Also, from January 15 to January 25, there's the Lights Festival of Lucerne (LILU). View quoted note →

I saw this video and realised that the Carnival season is getting close so here's a list of events for Switzerland, in case you're looking for a reason to travel. Basel 23.02-25.02 Bellinzona 12.02-17.02 Bern 19.02-21.02 Biel 19.02-22.02 Chur 13.02-17.02 Fribourg 13.02-17.02 Lucerne 12.02-17.02 Murten 06.03-09.03 Payerne 20.02-23.02 Solothurn 12.02-18.02 Sion 12.02-15.02 Thun 29.01-01.02

You have to forgive me for posting ads, even unpaid ones, but the Rhätischen Bahn/Railway deserves it. (The Rhine Gorge, Switzerland)

Not my video, but I liked it so I had to research a bit to find out where it is from, and I want to share. (DB fan here) Eschenlohe (Bavaria, Germany), on the Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen Railway, a single-track electrified line.

For the second day, we travelled from Milan to Udine. Nothing out of the ordinary, a 4:11h trip with Frecciarossa. It has a 24-minute stop in Venezia Mestre, more than enough for a (vending machine) coffee and a few pictures. We chose to have an overnight in Udine because Austria finished the Koralm Railway, and now we have shorter travel times from Vienna to Italy, which should put it on the map, so to speak. Having a kid, travel times are of the essence. 🤷 I'll add the previous post and pictures from Udine as replies. In the next days, I'll be back with the last leg of this trip, from Udine to Vienna.

For nostalgics, here's the TGV breaking the rail speed record, dating back to 1955, by reaching 380 km/h, on February 26, 1981.

Sometimes it's about trains AND cars.

Fiat ETR 450 Pendolino, the tilting Italian train, was launched in 1988 on the Rome to Milan route.

Bernina Express, top of the bucket list. I said at some point that I want to wait for the little one to grow, and then enjoy it. #trainstr

The returning trip, from the French Riviera to Vienna, we split into three parts/days. (I'll add the original post in the comments. Also, I recommend Amethyst because you'll see the pictures as posted, between the right lines, not at the end.) The first day we went to Milan, with a stop in Ventimiglia. Your usual TER, nothing out of the ordinary. After a coffee & snack break, we took an Italian InterCity to Milan for an almost 4-hour trip. While this route is served by older trains, I can't complain at all. In Milan, if you have an overnight stay close to the Milano Centrale train station and you don't want to venture too far, I recommend a food court right in the station's building. I'll add pictures as a reply. In the next days, I'll continue with the second leg, from Milan to Udine.

Deutsche Reichsbahn Class 41, No. 41 241, arriving at Apeldoorn Railway Station (Netherlands). #trainstr

Type 01 Streamliner, introduced in 1935 by Deutsche Reichsbahn. #trainstr

SNCF has a Flash Sale today and tomorrow. For TGV Lyria between Switzerland (Geneva, Zürich, Basel and Lausanne) and Paris for €25 one way. I checked Zürich - Paris (return ticket) and it's widely available. Travelling dates from January 13 to March 13. For OUIGO, across France, €19 one way. I checked Paris - Cannes (return ticket) and, for my selected dates, the price was available but not at the most convenient hours. Travelling dates from January 12 to March 29. The third offer is for Eurostar, €25 one way, with travel dates between January 20 and March 31. I didn't check any dates but some of you might find it useful.

In the new 2026 travel plan that started on December 14, the Deutsche Bahn routes in cooperation with SNCF are as follows: Paris - Munich: 1/day, 5:45h (TGV) Paris - Berlin: 1/day, 3:15h (ICE) Paris - Stuttgart: 5/day, 3:15h (TGV) Paris - Frankfurt: 7/day, 3:50h (TGV/ICE) Paris - Karlsruhe: 8/day, 2:30h (TGV/ICE) Marseille - Frankfurt: 1/day, 7:45h (TGV)

Today, I had the pleasure of taking a quick train ride on a refurbished French TER (Transport Express Régional). Unfortunately, being around noon, it wasn't quite empty, so only one interior picture. #trainstr

The BR 01 locomotive, built for the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft between 1926 and 1938, was the first standardised express passenger steam locomotive (Einheitsdampflokomotive). #trainstr

SNCF has a nice Flash Sale for TGV INOUI until December 4. You can buy tickets for €19 from Paris to Marseille, Avignon and a few other destinations, with travel dates from January 6 to February 5. I took a peek and it looks like there's a lot of availability, sometimes even cheaper.

I was writing about some cancelled routes for the night trains but also about some good news. Since I'm starting to make sense out of the new changes, I will start to present them, in no particular order. The first one, probably useful only to me, is the shorter route towards Italy. While right now it takes almost nine and a half hours to get from Vienna to Trieste, starting December 14, it will take around six and a half hours. Price-wise, €52,60 for two adults and our kid, one way with seat reservations. While Trieste might not be the best place to start exploring Italy, it definitely is an interesting one. Next, I will (probably) focus on Vienna to Paris, since the direct night train was cancelled.

Since my main travelling countries are Austria, Italy and France, I want to present ways to reduce prices for families. It's one thing to buy a ticket for yourself, but the prices hit differently when you need to pay three or four times that price. In Austria, I recommend the ÖBB "Vorteilscard Family". You can buy it online for the price of €19 for an adult and its validity is one year. If the price isn't discounted (Sparschiene Ticket), the adults pay 50% while the kids travel for free. You still have to pay €3 to reserve the seats for adults when it's the case. As a practical example, our family of two adults and a child travels for the price of one adult. In France, you can use "Carte Avantage Adulte TGV INOUI", where it is enough to be purchased by only one of the two parents, for €49. It gives a 30% discount for you, 30% for an adult who accompanies you, and a 60% discount for kids. It also puts a cap on maximum prices that you can pay, so you should check it out before travelling to France. They also have a lot of regional solutions. With Italy, it's simpler because there's no need to pay extra. The family options are included in the total price if you search for them in advance because they apply for a limited time (eg, no less than 15 days for FRECCIAROSSA tickets).

By chance, I took a few exterior pictures at some point with the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express. It was in a smaller train station in Vienna, with no customers, so most likely for cleaning, food supplies, etc. For those who don't know about it, it's a luxury train that runs mainly on the Paris-Venice route, and it's composed of restored Art Deco carriages from the 1920s.