TRAIN JOURNEYS

From Bergen to Bordeaux

A whistlestop trip around Europe — The First Leg

We bought a three month Eurail pass. It entitled us to travel pretty much anywhere in Europe as many times as we wanted within the three-month period.

We activated our passes in Bergen for the first leg of our rail journey to Oslo. There was some trouble with the tracks, so the first leg was actually by bus. A scary bus.

We travelled over mountains, through snow and rain and sleet, through tunnels — roughly hewn tunnels where there didn’t seem to be enough room for the bus to get through — let alone enough room for a car coming in the opposite direction to get past. I’m not the best bus passenger at the best of times, so this was not a good start to the three months of train travel.