This route takes in several glorious north Italian cities from Genoa in the west to Venice in the east – a veritable feast of art and architecture, along the way swapping the Mediterranean for the ...

This journey starts in northern Sweden and tracks around the northern edge of the Gulf of Bothnia to reach Finnish territory. On the long journey south, we take in Finland’s three largest provincial ...

Lille and Cologne are two cities with very strong regional identities within their respective countries, but they could scarcely be more different. With a historical legacy dating back to the Romans, ...

This is one of Europe’s classic rail journeys, as the route south from Cologne hugs the River Rhine and then, once past Koblenz, follows the dramatic Rhine Gorge upstream. Moving over the ...

Having sped from London on Eurostar to Paris, why not then dawdle through France? True, there are plenty of TGVs which speed south from Paris, reaching Marseille in just over three hours, but we often ...

You can cut off to the south of the main railways which link Hannover with Berlin to discover the glorious landscapes of the Harz Mountains, a region which boasts Europe’s finest network of ...

If you follow just one Norwegian route in this book, make it this journey from Oslo to beyond the Arctic Circle. This long ride north nicely reveals the variety and scale of Norwegian landscapes. The ...

If there is one rail journey which has consistently fired the English imagination, it is the ride from London to the Scottish Highlands. We’ll cover over a thousand kilometres by train, travelling via ...

The railway is a fine way to take the pulse of Portugal and this route is designed to do just that. Route 16 is the sole journey in this book which crosses the Spanish-Portuguese border, but it is not ...

Let’s not beat about the bush. The main rail route linking Cologne with Berlin will hardly inspire you with fine scenery. A sleek ICE train leaves Cologne Hauptbahnhof (Hbf) hourly for the German ...

The very mention of the word Arlberg evokes memories of a belle époque of continental rail travel. The Arlberg is the rugged mountain region which separates Austria’s westernmost province, Vorarlberg, ...

The highlights of this journey from Rotterdam to the West Highlands of Scotland are two railways which are both in the premier league of Europe’s most celebrated lines: the first is the Settle and ...