WALKING THE HIGHLAND CHIEFTAIN! From 2nd September I will be walking from London Kings Cross to Inverness following the route of the famous Highland Chieftain service to raise money for Samaritans! Please donate what you can: www.justgiving.com/page/highlan... #ChieftainChallenge

Tiranë cable car up to Dajti! 🚡 🇦🇱 Quite a slow bus journey to the city outskirts but some amazing views from this length cable car! Shame the top was fully misty so no views!

An explore of Tiranë! 🇦🇱 The Albanian capital a very interesting city to explore! Though with no metros or trams to speak of they’ve got quite a bad traffic problem!

Durrës! 🇦🇱 Albania’s port town with some cool stuff such as a Roman amphitheater and castle ruins!

Rosslare Strand ✅ Every last station in Ireland ✅ 2,807 stations now visited across the Uk & Ireland! 3,575 stations/stops if you include all the metro, tram, subway, underground & heritage stations! Thank you Ireland - it’s been great!

Italy, it’s been fun! But I love a good overnight ship crossing and Bari has quite a few it seems! 🚢 🇮🇹 Mirë se vini në Shqipëri! 🇦🇱 Welcome to Albania! 🇦🇱 My 39th Country visited!

Onwards now to Bari Centrale on a nearly 4h relaxing intercity train from Caserta, just north of Napoli! 🇮🇹 Bari a much calmer city than Napoli and a pleasant place to stroll along the coast

A really interesting time wandering around the preserved ruins of Pompeii Highly recommend a visit if you get the chance! 🇮🇹

Often called “Europe’s Worst Railway” the Circumvesuviana railway provides a relatively frequent commuter service around the Napoli / Pompei / Sorrento area 🇮🇹 Definitely in need of some investment but hopefully the new Stadler trains will be a clear improvement!

A brief wander around Napoli, a very chaotic city with some good views of the bay and Mount Vesuvius! 🇮🇹

Vatican City! 🇻🇦 A visit to my 38th new country and the smallest country in the world!

Tried out two high speed Italian trains between Roma Termini and Napoli Centrale! Trenitalia’s flagship “Frecciarossa 1000” and an ETR 675 “EVO” operated by private operator “Italo” both very comfortable even if Italo was 87m late due to a line issue!

Rome! The historic Italian capital had many things to see including the Trevi Fountain, Spanish Steps and Colosseum! 🇮🇹

But wait! The journey isn’t over yet! Time for a second consecutive sleeper train! This time Trenitalia’s service from Torino to Salerno, which I’ll be taking as far as Napoli Centrale! 🇮🇹

Torino! A brief walk around the pleasant Italian city! 🇮🇹

After a ScotRail HST, sleeper train and very tight connection into Eurostar plus a long TGV ride, I’ve made it to Torino! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇫🇷🇮🇹 As the EDB portion was 60m late, it made a tight connection extremely tight, but I thankfully made my Eurostar! 🚆

Thurso! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 The furthest north town on mainland Great Britain! I’ve been here a number of times before and really like the town! But now it’s time to head south!

Time for a trip to Scotland and I am going north by slightly different means this time! Ember coach at 1am from Glasgow, got me to Inverness at 0500! Time to wait for the new Greggs to open before jumping on the 0700 to Thurso!

Heading East on a route I’ve down a few times I decided to mix it up and tick off some of the smaller stations between Disentis and Andermatt! 🇨🇭

Down to Graübunden for another ride on Rhätische Bahn, one of my favourite operators! This time I travelled to Preda with the intention of walking to Bergün, the next stop down. As the paths were extremely snow covered, this became a road walk, but didn’t ruin the views!🇨🇭

Crossing over the border to Switzerland to visit a place that’s been on my list for a while now! Rheinfall on the edge of Neuhausen in northern Switzerland! Amazing place with 2 railway stations and plenty of viewpoints for the waterfalls! 🚆🇨🇭

It’s time I escape the UK again! This time starting with Colmar, a lovely town in the Grand-Est region of France 🇫🇷

It seems some new stations have opened! Including Bedlington which opened this morning, I paid a visit for the first train! Bedlington ✅ Willenhall ✅ Darlaston ✅

Lake Bled 🇸🇮😍

Tornio Itäinen ✅ And time for a sleeper train I’ve wanted to try out for a while now, the Finnish Railways sleeper down to Helsinki! En-suite room tonight for £58 (50% off with interrail pass)

Time for a walk from Haparanda to Tornio. Tervetuloa Suomeen! 🇫🇮 Finland is a new country for me, number 37! Amazing display of Aurora Borealis to welcome us!

A pleasant but cold (-17°C!) few hours exploring Luleå! Including a very confusing shopping centre and an icy path / ice skating motorway over the frozen river inlet with tractors and dog walkers. Did I mention it was cold?

Boden! A lovely little town to have an explore of!

Stepped back a train at Kiruna, 2 hours to kill in -17°c so went to find chips!

Amazing to see the stunning Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) late last night during a walk around the edges of Narvik! 🇳🇴 Magical to see it with your own eyes rather than through a camera!