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Eurail Global Pass Using the Mobile Option: A beginners guide to using the Eurail app and understanding what it is doing.

  My wife and I purchased a 22-day Eurail Global Pass, mobile option, in mid-2022. We were going to be starting our trip from Worthing on the south coast of England in mid-September, and wanted to make a round trip of visits in France, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands and France again before returning to London. We didn’t want the hassle of either flying (where there were major disruptions happening on a regular basis, e.g. at Heathrow and Schipol airports), or driving – the latter would have required a vehicle rental, and cost a lot of money. We live in New Zealand, which doesn’t have a rail network to speak of, so we are complete novices when it comes to train travel. Whereas (generalising here), European rail systems provide excellent and efficient linkages between major cities and towns, and Europeans treat train travel as second nature. We were total dummies when it came to using our Eurail Pass. You might say we are slow learners, but it wasn’t until were about half-way through
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The Swiss Alps

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  I’m writing this on a train travelling from the city of Chur, in the (more or less) south-east, to Basel, in the (more or less) north-west. This is a 2 ½ hour trip, and ends 7 amazing days in the Swiss Alps. Apart from last night when we were near St. Moritz, we stayed with our friends Edith and Sarah at their second home in a tiny village called Tschamut – see photo below. It is near Andermatt, a major ski resort, and is reached from Andermatt by crossing Oberalppass, ~ 2044 m a.s.l. Below Tschamut runs the Rhine River: well, the main branch of the formative Rhine – there is a second branch which joins this one at Reichenau-Tamins – more on that branch of the river later. For this branch, there is an official site marking the source of the river (a high lake, about 1 hr walk upstream and uphill) but we didn’t have the time or weather on our side to visit it. Tschamut Major visits: ·          Zermatt and Gornergrat – to see the Matterhorn but it wasn’t on display that day – s
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Tuscany, Bern and Zurich

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  Tuscan hills and history The last blog was posted the night before we were due to take a balloon ride with Tuscany Ballooning, run by Pascale and Kirsty and their business partners, plus a small army of highly professional ground and support staff including Pascale and Kirsty’s son Oliver (piloting one of 4 balloons that went up that morning) and daughter Anna running the office back on terra firma. They are super-busy, so we were indeed very privileged to snare two slots on a glorious still and sunny morning. We flew for well over an hour, from near where Kirsty and Pascale live, close to San Casciano, as the sun started to touch upon the amazing landscape of small villages/towns, vineyards interspersed with olive groves, valleys and ridges of the Tuscan Hills, and the occasional open field for landing on! It was spectacular! So quiet, with perfectly clear sky and excellent visibility. Pilot Pascale At one stage we saw see the distinctive dome of the Duomo (Cathedral) of F
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Whistle stop touring: Paris, Marseilles, Genoa and Cinque Terre

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  So now we have crossed to the Continent, using our Eurail Pass. I am writing this at the home of Kirsty and Pascale (Abraham family friends), which sits on a hill-top near the town of San Casciano in Val di Pesa, about 30 km south of Florence, at the northern end of the Chianti wine region. In the beautiful hills of Tuscany. More of that in the next blog. In the meantime, there is stuff to catch up on from the last 6 or so days, which have gone by in a bit of a blur. Every day has been so full, it has been a case of: find hotel-get something to eat and drink-crash. No time to write a blog! First, the Eurail Pass . The one we bought is valid for 22 days, on most train services in 33 countries. We plan to travel in France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as the UK – all being Eurail member countries. As many people have experienced, the rail systems in Europe are awesome: you can get to most major regions and towns/cities by rail, quickly and efficiently,
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Cornwall ticks the boxes

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  What we enjoy doing most in the UK is being in the more-rural and remote areas, stopping off in the smaller villages and towns, visiting gardens, exploring the coast, and walking. Cornwall ticks all our boxes, with a constant background of stunning scenery and picturesque sights. Rural and remote? Although a very popular region for holidaying and tourism, it’s not as busy as ‘heartland’ England, so does feel more like being in the country and away from the heavy traffic etc. that gets really tiring. The roads are, commensurately, small and remote: we drove many miles on ones like in the photo below, heart-in-mouth and hoping like heck not to meet anything coming the other way especially tractors or trucks! Amazingly, they do work pretty well, people who drive them regularly are very skilful and we didn’t have any real problems, other than its slow-going, like 15-20 mph average for any journey. So, just allow extra time. A Cornish road. To be fair, these are just connections bet
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