It is often said that the best way to get to know a country is through its cuisine. With this in mind I was determined to sample at least one cake in every country through which we passed in our recent rail journey. Even when we only used a country as a transit stop (as in the case of Switzerland), if there was an opportunity to grab a local cake this was not wasted.

The result is this selection of photos showing the cakes of Europe, designed to demonstrate the European penchant for sweet treats. Enjoy, and apologies for the obvious lack of food photography skills. On several occasions I took a few pictures and then gave up and ate the subject before a decent image could be taken.

San Marino: Ricotta cheese, Fruits of the Forest reduction, San Marino honey on biscuit base

Italy: Torta de Veneziana, an exceptionally heavy nut cake

Austria: the world-famous Sachertorte

Austria: Topfenkuchen (allowed a bonus entry for this delicious cheesecake)

Liechtenstein: a very tasty chocolate torte (nothing native about it as far as I know)

Switzerland: A (surprisingly good) cherry cake hastily bought from a supermarket before boarding a ferry to Germany

Germany: a delicious slice of unnamed cake at Schloss Rheinstein (on the Rhine)

Luxembourg: this cheeky little number didn't survive for long (not a native cake)

Belgium: Gooey dark chocolate cake from Le Temps des Tartines in Brussels. You can tell I've even a lot of cake by now

Disclaimer: this post (and trip) was not sponsored by the European Cake Association. If it was, I would no doubt have had a more refined variety of cakes and would not have had to resort on occasion to popping into supermarkets or bakery chains. Maybe next time – Around the World in 80 cakes perhaps?

PS: the San Marino dessert was ‘on the house’. This may well have influenced my opinion and no doubt made it taste all the sweeter.

Cakes of Europe – a photo tour is a post from: 501 Places

If you’re planning a rail trip in Europe you’ll probably need to decide whether it’s worth buying a rail pass or getting individual tickets as you go. Choosing the wrong option can leave you heavily out of pocket.

While arranging a recent trip from Rimini in Italy back to London it soon became clear that getting a rail pass was not a financially sensible option. However it was only when I dug a little deeper into the details that I discovered just how poor value an InterRail pass is these days.

The Route

View Rail Trip across Europe in a larger map

Breakdown of Rail Costs

Leg 1 Rimini to Bologna

Price paid – €9 (advanced online booking)
Price if bought at station immediately before departure – €9.20

Leg 2 Bologna to Venice

Price paid – €9 (advanced booking)
Price available at station – €10.75

Leg 3 Venice to Verona

Price paid – €9 (advanced booking)
Price available at station – €7.40 (for a slightly slower train)

Leg 4 Verona to Innsbruck

Price paid – €38.40 (no discount for advanced booking)

Leg 5 Innsbruck to Vaduz (Liechtenstein)

Price paid – €9 (advanced booking)
Price available at station – €30.90

Leg 6 Buchs to St Gallen
Paid at station – CHF 19.80 (€16.50)

Leg 7 St Gallen to Rorschach
Paid at station – CHF 4.60 (€3.80)

Leg 8 Rorschach to Lindau (ferry across Lake Constance)
Paid in local tourist office – CHF 17 (€14) (it is quite a bit cheaper to pay on ship in Euros)

Leg 9 Lindau to Schwangau
Bavaria ticket bought at station – €26 covers two people for travel anywhere in Bavaria on train or bus for the day. Cost for one person – €22; for three people €30; for four, €34. Astonishingly good value, especially if travelling in a group.

Leg 10 Schwangau to Nordlingen
Bavaria ticket – €26 for two of us

Leg 11 Nordlingen to Rudesheim
Price paid – €24.50 (advanced booking)
Price at station – €61

Leg 12 Rudesheim to Luxembourg
Price paid – €19 (advanced booking)
Price at station – €45.40

Leg 13 Luxembourg to Arlon
Price at station – €10

Leg 14 Arlon to Brussels
Price paid – £6.50 (€8) as a supplement to my Eurostar ticket, to allow me to travel from any station in Belgium to Brussels within 24 hours of departure of Eurostar.
Price at station from Arlon to Brussels – €20.

Leg 15 Brussels to London by Eurostar
I paid £45 for this leg, but have left it out of the comparisons as it is a ticket that almost all travellers will book in advance and even those with an InterRail pass will need to reserve and pay for.

Summary of costs

I paid a total of €188.20 (£150) to get from Rimini to Brussels.

If I had booked nothing in advance I would have paid €293.35 (£235) for all train and ferry tickets for the same journey.

If I had bought an InterRail pass to do this trip I would have paid €381 (or £320) for a pass that would allow me 10 days travel within a 22 day period (the cheapest of several options).

In addition I would have had to buy my Eurostar ticket, pay reservation fees of €10 each for two of the Italian trains (I could avoid these by waiting for a slower train) and would still have paid the ferry ticket to cross Lake Constance.

So an InterRail pass would have cost me over €200 more than I actually spent.

More surprisingly, I would have saved over €100 if I had just turned up at each station and bought my tickets immediately before departure, compared with buying an InterRail pass. Even someone under 26, who enjoys a hefty discount for their rail pass, would only just cover the cost of their pass when compared to walk-on fares.

So What?

I love rail travel and am a big fan of the idea of rail passes. Some of my fondest teenage memories involve me travelling with my InterRail pass and exploring the far-flung corners of Europe. But the costs now appear to have risen to a prohibitive level.

I recognise that my itinerary is only one example (I have done a breakdown of a Lisbon to London trip last year and found a similar result) and that there are some routes where the pass might be a better option. But these are, I suspect, few and far between.

I hope there will be many more European rail trips for me. Train travel is without doubt the best way to see the many highlights and the unsung surprises that our wonderful continent is blessed with. But with the high cost of a rail pass and the additional supplements on one side, and the fabulous deals such as the Bavaria Ticket and the €9 advanced fares on the other, I can’t see myself splashing out on an InterRail pass anytime soon.

Europe by train: why a rail pass doesn’t make sense is a post from: 501 Places

I recently spent four days in Austria as part of a wider project for Austrian National Tourist Office (ANTO) to explore the country’s ‘Hidden Treasures’. It was a pleasure to return to somewhere I hadn’t visited for 16 years, especially as the memories of my previous visits were happy ones.

I was left to find my own ‘hidden treasures’, with only the overnight stops and rental car pre-arranged by ANTO. My four ports of call were Graz, Eisreisenwelt (just outside Salzburg), Innsbruck and a day hiking on the Eagle Walk. You’ll find detailed posts on each of these on the ANTO website, but I’ve listed a few of the highlights here.

Eagle Walk

I could have spent my whole four days here in the Tyrolean mountains. Soaring, snow-capped peaks, pristine streams running through unspoilt never-ending valleys, wooden huts where you can enjoy sausage and sauerkraut washed down with a cold beer; it may be a classic Alpine caricature but few would disagree that it is a very appealing one.

A well-marked route carefully designed to take in the best of Tirol’s stunning scenery, the Eagle Walk deserves to be as big a draw in the summer for outdoor enthusiasts as the slopes are for winter sports fans in the colder months. And it’s not just snow-capped mountains all the way: the 23 stages of the 280km cover a surprising diversity of landscapes.

Be aware that there is no portering service in place for the full hike. On the upside however, the huts along the route will provide warm showers and hot dinners after a long day’s hiking.

Innsbruck

I really liked Innsbruck. The setting is spectacular and there is a relaxed vibe about a city that accommodates both tourist crowds and a lively student population. There are spectacular viewing points on both sides of the city – to the north via the excellent Nordkettenbahn railway/cable car and to the south at the Bergisel Olympic ski jump stadium and the Zaha Hadid futuristic creation. The city itself has many beautiful buildings. The Golden Roof gets all the attention, but walk down almost any street and you’ll find yourself stopping to appreciate another fine example of Austrian construction.

Top tip: Buy a 24 hour Innsbruck Card and you’ll make it pay with one return trip on the Nordkettenbahn.

Even better tip: Buy the Card as soon as you arrive. In my haste to get up the mountain I didn’t stop to discover its value until later in the day when I’d already spent more than the €29 price of the card.

Odd tip: Heading out of town towards Bergisel, pop into the Friends bar. A locals’ bar if ever there was one, it’s a wonder they haven’t put the names of the regulars on the bar stools. I’d bumped into a couple of guys at the ski-jump and we wondered into this strange drinking den.

Of note is the collection of over 150 witches, hanging on the walls, from the ceiling and most striking of all, the one in human form serving beer from the pump.

A warm welcome is assured but take note:  returning foreign visitors should bring a witch from home to leave as a gift. Or else…

Graz

I knew nothing about Graz before my arrival. Luckily for me, Andreas Susana (aka @travelwriticus) offered to show me around his home city. Graz is a pleasant and attractive place that doesn’t feel big enough to be Austria’s second city. It is the capital of the province of Styria and a visit to its armoury provides ample evidence of the many battles fought over the course of previous centuries. It looks more like the warehouse for a battle reenactment society, such is the quantity of daggers, pikes, guns and armoured suits.

The castle overlooking the city provides plenty more evidence of the rich and often embattled history of the city of Graz. The city is only 40 km from Slovenia in a part of the world where borders once constantly shifted. The castle itself was the scene of a successful defence against Napoleon’s forces.

The modern side of Graz is revealed best in two buildings close to the river Mur; or to be precise, one next to it and one in the middle of it. Murinsel is a restaurant/venue that doubles as an island on a fast flowing river and makes for an unusual backdrop for a cup of coffee. The Kunsthaus on the other hand is perhaps more dramatic in its external appearance, especially at night, than for its collection of modern art within its lumpy bumpy walls.

When it was time for dinner Andreas led me to the excellent Altsteirische Schmankerlstubln restaurant, serving traditional Styrian food. A delicious bowl of steaming garlic soup soon confirmed my initial good feelings about this place.

Eisriesenwelt

This popular day trip from Salzburg takes you deep inside an ice cave high up in the mountains. Entry is by guided tour only and while it’s a little regimented the beauty of the ice formations and natural sculptures speak for themselves. The tour takes around 75 minutes inside the cave and around 3 hours in total at the Eisreisenwelt site.

Getting to the mouth of the cave involves two steep 1km uphill hikes and a cable car ride so it’s not for the unfit. Worthy of a half-day tour if you have spare time in Salzburg, but come prepared (I didn’t) and wear hiking boots and a warm coat.

Salzburg

I wasn’t meant to review Salzburg as I merely spent the night in the city before moving on, but I did take an early morning hike above the city’s roofs along the path that skirts the cliff tops towering overhead. A highly recommended workout before a hearty breakfast and there is even an elevator at the Museum of Modern Art that deposits you straight back to ground level when you’ve had enough.

My verdict on Austria

The single thing I remember most about Austria from my previous visits is the breathtaking landscapes. They of course are just as they always were. What does appear to have changed is the variety of good food on offer and the number of activities and attractions that make a holiday in the mountains an appealing choice.

There’s plenty to do for the adventurous types and I have promised to return here with my wife to explore a little more of the Eagle Walk. But even for those that like enjoying their scenery without the effort, the new cable cars and lifts in every place I visited have made many of Austria’s highlights easily accessible.

Related posts by me on ANTO website:

Innsbruck http://treasures.austria.info/2011/07/11/three-cities-three-stories-to-tell-innsbruck

Graz http://treasures.austria.info/2011/07/11/three-cities-three-stories-to-tell-graz/

5 highlights of a short trip to Austria is a post from: 501 Places