All I need now is a sherpa! It crossed my mind the other day that with a temperature difference of over 60 degrees between some of the cities, its no surprise that I’m struggling to fit my wardrobe into just one bag. Ulan Bator will be be -32 C on Friday, and on the same day Bangkok will be +32 C. The ideal solution is a full time porter who speaks seven languages and can carry 100 kg balanced on his head, but I think he might be hard to find. Then there is the issue of getting “Passepartout” his […]

Now that I have most of my tickets, here is an update on the final plan. I remain hopeful that its a plan so cunning that you can brush your teeth with it. Here it is: Leg 1   Edinburgh – Newcastle       East Coast                           150 km/93 miles           1 stop Leg 2   Newcastle – Amsterdam     DFDS “Princes Seaways”     494 km/251 miles         Leg 3   Amsterdam – Warsaw         […]

EN447 composition Amsterdam – Warsaw Having spent much time trying to work out what sort of train I might be boarding in Amsterdam, and then in Warsaw, I have made a bit of a breakthrough today. There is actually a “specialist” (anorak) site that can tell you the exact make up of most European trains, carriage by carriage. Its called vagonWEB. It actually has a lot more information the the timetables can tell you. So here goes – my train from Amsterdam is the EN447, popularly called the “Jan Kiepura”. With the new timetable, its a no longer a Russian […]

The DB Bahn booking system – vital trainspotting intel! Some frustration here at “Toad Hall” today. It seems that the simplest part of my journey is proving the most troublesome to arrange. Although I have my ticket for the Trans Mongolian now ready to collect, its still not yet possible to issue a ticket from Amsterdam to Moscow. I can’t really see why, but those I have spoken to think its to do with the change over to winter timetables the week before I leave. I saw a video of the E447 arriving back Amsterdam on YouTube and its a […]