Hello and a very good afternoon from my hotel
room here in the Romanian capital, Bucharest. Now, sadly my time on this trip has come to
an end and it is time for me to return back to the UK. Originally, I planned to take the roughly
two and a half hour flight from here up to London Heathrow but then I thought, with the
whole pandemic situation in the last year or so it's been a while since I've been able
to return to the UK from some far-flung country by train with the, you know, passing through
several countries and whatnot thing and the border issues that have come along with a
pandemic but thankfully, that is now possible and I'm going to be taking full advantage
of that as I'm going to be taking the train from here in Bucharest up to London, This journey
is gonna span two days traveling through several different countries. On the way we'll be going through Hungary,
Austria, Germany and France on the way back to the UK and yeah, should be a nice trip. Hopefully should be some nice scenery on route
as well and yeah, so I'm just gonna be heading up to Bucuresti Nord and the first leg of
this journey. I'm going to be going to Vienna aboard a CFR
sleeper. Got a solo cabin, it's about 19 hours through
to Vienna, it's going to be my longest train of the year so far, yeah really looking forward
to this one. I've been looking forward to this ever since
I booked it so yeah let's get over to Bucuresti Nord and head to Vienna and on to London! Now before we head up to the station, let's
just have a look at the route we'll be taking over the next couple of days. Our route will see us covering around 3,000km
or 1,840 miles, first taking CFR's overnight Dacia sleeper train to Vienna, before taking
a pair of German Intercity Express trains from there to Frankfurt and onto Karlsruhe
near the French/German border. Then, it's a 320km/h blast on a TGV into Paris, from Paris, it's just a quick, 2 hour hop
on a Eurostar service to London. Total scheduled journey time is 46 hours and
39 minutes. Our mammoth journey starts around lunch time
at Gara Bucuresti Nord, or Bucharest North Railway Station, which is the Romanian capital's
main station, with it originally opening back in 1872. While perhaps in a bit of a need of some refurbishment
works, I found the station to be pretty pleasant overall, with there being plenty of shops
and takeaways at your disposal. Being semi-open to the elements, the concourse
is quite cold on this early autumnal afternoon, but there is an enclosed waiting room off
to the right, should you wish to sit and warm up while you wait for your train. Luggage lockers are also provided, should
you wish to go off and explore Bucharest without your bags. While it is possible, and I'd certainly recommend
booking your ticket to Vienna online and in advance, no e-ticketing is offered on this
route, or at least I wasn't offered it, so you have to go and pick up your ticket from
the ticket office before departure. That said, it's a pretty quick and easy process,
although I did pop down the day before, just to ensure that there wouldn't be any unnecessary hold
ups. Plenty of departure boards can be found scattered
throughout the station. Now, I found these to be clear and easy to
read, with information being displayed in both Romanian and English. Our train, which is CFR Călători's 346 Dacia
service to Wien Hbf or Vienna Main Station, is scheduled to depart at 14:00, although
we don't have a platform just yet. Also, can we also just take a moment to appreciate
the jingle they play here before each announcement. Much like the departure boards, the announcements
are also done in both Romanian and English. Eventually, we're told to head to platform
2 in preparation for boarding. On the adjacent platform, waits an Astra Trans
Carpathic service. Astra Trans Carpathic are one of Romania's
seemingly numerous private rail operators, who compete with the national operator, CFR
Călători. Anyway, our train is eventually shunted in
from the depot around 20 minutes prior to departure. The rear 3 coaches will not be coming with
us to Vienna, but rather will split with us along the way, and head to Coșlariu, a small
village in the centre of Romania. Somewhat of a rarity for a Romanian train,
there's a bistro car included in the consist, although this will only be available until
this evening, as it also splits from the Vienna portion, so don't be expecting to have breakfast
there in the morning. The Vienna portion consists of 4 coaches,
made up of 2 2nd class seated coaches, a couchette car and a sleeping car. We'll be travelling in the latter today, and
I've booked a private cabin for tonight's journey. The sleeping car we'll be travelling in is
a Romanian built Astra Arad WLABmee 70-91 coach. While I'm not exactly sure when they were
built, they are apparently the newest type of sleeping car to operate in Romania, and
they certainly look much more modern that the coach I had on the sleeper down from Cluj-Napoca
a few nights ago. you'll find that video in the top right corner
of the screen now. Haulage is initially provided in the form
of a CFR Class 40 electric locomotive. After checking in with the friendly host,
you'll be granted access to the car. And here's our home for the next 19 hours
or so. Now, don't worry if you find more than one
bed set up, they do this regardless of whether or not you're sharing your cabin. And we depart Bucharest bang on-time at 2 o'clock. Scheduled journey time to Vienna will be 19 hours and 21 minutes. We're soon out of Bucharest and speeding north
towards the mountains, and Brasov. We eventually arrive at the foothills of the
southern section of the Carpathian Mountain Range. There should be some rather impressive scenery
in store for us over the next few hours. Eventually, one of the crew members came to
ask me if I'd like to eat in the dining car, which I obviously said yes to. I say offered, as the couchette and sleeping
cars are locked off from the rest of the train, so they need to know when to unlock them,
should you want to eat in the Bistro. The coach behind us is the Couchette car. I'd say this is the best option if you're
travelling on a budget, as, while you will be sharing with strangers, you'll at least
get somewhere to put your head down for the night. A place in a 6-berth couchette will only set
you back around 255 lei, which is only around a quarter of what I paid for my private cabin,
more on the cost later in the video! Behind this are a pair of 2nd Class compartment
coaches. Now I had hoped to show you one of the compartments , but unfortunately, they were all occupied. I wouldn't recommend travelling in one of
these if you're on the train for much more than a few hours, as they're going to be much
less comfortable, and less secure than a sleeper or couchette. Then we find the bistro car. Now, I wish I could show you the menu, but
unfortunately it was just in some old tatty booklet, and it was only in Romanian, so I just had
to kind of guess as to what things were. Also note that they only except cash, although
they do accept both Romanian Leu and Euros. So, what was my mystery meal? Well, it turned out I'd ordered cheesy chips
with salad, as well as a Budweiser beer. Total cost was €6 which, while I was expecting
it to perhaps be a bit cheaper, is nothing compared to what you'd pay in say Germany,
France or the UK. All meals are served with a side of stunning
Carpathian views! On the way back to my cabin, I decide to head
and check out the toilets. I must say, everything was surprisingly clean
and, with the exception of a broken hand dryer, functioning as intended. Sleeping car passengers also have access to
communal showering facilities, although you will need to bring your own towels along. Right, before I plonk myself back down, I
think it's time for a room tour! The door can be double locked from the inside. You can also ask the attendant to lock it
from the outside should you wish to go to the bistro. The beds on these trains are pretty wide for
a sleeper train in my opinion, and the mattress and bedding were of fairly good quality too,
which is always good. Reading lights are provided for the
lower and upper berths, as well as controls for the main lights. Each berth also has a plug socket so that you can charge your Pentium Laptop and Nokia Brick. The blind was a right pain to get down, as
it would just catch on the middle berth. To get it to go down, I had to sort of half fold
the berth away, and then try and lower it. One nice feature of these cabins is that there's
a sink tucked away in the corner. An electrical outlet for razors, a little light and a mirror are all provided here, and the sink features a mixer tap. There's a pouch and cup holder provided for
each berth, and this is also where you'll find a complimentary bottle of water. A bin can be found underneath the sink. Moving further round, there's a little table,
with a bit of extra storage. Above this, there's a rather big mirror, as
well as some coat hangers. A ladder for accessing the upper berths can
be found stored by the doors. Above the door, you'll find a whole host of
controls, including a thermostat, which I found to be pretty effective, a call button
to summon the attendant, more controls for the main lights, volume controls for the PA
system, and a little night light. Above all this, there space for what should
be used for storing luggage, although they were also storing extra bedding up here. And that's about it! Overall, a pretty well equipped sleeper cabin! By about 4 o'clock, we find ourselves approaching
Brasov. Brasov is one of the largest city's located
in the historic Transylvania Region and, featuring a rather extensive old town area, is popular
with tourists. Here at Brasov station, they have an old,
CFR Class 150 steam locomotive on display. I believe this particular example was built
in 1941. Like the sound of ad-free early access to
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channel members pages, to get this for as little as $1 per month! All that's left for us to do after Brasov
is to sit back and relax as the rolling hills of Romania glide on by. One thing I love about taking the train, is
that you get a whistle-stop tour of little towns and villages that there's no way the
average tourist would ever see. I just think it's really cool! Eventually, the sun begins to set, as we continue
towards the Romanian/Hungarian border. About 3 hours after Brasov, we arrive at our
next stop of Sighisoara, which is well know for its walled old town, which has UNESCO
World Heritage status. With there now being very little to see out
of the window, I decide to try and grab a few hours of sleep, before we have to wake
up for the border crossing. As Romania isn't part of the Schengen Zone,
my passport will need to be checked both as we leave the county and as we enter Hungary. Now, I think the beds were maybe even a tad
too comfy, as I slept through my alarm, and awoke to a Romanian border guard pounding
on my cabin door. Stamped out of Romania, around half an hour
later, I was stamped into Hungary and the Schengen Zone. I then awoke next at around 5am, to find we
were in Budapest. Note that the train reverses direction here. Also, don't forget that we're now on Central
European Time, which is 1 hour behind Romania. We're treated to a lovely sunrise as we continue
on west towards Austria and Vienna. As a result of us reversing direction in Budapest, we're now at the back of the train, giving me easy access to the best window on the train! We eventually arrive in the city of Gyor,
which is known for its ties to German car manufacture, Audi. After a brief stop in Hegyeshalom, we cross
into Austria for our final little canter into Vienna. We eventually pull into Wien Hbf on-time at
20 past 8. Once here in Vienna, it's possible to use
my sleeper ticket, or indeed the first class ticket I've got for my connecting train to
Frankfurt, to access the OBB First Class lounge. Much like the rest of the station, it's very
modern and uplifting, with a pretty decent of drinks and snacks offered here. Eventually, the time comes to leave the tranquillity
of the lounge, and head across to the platform for boarding. The service we'll be taking to Frankfurt am
Main is the 11:15 ICE 26 bound for Dortmund. The 6 hour journey through to Frankfurt will
be aboard this ICE T set. While capable of tilting by up to 8 degrees,
it is the least E of Germany's high speed fleet, having a top speed of 230km/h or 143mph. First Class features a rather spacious 2+1
seating configuration, as well as this rather smart and almost calming interior. Unfortunately, I'm going to be stuck in a
bay of 4 today, as the cheapest fare I could find was through trainline, who don't
let you pick your seat. Not great considering I'm travelling alone
on what is set to be a full train today. That said though, the bays are at least pretty
spacious, and in this sort of semi-compartment style layout. You'll find a large, fold out table between the
seats. There's also controls for the entertainment
system, although, while I didn't have any headphones to test it, I highly doubt it's
still in use. Each seat also has a two step recline system
and access to a plug socket I also find these older First Class seats
to be rather comfortable. Reading lights can be found above the seats,
as can the electronic seat reservations. And lastly, there's also a window blind. And we depart Vienna on-time at 11:15, for
the 6 hour and 21 minute long journey to Frankfurt. After a brief stop at Vienna Meidling, it's
full speed ahead through the tunnels and towards Linz and Germany. Shortly after departing Vienna, the crew came
round offering coffee. Now, these aren't included in the price of
your ticket, but I've always been a big fan of DB's frothy cappuccinos, so I couldn't
resist having one. About an hour after departing Vienna, we stop
in Austria's third largest city, Linz. A short time later, we find ourselves running alongside the River Inn, as we close in on Passau. Germany is now only on the other side of the
river. We eventually cross the Inn, subsequently
leaving Austria and entering Germany. A few moments later, we arrive at Passau Hbf
,where we crash into, sorry I mean couple with another unit. By mid afternoon, we've made it as far as
the city of Nuremburg, meaning we're now just a couple of hours from Frankfurt. Okay, let's go and see what else these ICE
T trains have to offer. These trains feature one of Deutsche Bahn's
famous panoramic sections, where you can sometimes get a view of the cab, but unfortunately,
the window was set to opaque on this occasion. The front 1 and a half coaches of this unit
are where you'll find First Class. Even though today's train is very busy, I
still found that there was plenty of space for storing luggage, in various locations
throughout each coach. The ICE T's also feature a Bordrestaurant
towards the middle of the train. You'll find the full menu for this in the
description below. Much like First Class, Second Class is also absolutely
packed. That said though, I've travelled on this route
in Second Class before, and I still think that this is a fairly comfortable option. And I found the toilets to all be fine and,
to say how busy the train was, rather clean. Around an hour out of Frankfurt, we arrive
in the city of Wurzburg. A little while later, we find ourselves fast
on the approach to Frankfurt (Main) Hbf. We soon cross the River Main, taking us into
central Frankfurt. We eventually pull into the rather beautiful
Frankfurt (Main) Hbf just a few minutes late, at 20 to 6. Now, I have just under half an hour until
my connecting train, that'll take me over to Karlsruhe, where I'll then connect onto
a TGV to Paris. Now for some reason, it took me ages to find
which platform my train would go from, which rather comedically turned out to be the very
same platform that I'd arrived in on from Vienna. Our train through to Karlsruhe arrives in
from Hamburg on time. The service we're taking is ICE 79, which
is bound for Zurich in Switzerland. This will be operated by one of these shiny
new, ICE 4 sets, with this particular set being capable of 250km/h or 155mph. The ICE 4s feature Deutsche Bahn's new interiors,
with an updated seat, and rather stylish mood lighting. Unfortunately, my seat, which is Coach 11,
seat 94, had, shall we say, rather disappointing window alignment. Bar being a bit newer, the seats are still
broadly similar to what you'd find on the older ICE trains, so I won't bother boring
you with another seat tour, although I will say that despite what some people say, I still
found these seats to be very comfy. Anyway, we've departed Frankfurt am Main on-time
at just after 5 past 6, for the 1 hour and 3 minute long journey to Karlsruhe. Can I just say, I think that having the lighting
as part of the luggage racks looks very smart indeed. We're soon speeding west as the sun begins
to set once more. Our only stop en route to Karlsruhe is in
the city of Mannheim, which is of course located on the Rhine. Having now arrived in Karlsruhe on-time at
around 10 past 7, we now have just 20 minutes to wait until our TGV will arrive in from
Stuttgart to take us through to Paris. The station here has a pretty good selection
of shops, and, as I hadn't really eaten a great deal since the lounge in Vienna, I took
this opportunity for a quick refuelling stop, before heading up to platform 6. Before long, white lights appear through the
darkness off in the distance Our ride though to the French capital tonight
will be aboard this 320km/h or 199mph capable TGV EuroDuplex set. Once again, for the journey through to Paris
Gare de l'Est, I'll be travelling in First Class. We end up departing Karlsruhe a few minutes
late at 25 to 8. Despite being a bit dated, this is still one
of my favourite First Class seats out there. While the legroom is okay, it's the seats
themselves that I love. They're like big, old armchairs, and I can
assure you that you're not going to be uncomfortable in one of these. Also, the seat's recline is controlled electrically,
which I think is rather neat! Footrests and a nice, big tray table are also
provided, as well as 1 plug socket per seat. Around 40 minutes after departing Karlsruhe,
we arrive at Strasbourg, our first stop in France, meaning we've now rather impressively been in 5 countries in the time since the clock struck midnight. This will also be our last stop before Paris. From Strasbourg, we join the LGV Est, meaning
we can run at high speed pretty much all the way to the suburbs of Paris. First Class on this evening's service was
thankfully rather quiet. In terms of luggage storage, the overhead
racks are really rather small, but there are larger ones dotted throughout the saloon,
and in some of the vestibules. After grabbing a quick drink from the bar,
again, full menu in the description below, I move to an empty bay of 4 and grab a bit
of shut eye. Now, I think that this may have been a case of me getting a tad too comfy again, as I slept for around 2 hours and awoke to find that we were already well within
the city of Paris, and fast approaching Gare de l'Est. We actually pull into Gare de l'Est around
5 minutes early at 20 past 10. Now from here, I need to make the short walk
to nearby Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar for the last bit of the trip to London. However, this doesn't depart until the morning,
so I've booked a nearby hotel for the night. The cheapest I could find in close proximity to Gare De L'Est was an Ibis. It was about €96 for the night, which by
Paris standard, is not too bad at all. Well, good morning everyone. It is the last day of this journey. Last night, I must admit I got in and basically just crashed and went to sleep, as I did on the TGV as well! I was so exhausted that I just slept for most of that journey but overall a fairly pleasant journey over from Vienna Now we're gonna be catching a Eurostar service through to London St Pancras, thanks to the wonders of high speed rail and the Channel Tunnel, London is only 2 hours away by train I booked a standard ticket for this journey, standard class that is, standard premier is ludicrously overpriced. It's only a 2 hour journey, don't really need the extra legs pace on that. Yeah just gonna head up to Gare Du Nord now, it's only a short walk from my hotel near Gare De L'Est and yeah lets head to London and get this journey finished. So, I hauled myself from my hotel and across
to Gare du Nord, which I must say, looks very picturesque with the sunrise in the backdrop,
to catch my last train of the trip. Despite it already being about 20 to 8, the
station was unusually quiet, and if you didn't know otherwise, you certainly wouldn't have
thought that this was Europe's busiest railway station. And here's what'll be taking us back across
the English Channel today, it's an e320 Siemens Velaro unit, anyway, without further ado, let's
head upstairs and clear passport control and security. I've always found security to be a bit of
a faff on Eurostar, and they were seemingly more concerned with checking, double checking
and then triple checking that I'd turned my camera off, as opposed to checking what I
had in my bag. Anyway, I've now been stamped out of the Schengen
zone and had my passport scanned back into the UK. If you're travelling in Standard or Standard
Premier, you must pass through the ticket gates at least 45 minutes prior to departure. With all that now completed, we now
find ourselves in London Hall, which is the Eurostar departure lounge here in Paris. All you'll find through here is some seating
and a few overpriced shops and cafés. Boarding commences at just before 10 to 9,
for an 09:13 departure. As we board, here's a quick look at the café
métropole, where you can purchase drinks and snacks. Full menu in the description below. Standard Class is laid out in a 2+2 configuration,
with both Standard Premier and Business Premier featuring a 2+1 layout. Now this is once again set to be a very busy
train, so here's a bit of a tip if you're ever travelling alone in Standard on a Eurostar
service. Have a look on the seat map either the night
before or the morning of your trip to see if there are any empty pair of seats as you
can change your allocated seat as many times as you like. Even on a busy service, I've rarely had anyone
sitting next to me when employing this tactic. Do you know what, legroom in Standard is nowhere
near as bad as I seem to remember it being, and is certainly more than adequate for a
just over two hour trip. A footrest and seat back pocket are provided
as well as a large and sturdy tray table. These seats do off a little bit of recline,
and both an EU and UK plug socket can be found per pair of seats. I find the seats themselves are very good
too, being rather comfortable! And lastly, a window blind is also provided. We actually end up departing Paris a few minutes
early, for the 2 hour and 25 minute, nonstop journey to London. Top speed will be 300km/h or 186mph. It's not long before we're out of Paris and
speeding north through the morning mist, towards Lille and the Channel Tunnel. Once underway, I decide to head to the café
and grab a much needed coffee and a bottle of water. For the last time in this video, it's time
for a toilet tour. While the sink area was all fine, the toilet wouldn't flush, which needless to say wasn't great We go speeding on through Gare de Lille-Euope. As I've mentioned in the past, some Eurostar
services do stop here, but I always somehow seem to end up on a nonstop service. Not long later, we find ourselves slowing,
as we approach the channel tunnel. Once in the tunnel, it'll only be about 20
minutes until we pop out the other side. We exit the Channel Tunnel at Folkstone, and
join the south eastern end of High Speed One, which will take us through to London. Also don't forget that the UK is one hour behind central European time. As we go speeding on past the traffic on the
adjacent M20, I think it's about time I summed up the experience. Is this the fastest, cheapest and most convenient
way of travelling between Romania and the UK? Absolutely not! The British Airways flight I'd originally
booked was scheduled to take just 3 and a half hours from gate to gate, and cost just
€70, and I imagine you could get this even cheaper on a low cost airline, such as Ryanair
or Blue Air. The train however sure is a great adventure. It's not often you find yourself in 6 countries
within the space of 48 hours, and not to mention you get plenty of time to relax and unwind
as the views roll on by, and there's nothing to say that you couldn't split your journey
along the way and stop off in one or more of the places we pass through, treating it
a bit like a land cruise. So the cost! Well, I've put the cost of each individual
leg on screen for you now, but total cost, including the hotel in Paris was £426, $556,
€510 or 2,518 lei. On the surface, it seems quite expensive and
that's because, well, it is! However, you could knock up to 75% off the
Bucharest to Vienna ticket by either booking a Couchette or sharing a sleeper cabin, which
I would have certainly done were it not for the fact I was filming, as well as travel
in 2nd Class from Vienna to Paris, which would knock about 50% off that fare and, as someone
who's done it in the past, can testify that it's still a fairly comfortable way to travel. I reckon the full trip could easily be done
for under £250. For extra reference, I'll only booked my tickets
about a month in advance. So, for me at least, a journey to remember! But what did you make of the whole experience? Do let me know this and whether or not you'd
consider travelling from Bucharest to London by train in the comments below. We finally pull into the majestic London St
Pancras International a few minutes early at 25 to 11, giving us a total travel time
of from Bucharest to London of 46 hours and 35 minutes, accounting for the 2 hour time
difference between Romania and the UK. Well there we have it! Less than 48 hours after leaving Bucharest
and I am in London. Now, I'm sure it wasn't the fastest and by
no means the cheapest way of getting between the two cities, I mean flights are ,like,
I don't know I've seen them going for about 30 quid on British Airways and take about
two and a half hours, but it was sure of heck more of an adventure and I certainly enjoyed
doing it! Anyway, I do hope you enjoyed the video. If you are new to the channel be sure to subscribe
and enable notifications as I publish new trip reports every Friday. Thanks a lot for watching and I will see you
next Friday!
