Transport is Arranged - part 1, planning

We have just returned from a Grand Adventure - from UK to Bergen - seeing Pavement in Oslo, in 8 days, travelling mostly on trains. I used the ridiculously helpful Man in Seat 61 website to structure the trip, and we definitely would not have been so well organised without it. I also might have fell for those websites that look like ticketing websites but actually are brokers who add on a lot of additional fees. I sent all of our travel and accommodation confirmations onto Tripit, which produced an itinerary we could refer to and share with relatives so they knew where we where and when and we could focus on sharing pictures rather than location updates.

Although we wanted to do the whole trip on trains, the UK leg proved difficult as the tickets weren't available, so we flew to Brussels and planned trains up until Gothenburg, when the only option onto Oslo was the Flixbus.

We also decided to use hotels rather than Airbnbs, as we weren't going to be anywhere for long enough to  need the facilities of a full apartment.

We had to do some thinking about packing as I couldn't imagine that our trusty holiday wheely cases were going to be much use in this scenario. After doing some research I chose the Miles Duffle Bag from Millican* which is light and has a folding feature at one end which means it opens almost all the way up, and it has some handy straps inside which I used to fasten my raincoat out of the way. It has a separate padded section at the back for a laptop (used for my iPad and Kindle). I also got some packing cubes which I was glad of every step of the way - it keeps the inevitable rummaging around in the rucksack in public respectable. The non-back-strap handles were really helpful for wrenching it out of the overhead storage places, and for places where wearing a huge rucksack is a bit antisocial. I also took a small cross-body bag and one of the smaller Longchamp La Pliage bags, one of those long-ago eBay bargains you can't seem to find anymore! It origamis to a much smaller size and unfolded it's big enough to pop my padded camera protector in it so I can cart my camera around.

As is usual on a trip, I downloaded more entertainment than I could possibly have consumed - especially when looking out of the window was such a draw! We were one episode into the fabulous Karen Pirie, so I downloaded the rest of that and a few audiobooks but was hooked by the new Kate Atkinson - Shrines of Gaiety from the start, so that was the audiobook soundtrack to my journey.

Rizzo went on her own holiday to the Pooch Pods in Farelton, which is as far away from a kennels as it's possible to be. She has her own pod, her own bed (a single bed, not a dog bed!) and spends all day playing with other dogs.

I was going to do one post about the whole trip but it was taking too long, so I am breaking it down into stages. I realise relatively few people will be interested and read the whole thing, but I wanted to do this so I can remember it! I also thought it might be useful in case anyone is planning something similar and some of our experiences might be useful.

*James took the Cotopaxi Del Dia, which was a huge success; light and capacious and opened up fully like a suitcase. Both bags are made of recycled materials and will be hardwearing, they were a bit of an investment but will get a lot of use and take up next to no space at home.