The Great Circular European Railway Challenge

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We are planning a trip around Europe, one hell of a trip.  The original plan was to go to the most northerly,easterly, southerly and westerly extremes or the interrail pass, which is what we did with The Great Circular Indian Railway Challenge.
But one by one each of these has been deemed infeasible in the time scale of about 2 weeks, We ended up instead with 23 European capitals in 16 1/2 days.
There's an extensive blog about this but I wont post that in my opening post (it's pretty easy to find), but I'll post he schedule on the bottom of this.

We're quite a way through the planning phase but it does seem the kind of project that the regulars in here will be interested in. We've still got quite a bit of fine details to get through on the stops, It's sort of a private party, certainly everyone on the train right now knows me already , but if you aren't fazed by the price tag (£2,000 is frankly amazing value considering what we are doing), and come equipped with a disposable ego, it might be up your street.

Anyhow, here's the itinerary, all input gratefully received

Day 1 – Saturday July 6th 2013

Train 1 -  EST 9216 – 373 km – duration 2:36
08:57 London St. Pancras International
12:12 Bruxelles midi Eurostar

Train 2 – THA9339 – 212 km – duration 1:54
15:50 Bruxelles Midi
17:44 Amsterdam Centraal

Train 3 CNL40447 – The Borealis – 1333 km – duration 15:01
19:01 Amsterdam Centraal
Day 2, Sunday, July 7th
10:02 Koebenhavn H

Train 5 –   IC 488 -353 km – duration 3:18
13:46 Koebenhavn H
17:02 Göteborg Central

Train 6 – R 938 – 350 km – duration 4:03
17:42 Göteborg Central
21:45 Olso S

Train 7- NZ405 – 553 km – duration 7:55
23:05 Oslo
Day 3 – Monday,  July 8th
07:00 Trondheim

Train 8 – DF471 – 674km – duration 8:54
07:40 Trondheim
16:36 Bodo

Flight to Narvik

Day 4 – Tuesday July 9th

Train 9 - IC 25 – 437 km – duration 5:44
10:02 Narvik
16:46 Boden Centralstation

Train 10 – NZ91 – 688km – duration 13:13
17:12 Boden
Day 5 – Wednesday July 10th
06:25 Stockholm Central

Train 11 – X2 529 – 644 km – duration 5:13
10:14 Stockholm Central
15:19 Koebenhavn H

Train 12 – ICE 32 – 353 km – duration 4:32
15:44 Koebenhavn H
20:16 Hamburg Hbf

Train 13 – ICE1005- aprox 285 km – duration 1:50
21:21 Hamburg Hbf
23:11 Berlin Hbf
Day 6 – Thursday July 11th

Train 14 – EC173- 192 km – duration 2:07
10:45 Berlin Hbf
15:36 Praha hl.n.

Day 7 – Sunday July 12th

Train 19 – EN477 Mertopol – 370 km – duration 6:18
00:04 Praha hl.n.
06:22 Wien Westbahnhof

Train 20 -REX 7613 -  aprox 74 km – duration 0:58
07:50 Wien Südbahnhof
09:01 Bratislava-Petrzalka

Train 21 – EC 273 – 214 km – duration 2:41
09:54 Bratislava hl.st
12:35 Budapest-Keleti pu

Train 25 – EN 473 – Ister Express – 857 km – duration 15:10
19:10 Budapest-Keleti pu
Day 8 – Saturday July 13th
11:00 Bucuresti Nord Gara A

Train 26 – 461 – 537km – duration 9:25
13:00 Bucuresti Nord Gara A
22:25 Sofia

Day 9 – Sunday July 15th
Train 27 -  R50113 – 48km – duration 1:14
Sofia 09:56
Radomir 11:10

Train 28 – R 60211 – 54km – duration 1:29
Radomir 11:37
Kjustendil 13:06

Bus to Skopje

Train 29 – D134 – 491 km – duration 6:03
Skopje 20:10
Day 10 – Monday July 16th
Belgrade 05:53
Feature: Burek and Yogurt for breakfast.

Train 30 – D 1114 – 204km – duration 4:13
Belgrade 10:28
Strizivojna-Vrpolje 14:41

Train 31 – IC 259 – 177km – duration 5:26
Strizivojna-Vrpolje 15:50 (if we miss this we should be able to road it)
Sarajevo 21:16

night in Sarajevo
Day 11 – Tuesday July 16th
Train 32 -  391 – 193 km – duration 3:47
Sarajevo 07:50
Ploce 10:52

bus to Split (~ 2 hours)

Train 33 – D 824 – 423 km – duration 9:08
Split 21:18
Day 12 – Wednesday July 17th
Zagreb 06:26

Train 34 – IC 310 – 141km – duration 2:21
Zagreb 09:0
Ljubljana 11:21

Train 35 – R2404 – 64 km – duration 1:15
Ljubljana 12:50
Jesenice 14:05

Train 36 – R4213 – 89 km – duration 2:10
Jesenice 14:35
Nova Gorica 16:45

Train 37 – R 2468 – 152 km – duration 2:16
Gorizia Centrale 17:40
Venice 19:56

Day 13 – Thursday July 18th
Train 38 – ES 9421 – 523 km – duration 3:43
13:57 Venezia Santa Lucia
17:40 Roma Termini

Train 39  – ICN 1910 -  855 km – duration 7:51
23:04 Roma Termini
Day 14 – Friday July 19th
06:55 Milano Centrale

Train 40 – R2556 – 156 km – duration 2:30
08:20 Milano Centrale
10:50 Tirano

Train 41 – R1648 – 61 km – duration 2:41
11:27 Tirano
14:08 St Moritz

Feature: St Moritz!

Train 42 – RE 1152 – 89 km – duration 1:59
15:03 St Moritz
17:02 Chur

Train 43 - IC 586 – 116 km – duration 1:14
17:09 Chur
18:23 Zurich HB

Train 44 – IC 736 – 279 km – duration 3:04
18:32 Zurich HB
21:15 Geneve

Train 45 – EN 274 – Elipsos Pau Casals – 828 km – duration 11:25
23:05 Geneve
Day 15 – Saturday July 20th
10:30 Barcelona Estacion de Franca

Train 46 – AVE 3152 – 621 km – duration 2:52
15:00 Barcelona Sants
17:52 Madrid-Puerta de Atocha

Train 47 - HOT 332 – Lucitania – 630 km – duration 9:16
22:25 Madrid-Chamartin
Day 16 – Sunday July 21st
07:41 Lisboa Santa Apolonia

* I just cancelled cascais, see blog *

Train 50 – 311 – 940 km – duration 14:40
16:30 Lisboa Santa Apolonia
Day 17 – Monday July 22nd
07:10 Hendaye

Train 51 – TGV 8524 – 805 km – duration 5:49
08:01 Hendaye
13:50 Paris Montparnasse
Metro 2 – Montparnasse to Gare du Nord

Feature: Eiffel Tower

Train 52 – EST 9059 – Eurostar- 492 km – duration 2:16
20:13 Paris Nord Eurostar
21:29 London St. Pancras International

 

Well, we can just agree... a hell of a trip 

Don't know exactly what type of input you expect or what sort of questions you still have to figure out, but since we more or less specialize on Central and Eastern Europe a few comments regarding that part of your itinerary:
1) EC 175   'Jan Jesenius' arrives to Prague at 15:26, while EC 173 is famous 'Vindobona'
2) from train #407 (with carriages from Berlin and Prague) you can also get off at Wien-Meidling, which is a bit closer to Wien-Süd (although farther to city centre) and gives you a bit more time in Vienna
3) train arriving to Bratislava-Petrzalka at 9:01 is REX 7607 and it dep. Wien Südbahnhof (Ostbahn) at 8:01. Also consider the fact that though Petrzalka isn't very far from main station (Bratislava hl.st.), but it's still quite tight schedule to catch next train from Bratislava hl.st. in 53min., so maybe you should go via northern route instead (--> meaning catch REX 2510 dep. Wien Südbahnhof (Ostbahn) at 8:20 and arr. Bratislava hl. 9:32) or just take an earlier train from Vienna to Bratislava-Petrzalka, so you would have more time to cross Bratislava
4) 'Avala' train Praha-Bratislava-Budapest-Belgrade is EC 271
5) Skopje-Belgrade overnight train is #334 and arr.5:43, also be prepared for it to be late, sometimes for a couple of hours. At the same time you should be ok with making it for 10:28 train to Croatia
6) train #391 dep.Sarajevo 7:05 and not 7:50
7) you do have a chance to experience trouble with getting sleeper reservation for the overnight Split-Zagreb trains, those are really popular during the summer
8 ) can be a good idea just to walk from Nova Gorica train station to Gorizia station (instead of taking bus), it's not very far, while Gorizia centre is rather nice place

Guess that is it from the first look... but we are ready to help with any specific question you still might have  =)

tUt, that's fantastic input, thank you very much indeed.

1) Jan Jesenius, thanks
2) our mission at Vienna is to go to st stephens, have some pastry and coffee, and go. So wouldnt staying on till Westbahnhof be the logical route for that ? Ah I see, it comes in on the south of the city, so we've got a tube to catch anyway so we just jump off at Meidling get a U4 train to Karslplatz then a U2 to Stephanplaz,
3) thanks. we'll look at this. obviously the whole point of going via pertzalka is that it forces us to go across town, so may be a U3 stephenplaz to simmering, I beleive sudbahnhof is being renovated or rather massively changed  right now so it might not be worth using. this doesnt give us much time to "enjoy" Bratislava but this one is only on so we can tick off another capital.
4) thanks, as you can imagine I love all these train names
5) late, but not too late, will be good
6) sorry, typo, thanks.
7) the booking of the 3 southerly sleepers, skopje and split in particular but also budapest-bucharest, is my major concern, there will be at least 10 of us, so if we arent booked successfully it wil become a real mess. we are using Ffestiniog travels in UK who seem confident they can make these things happen. We dont go till next year of course. and wil be booking it as soon as it's possible.
8 ) sure, we have plenty of time. we had planned to take that lovely tram down from sezana but we just cant fit it in, it will be nice to land at Venice before dark and see the city move into night.

thank you very much indeed. I'll go think about Bratislava some more.

So wouldnt staying on till Westbahnhof be the logical route for that?

Well, if you have an intention to walk, then obviously you should stay in the train till WestBahnhof, it's closer to the centre, but in case you'll use public transport (as you stated yourself), then Meidling does make sense for saving your time a bit.

I beleive sudbahnhof is being renovated or rather massively changed

It is totally changed On it's current place there will be new Vienna main station called "Wien Hbf" 

...point of going via pertzalka is that it forces us to go across town

Strictly saying you can manage arrival to Petržalka at 9:01 and departing from Hl.st. 9:54, but it will be a bit tight, since first of all you need to get off train, find your way to the bus stop, wait for the bus/buy tickets, then 7 stops by bus, find your way around main station and all that in a group, which obviously slows done everybody a bit.

the booking of the 3 southerly sleepers, skopje and split in particular but also budapest-bucharest, is my major concern

Skopje-Belgrade usually isn't full, so it's the least problematic out of three, while Split-Zagreb is the most problematic. Budapest-Bucharest can be booked via MAV website, but unfortunately for you only with ticket (or as a part of discounted promo), maybe situation will change in a while, but not in a near future.

we had planned to take that lovely tram down from sezana

Actually it's not from Sezana, but already from Italian side - Villa Opicina, so if somebody intends to use it trouble also to get from Sezana to Villa Opicina, there are a few buses during the day, but most of the time taxi or by foot are the only options. Anyway, imho, going through Bohinj railway is good enough substitution for Villa Opicina-Trieste tram