Changing trains in Paris on the way from Madrid to London

I went to sleep somewhere in Spain and woke up around 7am in France.

I went to the buffet car soon after only to find that my group, always early starters, were there in force and all the tables were taken. That meant waiting about quarter of an hour for somebody to finish. The continental breakfast was worth it though and it set me up nicely for a day of travel.

The route into Paris was not especially pretty and the train windows were not good for photography; this picture proves both points.

We arrived at Gare d`Austerlitz around 9am. It was not the prettiest of stations though the roof did its best to brighten things up.

The coach got us to Gare du Nord in good time for the 11am train. Sadly the blight of the heavy contingency kicked-in and we had been booked on one over two hours later.

We were so early that we were not allowed to check in for an hour and had to amuse ourselves for that time while also keeping a close eye on all our bags.

It was not that long after breakfast but I went to a cafe across the road for a coffee anyway. There I had a bit of luck in that not only was the cafe very nice but they had wi-fi so I could catch up on the news etc.

I also had a little walk around and took a few photographs of the station. The glass and metal of the canopy was, as always, my favourite part. The frontage was not bad either, despite having the name of the station engraved on it more often than seemed necessary.

After killing time in the local cafes, we regrouped and were eventually allowed to check-in and to more through to the departure lounge. Being the first in meant that we could bag the most comfortable seats which was useful as were were going to be there for a little while and the lounge got packed in that time.

Finally we were allowed on to our train and to begin the final leg of our journey the tenth taken by train that holiday.

We had also taken seventeen coach journeys and while some of these were to/from stations and hotels I think there were more than necessary. When I travel across Europe I do it all by public transport and do not even use taxis very often.

Everything from Paris was simple and familiar. I still hate the long walk at St Pancras from the international station to the underground but, that apart, it was an easy journey and I was back home by late afternoon.

It had been a great holiday and there were some solid highlights at each place we stopped. It was just a shame that some of the scheduling and planning meant that we did not spend as much time sightseeing or on trains as we could have done.

On the slow train from Marrakech to Fez

This was the day of the holiday that nobody was looking forward to very much.

The four hour journey down from Rabat to Marrakech had been hot and uncomfortable so the prospect of taking seven hours to go all the way back and then on to Fez was not promising.

In the end everything worked out more or less fine. The one problem was that while we had first class tickets we did not have reservations for specific seats whereas some other passengers did so some of us got moved on after having found a good seat. I lost my window seat early on and had to move to a middle seat in another compartment.

The ride was a lot more comfortable this time, either the air-conditioning was better, or it was a little cooler or we were all more used to the heat by then.

The other thing that helped was the observation area at the very back of the train with reasonably clean glass on three sides.

Obviously the view was the much the same as on the way down but the greater comfort and the better viewing facilities made it seem better.

Apart from the view I had a wealth of podcasts to entertain me and the seven hours passed easily enough.

I had packed a little to eat and drink but we were all getting touches of icky tummy so I played safe and just had a croissant and a few sips of water. I do not eat much at lunchtime anyway, and eat even less in the heat, so that was not a problem and I preferred to be safe rather than sorry.

We stopped a few times to allow people to get on and off and to allow other trains to pass. These were opportunities to take more photos while keeping an the guard to make sure that the train did not sneak off.

We arrived in Fez in much better mood than we feared and the day was actually rather good. It was restful and interesting and I wanted a holiday where I was busy some days and not on others.

We arrived in Fez late in the afternoon and it was a short coach ride from the station to our hotel in a modern part of the town. I was still not hungry so I stayed in the hotel and finished what I had bought for my lunch. The hotel had good wi-fi so I spent the rest of the evening catching up with things, like making sore I had the latest Archers podcasts.

Tomorrow would be another day and one best faced rested.

From Rabat to Marrakech via Casablanca

This was another day of travelling, this time down from Rabat to Marrakech which was to be our base for the next few days. This meant passing through Casablanca and we could not do that without pausing to see The Hassan II Mosque which is staggering.

I thought that it was staggering when I visited it in 2007 and I thought so again in 2013.

The mosque impresses in several ways.

The setting is magnificent. It sits next to the sea, and is partially built over it, and has a large square in front of. This absence of anything else near it emphasises its scale.

The headline figures is that it can accommodate 20,000 men inside on the ground floor and 5,000 women on the raised level. Another 80,000 can fit in the square outside.

For once I've deliberately included people in some of the pictures so show its size. It kept reminding me of the enormous buildings drawn by Philippe Druillet in his fantastic stories like Urm the Mad.

The building works just as well on the small scale too and meticulous attention was paid to the detail throughout. Everywhere is spectacularly pretty as well as spectacularly large.

The second main space is the wash room situated below the central hall. It has rows of mushrooms where worshippers can prepare by washing their arms and faces.

Even in this functional space the decoration is grand from floor to ceiling.

The external space is just as grand and just as pretty. The grandeur or the mosque grabs you first and as you get closer the detail becomes more obvious and more impressive.

For example, beneath the large arch on the left you can see a green line on the ground. This is a fountain. Or rather a collection of small fountains in a geometric pattern. It the sort of fountain that if placed by itself in the centre of a town would attract much admiration and would have hordes of tourists taking pictures of themselves in front of it. Here it is so swamped by the building next to it that it could be overlooked completely.

The minaret is the focal point and easily lives up to its starring role with oodles of intricate decorative plaster and geometric ceramics. It is gorgeous and that is my excuse for taking about twenty very similar pictures of it!

Having feasted on the beauty of the mosque it was time to move on. We had made the relatively short trip from Rabat to Casablanca (just under 100km) by coach and we returned to the train for the leg to Marrakech (about 250km).

The route took us away from the coast for the first time and that meant a remarkable change to the landscape. We were also moving that much further south. We were not in the desert, that is on the other side of the mountains, but it looked much like one for most of the time.

Morocco's main industry is agriculture and this is fed by the many rivers flowing off the mountings (snow-melt provides water all summer) with olives and the like growing in the drier parts.

We stopped a few times, mostly at little stations like this. Unfortunately I had no idea of the timetable so was cautious of venturing too far away from the door to take photos. This was not a place I wanted to be stranded in.

The journey was hot and the train's air conditioning struggled to reduce the temperature in the compartment to anything bearable. Luckily there were some options and I spent quite a bit of time either in the corridor which had something of a breeze because of the train's movement and also some time by an open door (when moving!) where there was even more of a breeze.

The discomfort of the travel was more than compensated for by the views. The desert scene may have lacked much of specific interest but its contrast with what I was used to was great and that was enough interest of itself.

The ride was some four hours long and we arrived in Marrakech as the sun was setting, as we tended to on the holiday (that's good planning). There was just enough time for a good dinner in hotel and a walk through its extensive grounds before settling down for a good rest in anticipation of seeing the heart of the city the next day.

The main point of the day was to get us to Marrakech, which we did, and we had the considerable bonus of a couple of hours in Casablanca and an interesting, if warm, train ride.

From Biarritz to Seville by coach and two trains

This was not the way that we were meant to get to Seville but something happened on the original route that made us divert via Biarritz and stop overnight there.

We had a prompt start on the second day and a short coach ride over the border in to Spain and a damp station in Irun where our Great Rail Journey continued.

The ride was easy enough and we were at Madrid Chamartin just before lunchtime.

We rushed through the station a little and I was snapping away as we did so, as were some others as, understandably, there were a few train fans on the tour. The stations most attractive features were the metal pillars supporting the roofs above the platforms, the semi-circular arches over the main building, the long simple roof on the front of the station and the graffiti-like art on the steps down to the platforms.

Another short coach ride took us across town to Madrid Atocha station, which was a big surprise.

A large shed with intricate metal-work I expected, the tropical forest I did not. I loved it in just the same way that I like the large glasshouses at Kew Gardens, and for exactly the same reason - the contrast between the natural and the constructed.

Lunch was less successful and the only vegetarian option that I could find in the multiple cafes and shops was some chips from Burger King. That was good enough and it was somewhat enjoyable to eat pure junk food for a change.

There was more success in the lounge that we moved on to and I helped myself to a couple of free beers and some power to recharge my phone that had been feeding me podcasts all morning.

Descending to the platform for our train to Seville revealed tall concrete columns supporting a simple roof. This was very practicable in the hot weather, even in October it was approaching 30c, with plenty of space for the air to circulate.

As with all the other trains we were in first class for the ride to Seville which meant plenty of comfort for looking out of the window as Spain reeled past, reading comics on my iPad or just listening to more podcasts on my iPhone.

This was a hot dry Spain that we rode through and most of what we saw was gentle hills covered with olive trees. We would be seeing a lot of those on this holiday. There was nothing special to see but the difference between the dry brown Spanish landscape and the usual wet green one was interesting in itself.

We arrived in Seville around 8pm.

We had to walk the last 100m or so to the hotel as the coach could not get through the narrow streets leading to our city-centre hotel, and I took that opportunity to explore a little of the city. OK, I got lost.

Having found the hotel and dropped my bag off I went for a quick walk to see what Seville does at night and also to find something to eat. I hit one of the many cafes just off Plaza Nueva where I found something with spinach in it. And beer.

It had taken two full days to get to Seville but the journey was very much part of the holiday and I was rested and happy.

From Richmond to Biarritz by train

I booked my late Summer holiday with Great Rail Journeys, rather than go independently which I usually do, as I fancied their Marrakech Express tour and that looked far too complicated and foreign to book myself.

The point of a tour like this as that they sort out all the travel arrangements and also take you to the most interesting places at each destination.

This is all well and good once the tour starts but I had real problems getting to the start!

I had not checked the travelling the night before, i.e. planned weekend working, as I was had allowed plenty of time to get to St Pancras and had several routes to choose from. The first warning light came on in the morning when I looked to check the buses and the next 65 was due in 25 minutes. So I went for the 317 in 10 minutes instead, a little slower but I had allowed plenty of time.

Worried by the lack of buses I checked the route to London only to discover that there was an incident on the District Line and that a separate incident at Clapham Junction meant that there were no mainline trains. The London Overground was not going either for some reason. The best the staff at Richmond could offer me was a slow train to Barnes in thirty minutes time and then a bus replacement service to Waterloo. I certainly did not have time for that.

It looked like the only option was to hope for a bus to Hammersmith and then to catch the tube from there but even that would probably have taken too long. Then a stroke of luck, while waiting desperately for a bus, a taxi arrived to drop somebody off and I was able to commandeer it. He was not actually looking for a ride and I was asking him to go out of his zone but he agreed to my pleading and I got to Hammersmith in time to catch a tube to St Pancras and I arrived there about ten minutes before the drop-dead time I had been given.

The rest of the journey was simple.

In Paris we swapped from Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse which is a brutal concrete cavern, and not in a nice way.

The train was pleasant enough though and we were travelling first class all the way.

It was a fast and a smooth journey and it was three hours before we made our first stop. As I tend to do, I got out at the station and took a couple of pictures before we moved off again.

The countryside that we flew threw looked empty compared to the UK, which is understandable given that it has about five times the space for the same number of people.

I soon bored of the countryside, I prefer towns and villages and took the opportunity to read some comics on my iPad that I had brought with me just for that purpose.

One of the nicer stations that we stopped at was Dax, wherever that is.

We arrived in Biarritz around 7pm and it was starting to get dark so once I had checked in to the hotel I crossed to road to the beach for a walk along the promenade.

At the end I found a fashionable and busy cafe, Victoria, for a small meal and a large beer. The food was excellent and the service exceptional.

The rest of Biarritz was quiet with just a few tourists out at the end of a day at the end of the season.

There were a series of lights along the beach to highlight the waves, one of the rocks sitting in the sea just offshore and a cluster of trees on a headland. These few lights apart it was pretty dark and unwelcoming and great effort had to be made to imagine why Biarritz is a famous holiday resort.

I found a little harbour but it was so ridiculously dark there that the pictures that I took show little more than grey blobs against a black background.

Even the big church nearby was unlit. Perhaps tourists are meant to keep to the main beach where the few lights were.

I thought about exploring a little more of the town but then it started to rain and that made the decision for me and I headed back to the hotel.

We were there for just one night so there was no un/packing to do and I went straight to sleep happy with a day well spent.

The troubles at the start of the day were forgotten and the holiday really had begun.

From London to Hannover by train

A quick break in Germany meant another excuse to relax on the trains while getting there.

Hannover emerged as the preferred destination after playing around with the superb Deutsch Bahn iPad app to find an interesting place within easy reach by train. I like to arrive early evening to give me time to explore the city a little while looking for somewhere to eat, and that puts a constraint on how far I can get on the first day.

Going by train means Eurostar and that means Paris or Brussels. This time is was Brussels.

I have been there a few times now but the station still confuses the hell out of me. I emerged confidently from the Eurostar terminal heading for my favourite cafe (the one with wi-fi) only to take a wrong turn immediately and having to go back on myself.

If getting lost is a tradition then so is taking a picture of the four coloured pillars by one of the entrances.

One a previous journey, to Berlin, I had missed the connection because the Eurostar was a few minutes late so I played safe this time and allowed myself an hour. Probably wise given the getting lost situation.

The hour between trains was plenty of time to find the correct place to go and to have a leisurely coffee, though the cafe's wi-fi was not working to Twitter and FourSquare missed out.

The next change was at Düsseldorf and that meant passing through one of my favourite stations, Cologne.

I hopped off the train when it stopped there to tale a few more pictures of the stupendous roof. I had lots of pictures of this already but a few more could not hurt.

Immediately after the impressive station is the equally impressive bridge across the Rhine and I took a few more pictures of this too as we rode smoothly past.

The fashion for putting padlocks on the bridge to show your love for somebody was new when I was first there around fifteen years ago and now the bridge is smothered in them and they look like they are meant to be there.

Düsseldorf station was a huge disappointment after Cologne, but I took a picture of it anyway.

Far better was the train to Hannover that was already in the station waiting for me.

I was travelling First Class, as I usually do in Europe, because it does not cost that much more and I think that the extra space and comfort is worth it.

This was my carriage. There were only three of us in it when we set off though we did collect a few more people along the way.

There was so much space between the rows of seats that I had to stretch to reach the foot-rest.

There were no freebies for being in First Class but I did get waiter service for my mug of coffee. I also got a mug that I would gladly have kept if I had not got plenty of mugs already, it would have meant carrying it around on holiday with me and the guard would have noticed.

I was grateful for the display telling me how fast we were going as I would never have guessed that we were travelling at speeds up to 200 km/h otherwise.

The journey was quick, easy and comfortable. And that is why I prefer to travel by train rather than fly. This way getting there is part of the holiday too.

To Zurich by train

Another holiday another collection of interesting train journeys.

First was an early Eurostar from London to Paris. I had originally planned at travelling at 10:30am but the tickets I chose were bagged as I was paying for them so I had to go at 8:30am instead. Bit of an early start but no problem.

Paris was something of an unusual destination as I have mostly gone via Brussels and then on to places like Cologne, Berlin and Amsterdam.

In Paris it was a couple of hops on the RER from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon where I had an hour or so to wait for the next train. That time was pleasantly filled in the nearby Le Killy-Jen cafe that provided beer and caprese. Paris provided the warm sunshine.

Next stop Zurich.

I arrived there late afternoon and after a quick check-in at the hotel was out to start the sight seeing.

I headed for the river, always a good place to start.

The sun was quite low by then and the old buildings on the west-side of the Limmat River were looking a little old, grey and miserable.

The "old" bit was justified as some of these buildings date back to the 1500s.

Hints of grandeur to be discovered the next day could be seen peaking above the houses and even their faded fronts showed enough charm to invite a closer inspection in brighter times.

The river is wide and flows freely at this point. It's depth would not scare a cat.

On the east bank the falling sun still had a job to do making sure that we noticed the equally old but somewhat grander buildings that live on that side.

Taking pride of place in the view are the twin towers of the Cathedral. But that is a tale for another day.

To Amsterdam by train

The double bank holiday at the start of June was an excellent opportunity to take a city break and to miss the Jubilee, so that is what I did.

Amsterdam became the venue of choice thanks to an advert on the Tube saying that you can get there by Eurostar for just £99.

Of course when you actually come to book the dates, times and class of travel that you want it comes to somewhat more than that but it is still an absolute bargain.

It is also an incredibly easy journey to make.

The District and then Piccadilly Lines  take you straight from Richmond to St Pancras with the simplest of changes at Hammersmith, you just cross from one side of the platform to the other.

Check-in at St Pancras is easy and there is none of that arrive two hours before the flight to allow time for the security checks nonsense. And once checked in, there is wi-fi and power to keep you occupied for the half hour or so before the train is called.

Then it's a short escalator up to the platform - compare that with the huge distances that you have to travel in most airports.

The train glides off and you sit in your wide seat with plenty of legroom and relax.

Two hours later you are in Brussels.

It is best to leave enough time for the transfer (I missed the train to Koln two years ago when the Eurostar was delayed) but not too much because, frankly, there is not that much to do at the station and even less in the immediate area.

I did wander out a short distance and the only memorable point was discovering Avenue de Stalingrad.

The domestic platforms are new, clean and impressive. My regular stations of Richmond, Reading and Newport look nothing like this.

The Thalys train is impressive too.

And comfortable. I had forgotten that I had treated myself to first class (it is nothing like as expensive to upgrade in mainland Europe as it is in the UK) which meant that in addition to the usual comfortable seat I got a cheese sandwich and a couple of beers.

Time to relax again with the iPod and iPad thanks to the free wi-fi and power.

The two hours fly by and then you are in Amsterdam. I got in just before 6pm which still left plenty of time for the easy walk to the hotel before heading out for the first explore of the holiday.

Arriving relaxed is the biggest advantage of going by train rather than plane. Others are the lack of dead time queueing for security, walking out to the plane and waiting for it to take off, which can be spent on the iPad instead; the extra body space; having something to look at out of the window and keeping in touch with the rest of the world.

This is the third year in a row that I have chosen to go on holiday in Europe by train and I am more convinced than ever that train is the way to travel. And it will only get better once operators like Thalys are allowed to use the tunnel as that will give us direct trains to more locations.

Busy Bremen

Bremen, like Malmo before it, was chosen as a convenient resting point on the leisurely train journey back from Oslo and then turned-out to be a fantastic place to spend a day exploring.

Let's start with the Town Square.

Many European cities have town squares much like this and while Bremen's is not exceptional it is rather lovely. It has the usual grand buildings, secular and sacred, street cafes, statues and fountains, and it has a tram running through it too.

Smaller squares and other interesting spaces cluster around it and many lanes compete for the right to lead you gently away from it.

For reasons that I'll come to later, the square is still in the centre of the town, unlike, say, Prague, so you find yourself passing through it several times a day as you explore other parts of the town. Each passage through reveals something new or something old from a new angle.

One of the statues in the town square is this one of the Town Musicians of Bremen taken from the Brothers Grimm tale of the same name.

The story is short, inconsequential and has very little to do with Bremen (the animals were headed that way but never got there) but the city has taken the tale to its heart and celebrates the connection with unrestrained fervour.

The town is litter with images of the four animals, usually in this pose forming a pyramid to scare the robbers away.

The front hooves of the donkey are made shiny by the consistent touching by visitors happy to believe for a moment that doing so will bring good luck.

The old town contains within it a still older quarter.

This consists of just a few narrow lanes in the southern tip of the town squeezed in between the river Weser and the outer defences.

I am sure that these buildings have an honourable history housing craftsmen and worthy labourers but now they have all conceded to commercial temptation and have become gift shops, cafes and bars all eager to tempt money out of your pocket.

And it worked. I sat in one of the cafes to enjoy a slow latte and to savour the age and stillness of the area.

The old town is bound by water.

The river Weser curls slowly on one side and on the other a jagged moat once defended the town but now it is at the heart of a garden that wraps itself around the town.

A narrow and sometimes wet path follows the moat as it zig-zags its way around the town providing a reasonable walk for the explore despite the point to point distance being quite short, around 1.5 km.

Most of the walk is shrouded in lush greenery but there are a few splashes of vibrant colour and even a windmill.

Heading back in to the town we find the musicians again.

This particular statue has been mass produced and there are several versions across the town, including a vivid red one outside the Tourist Information office in the central station.

The four musicians are having a good time reading a book. That book is, of course, the Town Musicians of Bremen.

The heady mix of decorative buildings, cobbled lanes, unusual statues and abundant water was exactly what I hope to find in Bremen and what a cursory look at the map had led me to expect.

A busy day's exploring had proved unusually varied and rewarding but there was still more to come.

Refusing a rest back at the hotel I headed out of the city passing through the central station and on to the central park.

This was jaw-dropping amazing.

It was much much larger than I expected with vast open spaces, broad waters and inviting copses.

But it was all the other things that made it so special; the many well-equipped playgrounds for children of all ages (and their parents), the formal gardens, the open-air theatre filling a corner of the park with Shakespeare and the many mysterious paths that guide you from one delight to another.

I only wish that I had had more time to explore it all but I was only there for a day and the old town had to take priority.

If Bremen is reasonably typical for North Germany then I've got a lot more exploring to do in future years.