two bus drivers later I had realized that my station (the Elbingstraße) was indeed some bit further away and that my bus should have the number 50. This bus goes all the way from Lübeck so it is probably easiest to just get on there and ride it to the end station.

Day 10 Malmö - Stockholm

A morning train out of Malmö homewards!

Reflections

Some ferries are harder than others. Both Malmö and Travemünde is unconvenient for train travellers. Much like Rostock, Sassnitz and Gdansk from other train trips. They are built for vehicles - mostly the larger sort but obviously cars and buses works fine as well.

written by fredrik at 2026-02-14