We’d met in London’s West End for a pint and a catch up and discussed doing a rail trip together later in the year. I’d suggested we did something in Britain but my good friend Jools preferred Europe.
The next time I heard from him he pinged me a text. “Hey, Kraftwerk documentary on TV this evening”. We both loved Kraftwerk as well as trains.
Fast forward a couple of months and we were catching up via email. Again the subject got onto doing a rail trip in the summer. How about a trip to Belgium he asked?
Trans Europe Express
I looked at Jools’ email. A return trip on Eurostar and a few days in Belgium sounded great but didn’t quite hit the mark.
I’d need to come up with something more to convince myself, and more importantly, my wife, to justify taking some time away from our new family.
OK let’s do Belgium I replied, and began to elaborate. And why not Amsterdam, I looked at a map and saw Düsseldorf across to the south-east and wrote.
Amsterdam >Düsseldorf …
Paris > Vienna >Düsseldorf > TEE
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Rendezvous on Champs-Elysees
Leave Paris in the morning on T.E.E.
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
In Vienna we sit in a late night cafe
Straight connection, T.E.E.
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Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
From station to station back to Düsseldorf City
Meet Iggy Pop and David Bowie
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Trans-Europe Express
Kraftwerk Inspired Train Tour
Boing Ping Boom Tschak Ping!
Within a couple of hours, we’d agreed the outline of our trip. Finding out Kraftwerk were playing in Utrecht at the start of the 2015 Tour de France was the clincher. We bagged tickets straight away.
Here we are on the verge of a fantastic train trip which is going to take us to all three cities mentioned in Trans Europe Express. With our discounted Interrail Passes we’re ready for our tour of Europe. And if you’re a non-European resident, you can grab a Eurail coupon code deal to make the trip.
There’s plenty more going on, so keep in touch and follow our journey on Twitter and Instagram at #TourdeKraft from 3 July to 10 July.