Category: journey
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The Ancona to Split ferry across the Adriatic
From Ancona on the East coast of Italy, ferries regularly sail to Croatia, Albania, Corfu and Greece. It’s population reflects that, and I was served lunch by a delightful Albanian woman. She told me you can take your dog on ferries to Albania too. Ancona is a beautiful little city, worth some extra time for…
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Cookies save the day
Hours of tough bus replacement service today (Šibenik to Zagreb) were relieved by strawberry and ginger oat cookies. Baspie dog and human loved them. He was so good and patient, 6 hours on a coach floor with only one comfort break! These cookies are so simple to make and unsquashable, plus you can mess around…
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Railway Dog off to Parma
This surprisingly was the InterCity train from La Spezia to Parma. It slowly squealed its way northeast away from the scrubland of the hilly Mediterranean coast to the huge flat and fertile Po valley. So much track squealing that an English woman on the train, with a brain injury causing sound sensitivity, nearly had to…
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Hiking the Cinque Terre – by train is the only way
The only way along the Cinque Terre coast between Levanto and La Spezia is by train. Even the tour groups have to go by rail. With an unlimited Interrail ticket, you just hop on and off to your heart’s content. The higher trails are lovely and empty, I didn’t see people for an hour or…
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Koblenz to Lugano, a long day for a dog
It’s 660km from Koblenz to Lugano, and according to Google maps faster by train than car. Baspie was an angel surviving the 8 hours 10 minutes of train journey, plus a further 20 mins on the suburban train. It was due to be 7:10, but we were delayed 90 minutes, then regained 30, by managing…
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Drizzly cycle on Good Friday
The forecast wasn’t good, but what was I supposed to do with an Interrail ticket, a bicycle that came inexpensively with the Airbnb and a dog? We are staying in Niederlahnstein, which has taken a while to learn to spell. It’s the Caversham of Koblenz, ie the pleasant suburb on the other side of the…
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A dodgy day of delays cancellations and scattiness
Yesterday Baspie the dog and I agreed that much as we like snuggling in a sleeping bag together, there are temperatures below which it isn’t an effective strategy. -3C was too low. Sub zero was forecast again. So we let the tent defrost and dry in the sunshine, and snuggled some more. We had some…
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Trains to Maastricht
Easy to get on the trains, I just showed my Interrail QR code to the entry gate, but very little signage on platforms to say where you are. To find out which platform your train goes from, best go on a platform and find a small screen. In the Netherlands you buy a day train…
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Arrival in the Netherlands
A quiet night on the ferry, with not much barking from other dogs in the pet cabin area. Arrival was easy. I was last off due to dog, which means you can lie in. You can’t go for breakfast if alone as you can’t leave a dog in the cabin. So bring your own food.…