PHOTO
INSERT CREDIT HERE
00.00
LEAVING PARIS
‘This must be what sprinters feel like
’,
I think, my
stomach knotting as we make our way through Gare du
Nord towards the first leg of the mammoth 1,645km
journey and clamber on to train numero uno. Dressed in
loose-fitting layers for comfort, trainers for speed and
bum bags for efficiency, we look more like a pair of
middle-aged American tourists on a power walk than
world beaters. The world’s biggest losers, maybe.
Stopwatch in hand, I run through the route for the
umpteenth time. Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam, Prague,
Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest. Over the past weeks, it’s
become my mantra. Guinness had set us a minimum of
six capitals and initially I’d worked out a route of seven,
with the aid of various travel experts and Rail Europe’s
exceedingly useful web-based timetables (
raileurope.
co.uk
). But when the guidelines came through from
Guinness (23 pages!), it turned out Amsterdam (where
we only had time to get to the airport) wouldn’t count.
This first train, the high-speedThalys, was a no-brainer
according to rail-expert Mark Smith, who’s the blogger
behind
The Man in Seat 61
. “It’s certainly the quickest way
to get between Paris and Amsterdam,” he told me on the
phone. “It travels at about 300km/h.” Early confidence in
high-speed trains like this one was tempered by the
realisation that the distance we could cover was
constrained by timetabling. In the end, I found the key to
devising a 24-hour plan was to use the speedy trains of
western Europe, a flight to quickly connect to the east and
a sleeper train to keep going overnight.
But enough about the boring bit. This sweaty-palmed
moment was what I’d been waiting for. We settle into
our seats, fingers poised over ‘start’ on our stopwatches.
Then, with a lurch of train and stomach, we’re off!
01:30
A QUICK STOP IN BRUSSELS
Our world-record attempt soon garners lots of interest.
They’re well used to celebrity types on this train though,
according to Dutch train manager Thijs, who’s happy to
name drop as he signs our logbook. “We get everyone,”
he says. “Lots of stars: government officials, famous
singers. Even the King of Belgium takes Thalys.”
That doesn’t surprise. With its purple, velveteen seats,
free wi-fi and landscape-smearing speeds, it’s a
»
0 5 7
