🚄 Interrail 2023: Denmark, Sweden, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium
Published on Aug. 14, 2023, last edited on Mar. 29, 2024This summer, I did my second Interrail trip. With an Interrail pass, you can travel with many different trains throughout Europe with little to no additional cost. In this post, I will share some pictures I made during this trip through 5 different countries, as well as share the route and trains I have taken.
My journey (5,652 km) started and ended in Le Mans, France. I spent 2 days, 5 hours and 33 minutes inside trains, out of 12 days of travel.
A] 🇩🇰 Copenhagen
My first destination was Copenhagen in Denmark. To get there, I took a TGV (French high speed train) from Le Mans at 9:30 to Strasbourg (France), followed by another TGV to Karlsruhe (Germany) and then an ICE (German high speed train) to Hamburg (Germany). I arrived there at 21:29 with enough time to get a nice lunch before taking the Snalltaget, a night train service that took me to Ørestad (near Copenhagen), Denmark.
B] 🇸🇪 Gothenburg
The next day, I took the Oresundstag train to Gothenburg in Sweden. This train rides on the magnificient Øresund Bridge linking Denmark and Sweden.
C] 🇸🇪 Stockholm
Gothenburg to the capital of Sweden, Stockholm, is really easy and fast with the high speed train from SJ (about 3h for 450km). In this train, you can enjoy the views of many different lakes passing by, while eating a delicious meal (if you pre-order it when booking).
D] 🇩🇪 Berlin
I then took the EuroNight train 345 operated by SJ, from Stockholm Central to Berlin Hauptbahnhof. Leaving Stockholm at 17:34, you arrive in Berlin at 9:00.
E] 🇳🇱 Rotterdam and The Hague
After Berlin, I took one of my last train of this trip to get to Rotterdam, Netherlands. The train (IC 148), operated by DB left Berlin Hauptbahnhof at 8:33 and arrived in Amersfoort at 14:33. I then took a 57m train to Rotterdam Centraal. The DB InterCity train was equiped with a restaurant car, in which I enjoyed a delicious chili. During one of my days in Rotterdam, I went for a short trip to The Hague. Thankfully, the trip was only 19m, and the fare was included in my Interrail pass.
F] 🇧🇪 Brussels
Then, came my train to my last (short) stay: Brussels. I took the NS InterCity train 9260 from Rotterdam Centraal to Bruxelles-Central in just 2h. After Bru[ss|x]elles, I went back home, to Le Mans (France) using a direct SNCF TGV, in just 3h35m.
This concludes my second Interrail trip. I hope this kind of post encourage other people to travel this way by train, it’s such a wonderful and calming experience. See you on the next one! 🙃
Except for the Øresund bridge picture from Nick-D, all other pictures and gifs in this post are licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Attribution to Valentin Pelloin. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.