And off we go, Scotland to Austria, via train, and with the floof monster tagging along to boot! Normally doable in 2 days of travel, but due to #Eurostar hating dogs it will take 3 days

Started off with a wee tram ride

And now on #LNER to London, left bang on time - waiting for the complimentary breakfast

Floof monster slightly nervous, probably because at this time he's usually still snoring on the sofa

#LNER pleasant and bang on time as always - next leg, Southeastern to Folkestone...

Southeastern runs on #HS1. Fun fact: the only proper and modern high speed line in the UK, the birthplace of railways, is the line you take when you want to get the **** out of the UK.

And next, after a 4 hours wait in queue, a taxi ride inside this one. Normally you'd just take the #Eurostar and go from London to Paris in a couple of hours, but given Eurostar hates dogs and doesn't allow them onboard, this expensive 5 to 10 hours detour is needed to cross the tunnel. Fun.

And the last leg, at least for today, will be to Lille, via this tiny-but-surprisingly-spacious regional #SNCF service from Calais

...finally, snooze time!

Back on the tracks - this half cancelled (!! - half of the train is late so we'll leave do without it) #tgv is carrying us to Brussels, where we'll be in the hands of Deutschebahn. May the gods help us all.

@bluca oh no not Deutsche Bahn 😱

Good news: the #ICE is actually there! (Yes, this is not a given)
Bad news: it will unexpectedly terminate in Koeln instead of Frankfurt, because reasons.

@kevinsapper always a thrilling experience: will your train arrive? Will it depart? Will it go where it was supposed to? Come on board our DB service and find out! Cause nobody knows

Update: the DB train guard says the DB app is wrong, and the ICE will not terminate earlier in Koln. The DB app still says it will. Who's right? Who's wrong? We'll find out in a hour, cause nobody knows for sure. Thanks for travelling with #DeutscheBahn

Der floofmeister appreciates the spacious compartment on this #ICE however he'd like to submit a complaint about this glass door that's stopping him from trotting around, making new friends and ensuring there are no squirrels stowaways onboard

Good news: the train guard was right, the #ICE did not terminate in Koeln
Bad news: we are 10 minutes late on a 20 minutes connection in Frankfurt

Incredibly the delay into Frankfurt was only 10 minutes, and this next #ICE that will bring us to Wuerzburg left on time. Things are going too well for DB standards, I'm starting to get suspicious.

One #TGV, two #ICE and one regio express later, and we are finally in Bamberg, and only with a handful of minutes of delay! Hard to believe. And now, the breweries await

#Bamberg is lovely, but they should seriously consider letting someone who isn't high on diesel fumes do their urban planning. The medieval square with the cathedral, the old court and the royal palace, bustling with tourists walking around, as a thorough route for private car traffic? Seriously?

Anyway, a couple of days and many bocks, dunkels and rauchbiers later, back on the (rail) road. Short trip on this #ICE to catch the very last connection in Munich

And finally, #ICE to Klagenfurt - left 5 minutes late, but otherwise all good. Sitting right behind the driver's door - which means in practice a mini compartment of 6 seats, nice and quiet which is perfect for the nervous woof

Exhibit A: the nervous woof keeping a vigilant eye on the vestibule. You never know when a squirrel might try to sneak on board.

@bluca last time I sat in that place I overheard two driver casually talk about how broken the ICE is and that it is only operating with 30% breaking power.

@kevinsapper ahah exactly the kind of news I want to hear as we start climbing the tracks on the Austrian mountains 😄

#ICE on Worthersee! I guess it rhymes in German. First time I've got from Germany to Austria on an ICE, usually it's an Eurocity heap of junk held together by duct tape and prayers, so it was a very nice journey. And on time too!

All in all, one tram, 6 intercities, 3 regionals, a taxi on a shuttle and 3 days of travel is all it takes to go from Scotland to Austria by train with a dog. Wonder why more people don't do it!

Sadly, it's already time to head back home - this very comfy #OBB Railjet will carry us to Salzburg, where we'll spend a couple days sightseeing and terrorizing the local pigeon population

Snoozy-paws officially approves of this Salzburg hotel. Time to rest, many pigeons to scare for life tomorrow

Back on the track, today's the longest leg - leaving Salzburg bang on time, we'll see if we make it to Lille tonight. On this snowy morning, this big red boi is ferrying us to Munich

Passport control on the train between Austria and Germany, might cause us to miss the next connection. Whatever happened to #Schengen eh @EU_Commission ?

Snowy Bavaria looking good

...but the floofster prefers the warm and cozy #railjet carriage

Arrived late in Munich due to Schengen being apparently dead (train stopped at the Austrian border for passport checks), had to leg it across the station to catch the ICE, barely made it, might have lost a lung along the way. Next stop: Frankfurt

Hard to believe but the #ICE arrived perfectly on time in Frankfurt, and the next one left on time too! All perfect? Almost - WiFi dead on the first one, half the electric onboard dead on the second one, so no hot food. If we get to Brussels without issues, I'll take it.

Why is boarding #TGV always so utterly chaotic? Every single time - impressive!

Despite a half hour delay because the train was borked, during which they left us in the dark (literally, all lights off), they eventually managed to turn the tgv off and on again which fixed it, so we made it to Lille! And that's that for today's journey, tomorrow a long wait in a taxi queueing for the eurotunnel awaits us

Last day of travel - allegedly. #SNCF is ramping up its competition with #DB in many areas, and today they decided to cancel our train from Lille to Calais at the last minute. So we'll have to make do with yet another connection after this regional to Hazebrouck

Woofmeister keeping a watchful eye on the tracks, you never know when a band of squirrels might try and hijack the train

Managed to catch the connection despite delays due to a broken level crossing (do they still make these?!), this even smaller regional (at least it has luggage racks!) is the final train we'll be riding on the continent - I guess, does Le Shuttle count?

Following a surprisingly short waiting time, we are already boarding Le Shittle (typo, but decided to leave it there) as it starts snowing. Slow, expensive and largely pointless detour, only necessary because #eurostar hates dogs. If only the much talked about competition for the route showed up, it might put some sense into them: about 1/3 of Eurotunnel passengers carry pets, and there are several "pet taxi" companies. I'd pay any ticket supplement if they allowed dogs on the Eurostar.

Back in auld blighty - after bidding farewell to the nice taxi driver, the next leg starts in the world-renown metropolis of Folkestone, that I would definitely definitely visit all the time if it wasn't for the need to cross the Eurotunnel in a taxi. It's getting snowy here too, and services are starting to get delayed - a quick hop on the Southeastern HS to Ashford and then we wait, and hope

Next Southeastern HS did show up despite the snow, so made it to London - that's good! But we are in London, that's bad. But only for less than half an hour - that's good!

And we are out of London - phew! The #LNER journey is always my favorite, absolutely nothing to do with the plentiful and complimentary HopOn IPA, of course

Finally back home in Auld Reeky. It started with a tram, and it ends with a tram

Der Woofmeister back in his natural habitat, after an extenuating few days (and a sneak bath as soon as we stepped back home - sorry floof but you were too manky). So, all it takes for two people and a dug to travel from #Scotland to #Austria by #train is 19 trains, 2 trams and 2 taxi rides on a shuttle, spread over 6 days. And an inordinate amount of money, planning and patience. 10/10 will do it again next year!

Oh and credit where credit is due - ALL #DeutscheBahn services did actually run, and were (mostly) on time! Had more issues due to #SNCF random cancellations and delays. It's a Christmas miracle!