Summer 2025
Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand
This will be my large summer trip for 2025. I’ll be flying into Hanoi via Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific. From here I will travel through Vietnam and Cambodia on sleeper trains, buses and domestic flights together with family. After 3 weeks my family will leave and I will be joined by my girlfriend to explore Thailand.
November 2025
London
A short trip to London
February 2026
Tunisia
A week away in Tunisia, planning to ride the national rail network and the Tunis light rail
May 2026
Moldova
A week in Moldova, planning to take the sleeper train from Bucharest to Chisinau which changes gauge in the middle of the night, but not in a comfortable way
Autumn 2026
Orient express by interrail
After graduating I want to travel the original Orient Express route from London to Istanbul via the Simplon tunnel and Venice. I can’t afford the real express train and what is the fun in a completely care-free trip anyways. I’ll be traveling for 2 weeks or so via France, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Afterwards I might travel through Turkey or some strange little lines through the Balkans.
In planning
Chicago
Currently at the top of my list of US cities I want to visit. I have a whole document of transit and non-transit related sights I want to visit and experience. I’ll probably spend a week here and take Amtrak to another US city for my flight back.
Previous trips
April/May 2025
Boston and New England
Traveling for a 1 week vacation to Boston, ME, NH and VT with family. I rode the newly opened South Coast Rail to New Bedford in those huge American doubled decker commuter rail cars, mighty! In New Bedford I visited the city hall where they have the oldest still operating elevator in the world whose very kind attendant showed me around the building. I also rode on the T a whole bunch including the Mattapan line and visited the MBTA gift shop which has to be the best shop I ever set foot in.
March 2025
Bordeaux
A midweek getaway to southern France using Thalys and OuiGo via Paris. I booked in advance which meant the return trip cost only €100,- per person which is much cheaper than flying! Including a 1,5 h lay-over in Paris, which is very necessary as you have to cross the city to get from Gare du Nord to Gare Montparnasse, the whole trip took only 6 hours.
Bordeaux has a very French tram network built in the last few decenniums. Catenary-free through the city centre and with quite a nice aesthetic, these trams were a treat to ride. Mainly used to hop between wine bars.
March 2025
Poland
I saw a €19,- one-way flight from Eindhoven to Katowice and I had to take it. The Katowice metro area is fascinating with a rich history of coal mining and basically 5 cities that have merged together connected by a vast (and I mean VAST) interurban tram network. Lots of great little single-track lines with old Tatra’s that are slowly being renovated to suit the needs of a 21st century city. A town nearby by the name of Tychy has a post-war trolleybus system clearly inspired by the Soviet Union.
The Polish railways took me from Zabrze to Wroclaw and I spent most of my time on the train in the dining car which is phenomenal! Highly recommended to take an intercity train that has one (check vagonweb.cz) and order anything, they cook it on a stove right in front of you. Dirt cheap too.
Wroclaw is beautiful city, a stark contrast to the functional look and urban renewal of Katowice. They even have a peculiar little cable car connecting to parts of the university campus across a river. After this I took a train to Wolsztyn where I hoped to ride the only regularly scheduled, non-heritage, steam train in Europe. Sadly it was not running this month due to concession disputes.
I ended the trip in Posznan and Berlin where I rode on the weird little tramways on the Eastern outskirts of the German capital.
August 2024
Eastern Germany and Czechia
I bought the €49,- Deutschland-ticket which allows unlimited travel on public transportation except IC and ICE services. I had a rough plan but nothing booked, a first for me. Travelling over Weimar, Chemnitz, Dresden, Liberec, Leipzig and Hannover I took almost 100 trains, trams and buses. I visited a couple transit-geeky attractions such as a funicular in Lichtenhain, an interurban tramway between Liberec and Jablonec and I took two steam trains. It was a great success costing just over €250 for a week of fun, will do again.
August 2024
Sweden and Norway
A trip with my girlfriend where the main activity was a week long 100km canoeing trip on the Swedish lakes. We took regional trains to Hamburg from where we took an SJ sleeper train to Stockholm, my first real sleeper train experience. We stayed in Stockholm for a few days after which we took an amazing 1960s train to Karlstad where our week long canoe adventure began. After being on the water for a week we took an SJ train to Oslo where we spent our last few days and flew back home.
July 2024
Montenegro
Together with a group of friends I flew into Dubrovnik and rented a car for our week long trip in Montenegro. Due to it being high season the lovely cities were flooded with cruise ship tourists in places like Kotor and Budva. Luckily the capital city of Podgorica was not much of an attraction so we took a train from our apartment in Virpazar to the capital where we spent a day. The train was new but the infrastructure definitely not as none of the crossing gates worked and we had to come to a standstill at every level crossing of which there were many.
May 2024
Copenhagen
I was invited by a large construction company to come and see the new Fehmarnbelttunnel being built to connect Germany and Denmark by road and rail. The operation is immense and it was breathtaking to take a look inside the multiple factory halls where tunnel segments are being constructed. I also took a day to explore Copenhagen transit and I rode all of its small but very efficient metro network. I also took a train north to Helsingør and back to Copenhagen via Hillerød.
Summer 2023
Slovakia, Hungary, Austria and Slovenia
Together with a group of friends I travelled through these countries using public transportation. In Bratislava I rode a lot of trams and some regional rail. In Budapest I adored the tiny subway cars of line 1, took a cog railway up a mountain to take a train run entirely by children (see image above) and I took a chairlift back down again. The train to Graz was beautiful as it used the scenic Semmering pass. In Slovenia we were stuck in a town called Lesce due to floods, I did manage to take a day trip to Italy on an old train through a luscious green valley. Our bus back was cancelled so we took a taxi to Austria and a Railjet and ICE back home, all was reimbursed by the insurance company.
2023
Various city trips
In 2023 I visited Paris, London, München and Wien and made good use of the public transportation options available in all cities.
Summer 2022
West coast US and Canada
I flew into SFO where we rented a car and drove north through NorCal and along the Oregon coast. I took light rail in SF, Portland and Seattle before ditching the car in Vancouver. Here I joined a group of students and we took a 3three week trip visiting several construction projects up and down the coast. In Vancouver we got a bike tour from the municipality along some of its improved urban infrastructure and I rode a lot of Skytrain. We took a bus down to Seattle where I took the Link 1 to the new Northgate extension and also rode on the monorail. trolleybuses, ferries and streetcars.
We flew Alaskan down to SFO where I rode all possible modes of transportation including hanging off of a cable car. We had an awesome project visit here where we were allowed to walk inside of the new central subway tunnels under Chinatown. We took Caltrain down to San José where we boarded the Coast Starlight down to Santa Barbara which is the best train journey I have ever taken. Using the Pacific Surfliner we went to LA where we tried to survive using public transportation but ended up using Uber a lot. The B line was very useful though as we had a hotel in Studio City. Flixbus got us to our final destination of Las Vegas where I forgot to ride on the monorail.