London to Istanbul

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We couldn't afford the Orient Express to Istanbul and, anyway, we wanted to get off along the way and see things.

So we came up with a route that takes us to a few places that we want to visit. On September 14th we are off on an odyssey of 12 train rides that will take three weeks, eventually reaching Istanbul.

We start on the Eurostar and then whizz along on a 300 km/hour German ICE train. From Cologne, a Czech sleeper “the Phoenix”, will get us to Prague in time for breakfast. A few days there and we'll be off on another train or two to the Polish side of the High Tatra mountains where we plan to do some walking.

We'll then cross the mountains and spend a few more days walking on the Slovakian side of the High Tatras. Off on more trains, heading south to Budapest.

After a couple of days, south again on our second sleeper, "the Ister" into Romania or, more specifically, Transylvania – home to Dracula.

Two more trains will take us into Bulgaria to Veliko Tarnovo, “the city of the Tsars”. From here, our final train "the Bosphor" and our third night on board, will take us to Istanbul, the end of the line for our trip and the very edge of Europe, with Asia just across the water.

Stay tuned, we'll be sending more as we travel.

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Photos

The route
Across Europe in 20 days