ONCE a rite of passage for backpacking teenagers, interrailing is now appealing to the more mature traveller keen to get the most out of their holiday allowance.
After lockdown ends and travel restrictions are lifted, the continent is likely to see a rush of visitors flocking across the channel.
But why choose one city when you could see four European capitals in a week?
Earlier this year, as a fortysomething, I embarked on my first interrailing adventure.
I’d always regretted not going as a teenager, so grabbing my rucksack and friend Rhonda, I headed to London St Pancras for the 11.04 to Amsterdam.
Interrailing has had a resurgence in popularity over the last few years, especially among the older age group.
Eurail’s GlobalPass offers travel around 33 countries from France, Italy and Slovakia to Serbia, Finland and Denmark.
There are discounted passes for the over-60s and you can even pimp it up by upgrading to a first-class ticket and explore the continent in style.
Our first leg is by Eurostar, arriving in Amsterdam around 4pm.
Despite our advancing years, we have chosen the full backpacker experience by staying at Generator, a trendy budget hotel/hostel in an old university building in Oosterpark.
It attracts a mix of couples, families, teenagers and older travellers like us.
We are in Amsterdam for just 17 hours, enough time for a canal cruise and a peek into the red light district, but not quite enough time to see the Rijksmuseum art museum.
Instead we embrace Dutch culture another way with fried bitterballen — fried meatballs — and beer in the famed Bar Bukowski, dedicated to US author and legendary boozer Charles Bukowski.
It’s up early for the 9am train to Berlin.
I was worried that spending endless days on trains would become boring, but no, European rail travel is a delight with clean, comfortable carriages and fully stocked buffet cars.
We read books, chat and nap, and before we know it, we are pulling into Berlin Hauptbahnhof ready for city number two.
We’re staying central in the Mitte district and with almost 24 hours in Berlin, we have plenty of time to visit the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the Berlin Wall memorial on Bernauer Strasse.
After lunch the next day, we are back at Berlin Hauptbahnhof for the next leg to wonderful Copenhagen.
The seven-hour journey means it’s late when we pull into the Danish capital.
But a ten-minute stroll to the hotel allows us to briefly get our bearings.
After breakfast, we score a couple of bikes from the front desk and set out to see as much of Copenhagen as we can in a few hours.
Starting with Nyhavn, Copenhagen’s famously colourful quayside, we spin past Amalienborg Palace, where the Danish royal family reside, and grab a selfie with the Little Mermaid statue.
There’s just enough time for a herring sandwich in Det Lille Apotek, Copenhagen’s oldest restaurant, before our train to Hamburg, back in Germany.
Less than five hours later and we are following in the footsteps of The Beatles with a night in the studio where they made their first record, now a Generator hostel.
We head straight to St Pauli to explore Reeperbahn, Hamburg’s most sinful mile, a gaudy strip of neon-lit bars.
Luckily, our hangovers are eased by the eight-hour train journey to Paris.
Our final night is spent exploring the trendy Canal Saint-Martin district, where our room on the eighth floor of Generator Paris has a private terrace with a direct view of the Eiffel Tower — the perfect adieu to our European adventure.
GO Interrailing
GETTING THERE: An Interrail global pass allows seven days of train travel across 33 countries for a month from £281.
See interrail.eu.
STAYING THERE: Generator has properties all over Europe including Amsterdam (double rooms from £65), Berlin (from £44), Copenhagen (from £57), Hamburg (from £52) and Paris (deluxe rooms with a terrace from £94).
