Tag Archives: Train Journeys
Tuesday Train – Puno to Cusco, Peru
In 2001 I took the train from the shores of Lake Titicaca to the Andes Mountains. It is one of my most memorable journeys as we traversed wonderful landscapes.
Tuesday Train – Haydarpasa Station in Istanbul
Back in 2009 trains from the Asian side of Istanbul ran eastwards towards the Middle East. This is where we took the Dogu Express to Ankara before continuing on to Aleppo in Syria. Outside the station stood an old restored engine on some railway tracks, overlooking the Bosporus shipping. The station itself was a real […]
Tuesday Train – Simferopol to Lvov in Ukraine
With my thrice aborted attempt to take the trans-Siberian train, at 27 hours this 2011 trip remains my longest train journey. We actually started out from Sevastopol, a further 90-minutes south in Crimea. Total distance in excess of 1,000 km. You can see on the map below the area travelled. Unfortunately the cities shown have […]
Severely Delayed Tuesday Train – Ankara, Turkey
In 2009 I experienced one of my favourite ever journeys. Istanbul to Ankara by the Dogu Express, on to Adana on the Toros Express, bus to Antakya, and finally taxi over the border to Aleppo in Syria. The journey started with a frog march from our hotel to the port to catch a ferry across […]
The Overdue Tuesday Train – King’s Cross, London
Last week I took a lovely LNER Azuma train from London to Newcastle to meet a friend to go to some National Hunt horse racing meetings. Over four days we took in racing at Newcastle, Catterick, Carlisle and Ayr, staying two nights in Northallerton in North Yorkshire and two in Edinburgh, using buses and trains […]
(Late Running) Tuesday Train – The Cuckoo, Borjomi in Georgia.
I took the train known as the ‘cuckoo’ in 2019. The Kukushka (translates as little cuckoo in Russian) is a 37 km narrow-gauge railway linking the national park town of Borjomi to the village & ski resort of Bakuriani in Georgia. The construction of the 900mm wide line began in 1897, when Georgia was still […]
My Iconic Travel Moments – 2011 to 2019 (#5) – A Journey To Georgia
Number 5 – Train to Georgia You may well know by now that I love an overnight train journey – throw in a dining car with fabulous views too and I am completely bowled over! In 2015 I travelled to Georgia from Istanbul, taking a train to the edge of the Kurdish region of Turkey […]
Scandinavian Tour Part 5 – Narvik in Norway
The North Atlantic port of Narvik is right at the end of the Iron Ore/Ofoten line from Lulea on Sweden’s Baltic Coast. You can read parts 3 & 4 of my tour to read about our journey there. My fourth visit to the strategically important town was my first from east to west, with my […]
Scandinavia Tour 2022 Part 4 – From Sweden Into Norway
Kiruna to Narvik When my travelling companion and I were learning geography at school, we were taught all about the Swedish iron ore industry and how a train line was built to Narvik so the ore could be exported. You see, the shallow Swedish Baltic Sea port at Luleå that was the main route out […]
Scandinavia Tour 2022 Part 3 – Iron Ore in the North of Sweden
I left off part 2 with us being stuck in Boden waiting for a rail replacement bus to take us to Gällivare. To our surprise our ticket collector travelled with us and proceeded to give us a guided commentary on the journey. As bus journeys went this was not too shabby! The three-hour journey sped […]
