(Please note - the colours mentioned from here on do not display on mobile devices for some reason and I can't find a way around it.)
Visited Countries
- Austria (Vienna)
- Belgium (Brussels x2, Louvain-a-Neuvre, Leuven, Brugge, Roeselare, Zonnebeke, Passchendaele)
- Bosnia (Sarajevo, Mostar, Neum)
- Bulgaria (Sofia)
- Croatia (Zagreb, Dubrovnik x2, Podgora, Split x2, Plitvice Lakes, Stari Grad, Hvar)
- Czech Republic (Decin)
- Denmark (Vaduz, Billund, Copenhagen)
- France (Mulhouse, Strasboug, Saint Louis)
- Gibraltar (Gibraltar)
- Hungary (Budapest)
- Ireland (Dublin, Cork, Cobh, Blarney)
- Italy (Ancona, Milan, Tirano)
- Latvia (Riga, Jurmala)
- Liechtenstein (Vaduz)
- Lithuania (Vilnius)
- Luxembourg (Luxembourg - well just the outskirts really)
- Montenegro (Budvar, Kotor)
- Norway (Narvik, Tromso, Stokmarknes, Svolvaer, Bronnoysund, Trondheim)
- Poland (Szczecin, Wroclaw, Warsaw, Wolsztyn)
- Romania (Bucharest, Brasov)
- Spain (Islands of Corralejo and Lanzarote, Canary Islands, La Linea de la Concepcion, Algeciras, Ibiza, Seville x2, Madrid, Barcelona)
- Sweden (Stockholm x2, Gavle, Uppsala, Kiruna, Malmo)
- Switzerland (Zurich x5, Romanshorn, Basel x2, Jungfraujoch, Lauterbrunnen, Brig, Chur)
- The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Gouda)
- Ukraine (Kyiv, Chornobyl, Pripyat)
- United Arab Emirates (Abu Dhabi, Dubai)
Because of this, our travel style has seen a bit more of bigger trips with a side trip tacked on for an extra day or some hours spent elsewhere - so more than a weekend for places we think worth it, and less than a weekend for nice-to-visit places where a full weekend is too much. We do have a big list of places still left to visit, which is so big its kind of stressful. Clearly, we won't be able to do everything but most of it might be achievable. Something quite different about this last 6 months though was the biggest trip of all, to New Zealand and Australia for Christmas Holidays. This means I got to add more Australian destinations to the list, and technically New Zealand was visited from Berlin - technically I should add it as a visited country, but I'm not going to because that's not what the list is about.
So what are the big things to note in this list? Last time I noted The Netherlands and Denmark were conspicuous by their absence - they have now been ticked off. I also noted Paris, France and Rome, Italy were absent - and they are still absent (Sasha has been to both anyway). Portugal still rates high on our list of places to go, and I'm going to add Greece as another place I thought I would have visited by now but haven't. Strangely enough, Zurich has furthered its lead as the most visited city outside of the countries in which I have lived. Surprising for a city which, having been there so often now, does not offer a huge amount to do!
Visited Places in the UK
- England (London xM, Brighton, Bletchley, Folkestone, Hythe, Dungeness, Birmingham x3, Kidderminster x2, Bridgnorth x2, New Arlesford, Alton, East Grinstead, Sheffield Park, Lincoln, Carlisle, York, Bath, Windsor, Salisbury, Luton xM, Gatwick xM, Stanstead xM, Liverpool x2, Ryde, Shanklin, Ventnor, Newport, Portsmouth, Loughborough, Ascot, Didcot, Oxford, Weston-Super-Mare, Dover, Southend, Brooklands, St Austell, Penzance, Lands End, St Ives, York, Scarborough, Pickering, Grosmont, Whitby, Cambridge, Henley-on-Thames, Southampton, Nottingham, Newark, Newcastle)
- Northern Ireland (Belfast x2, Bushmills, Giant's Causeway)
- Scotland (Inverness, Drumnadrochit, Fort William, Mallaig, Edinburgh x2)
- Wales (Swansea, Porthmadog, Portmeirion, Caernarfon, Blaenau Ffestiniog, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil, Pant, Torpantau)
Naturally, I don't live in the UK anymore so its dried up a bit - but there has been two visits to the UK during the red period, and added a bit more red at the expense of some blue in a few cases. Repeat visits to the UK were not something that I really considered were going to happen, nor am I forecasting a whole heap more but I think without a doubt there will be another visit to the UK in the next 6-month period.
Visited Places in Germany
- Germany (Dortmund, Hanover x2, Wernigerode x3, Friedrichshafen, Stuttgart, Speyer, Sinsheim, Nuremberg, Dresden x3, Freiburg im Bresigau, Cologne, Koblenz, Brohl, Linz am Rhein, Nordhausen, Munich x3, Berlin xM, Potsdam xM, Meiningen, Hamburg, Hohenschwangau/Neuschwanstein, Füssen, Bremen)
I am continually surprised when I do this list, just how little we've seen of Germany by the terms of this list since living here compared to when I was living in the UK and visiting Germany! In some ways this is a bit false, as we keep doing a lot of Berlin but of visits to other cities or towns, there has not been a huge amount of new. There are two reasons for this mostly - the first is we've been more focused on ticking off the places overseas that we want to visit, but also the places we want to see in Germany are not so easily done from Berlin for a weekend here and there. Most of them are the big West German cities - all of which are close to each other, and are probably better done one after the other over the course of a week or more. We do have a mind map for Germany also, and Berlin features fairly heavily in that - we have done quite a bit in Berlin already, but there is still more to do!
The Railway Stuff
Excursions - 60009 London-Lincoln-London, UK - 46233 London-Carlisle-London (diesel hauled out of London and via Settle-Carlisle), UK - 35 1097 Dresden-Nossen-Dresden, Germany - Ra 846 Gavle-Uppsala, Sweden - 45407 Fort William-Mallaig-Fort William, UK - No.1 and L150 on London Underground, UK - 76079 Grosmont-Whitby, UK - 03 2155 Berlin-Wosztyn-Berlin, Germany | Railways - Bluebell Railway, UK - Mid-Hants Railway, UK - Severn Valley Railway, UK x2 - Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, UK - Harz Mountain Railways, Germany x3 - Weisseritztalbahn, Germany - Great Central Railway, UK - Didcot Railway Centre, UK - Kasbachtalbahn, Germany - Tyseley Locomotive Works, UK - Ffestiniog Railway, UK - Welsh Highland Railway, UK - Brecon Mountain Railway, UK - North Yorkshire Moors Railway, UK - SteamRanger Railway, Australia - Wolsztyn Steam Parade, Poland | Other trains of note that I have ridden - ICE High Speed Train, Germany xM - Eurostar x3, UK/France/Belgium - HST/IC125 xM, UK - IC225/Class 91, UK - Virgin Pendolino tilting train, UK xM - Javelin High Speed Train, UK - London Underground xM - Docklands Light Railway xM - Swedish X2000 HST - AVE High Speed Train, Spain - Glacier Express, Switzerland - Bernina Express, Switzerland - Jungfrau Mountain Railway, Switzerland | Railway-related Museums Visited: - National Railway Museum, York, UK x2 - DB Museum, Nuremberg, Germany - Cite du Train, Mulhouse, France - London Transport Museum, UK (and their Acton depot) - Science Museum, London xM - Thinktank Birmingham, UK - DB Museum Koblenz, Germany - Swedish Railway Museum, Gavle - Trainworld, Belgium - Deutches Technikmuseum, Berlin -Meiningen Railway Workshops, Germany - National Railway Museum, Adelaide, Australia - Dutch Railway Museum, Utrecht, The Netherlands |
The Two Trips Per Month Aim
November 2014 - Australia - Abu Dhabi - Liverpool - Brighton February 2015 - Bletchley Park - Mid-Hants Railway, Hampshire May 2015 - Stockholm, Sweden - Romney Hythe & Dymchurch Railway, Kent August 2015 - Euradventure - Croatia, Bosnia, Italy, Switzerland, Germany - Scotlandventures - Scotland and Northern Ireland November 2015 - Liverpool - Riga, Latvia February 2016 - Northern Ireland inc. Giants Causeway - Nordic Odyssey (Sweden & Norway) May 2016 - Southampton - SVR Diesel Gala, Kidderminster and Birmingham August 2016 - Fringe Festival, Edinburgh - Köpenik Forest day trip November 2016 - Decin and Dresden - Weekend in Wroclaw - Christmas Markets Potsdam - Christmas Markets Dresden February 2017 - Swiss Trip plus Liechtenstein - Templehof Airport | December 2014 - Germany (Harz Mountains) - Train trip to Lincoln - York - Swansea March 2015 - Brussels, Belgium - Birmingham & SVR, Kidderminster June 2015 - Isle of Wight - Great Central Railway, Loughborough - Ascot Races - Basel, Switzerland for a week inc. France & Germany September 2015 - Dismaland, Weston-Super-Mare - Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany December 2015 - Budapest, Hungary inc. Austria - Snowdonia, Wales March 2016 - Brooklands - Cardiff and Cornwall June 2016 - Spanish Funfest, Ibiza, Seville, Madrid, Barcelona - Deutches Technikmuseum September 2016 - Meiningen Railway Workshops - Oktoberfest, Munich December 2016 - Warsaw Day Trip - NZ & Aus for Christmas March 2017 - London plus Bremen - Potsdam, Brandenburg | January 2015 - Canary Islands - Train trip Settle Carlisle line April 2015 - Windsor, Bath & Stonehenge - Germany for a week, inc. France & Switzerland July 2015 - Didcot and Oxford - Cologne, Germany October 2015 - Berlin, Germany - PS Waverley cruise from London to Thames Forts - Tyseley Locomotive Works, Birmingham January 2016 - Destination Greenwich - Gibraltar April 2016 - Ireland - York & Yorkshire - Brugge & Brussels, Belgium - Henley-on-Thames (Tough Mudder) July 2016 - Potsdam x2 - Szczecin, Poland - Croatia, inc. Montenegro October 2016 - Bucharest & Brasov in Romania - Hamburg January 2017 - Weekend in Wernigerode - Neuschwanstein trip April 2017 - Dimension Jump, Netherlands and Denmark - Wolsztyn Steam Parade |