acbApr 6, 2025

Thread: my recent Interrail journey (Stockholm → Berlin → Dessau → Zürich → Trieste → Ljubljana → Vienna → Hamburg → Stockholm).

In the past two or so weeks, I took a journey around Europe by train on an Interrail pass I bought last year, seeing some sights and catching up with friends. 🧵 1/

Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
My trip started with the SJ sleeper train from Stockholm to Berlin, a route I have done before. This time, I was in an economy-class couchette compartment, shared with a family with two kids and another passenger. Though there also was a bistro carriage (at least within Sweden), where I had a few drinks and watched the sun setting over the countryside, until it was time to sleep. 2/
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I arrived in Berlin in the morning (for some reason, the train ended up misrouted to Spandau), made my way to Hbf, stashed my luggage, visited a few shops (Dussmann for books/CDs) and then made my way to Kreuzberg and the Berlin Synthesiser Museum. This, located up a flight of stairs behind a buzzer, is several rooms full of synthesisers, from old rarities to recent digital models, most plugged in and ready to play; admission is €12. 3/
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Among their collection are a Buchla Easel (a very analogue beast, which emulations don’t do justice to), a Soviet Polivoks (which feels and sounds flimsier than I expected; its reputation comes mostly from its rarity) an East German Vermona, a number of iconic ones (Minimoog, DX7, Korg M1, Casio CZ-1) and a few interesting new synths like the Korg Modwave.

I didn’t spend as much time at the synth museum as I would have liked, as it was time to catch a train to Dessau 4/

Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
In Dessau, I stayed overnight at the Bauhaus, in a former student apartment fitted out with appropriately modernistic furniture and vintage fittings. It was one of the rooms with those iconic balconies (which was unlocked, though we could use at our own risk; presumably the period railings don’t comply with modern safety standards). The bathroom was communal though modern, but nobody else was staying on the floor. The stay cost me only €65. 5/
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I spent most of the next day in Dessau, doing Bauhaus-related sightseeing. First, wandering the corridors of the Bauhaus building (if you’ve ever been in a modern institutional building, you’ve microdosed a diluted essence of it), and seeing exhibitions on its history. 6/
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Then catching a tram across town to the newish Bauhaus Museum, with an extensive collection, from furniture and lighting to sketches to actual Triadic Ballet costumes. 7/
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Finally, I visited seeing the Masters’ Houses, modernist villas in which the likes of Klee, Kandinsky and Moholy-Nagy lived. The last part felt a bit like a surreal real-estate viewing: a lot of empty living spaces, with interesting use of colour. Unfortunately, the system they had for describing the exhibits, using QR codes and a local network, didn’t work for me. Otherwise, though it was interesting. 8/
Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
All Bauhaused out after Dessau, I caught a train to Leipzig, meeting up with @Kymberly and her partner for dinner. Leipzig felt like pre-gentrification Berlin: graffiti and stickers everywhere, and a scrappy, left-wing vibe; very arm-aber-sexy. I had a good few hours: my onward train, the sleeper to Zurich, was not until 23:45. 9/
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The 23:45 sleeper train to Zürich was waiting at the station. (It apparently arrived from Berlin, backed into the station and sat there for most of an hour.) There were few passengers that night, so I had an entire 4-bunk compartment to myself. This being a modern ÖBB train, the compartment was modern and well-designed, with individual power sockets for each bunk.
I slept comfortably and woke next morning at Basel SBB, where it was raining outside. 10/
Apr 6, 2025 at 8:44pmIvory for iOS
Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
I spent a few days in Zürich with some friends. We took a trip to Bern to the Zentrum Paul Klee, seeing both its rotating exhibit of Klee’s works and an exhibition of Le Corbusier’s paintings, and a stroll around the old town. 11/
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The following day, we wandered around Zürich, and had dinner at an Italian-Japanese fusion restaurant in Zürich named Cucina Itameshi, which was great.

After that, I met up with a friend from the US who was also Interrailing and we travelled to Trieste via Milan.
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Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
I had done Zürich-Milan years ago; it’s spectacularly scenic (if somewhat less so since the new, longer Gotthard base tunnel opened), with its alpine lakes and valleys. Milan-Trieste was a longish trip; the train was packed until Venezia Mestre (the station before Venice “proper”), where it emptied out and reversed for its last leg down the forgotten northeastern stub of Italy. We arrived after dark, into a station obviously built when Trieste was more economically important. 13/
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After checking in, we went for a stroll, and ended up dining in a piazza. At the next table, a middle-aged man played the ocarina. I got the impression that had been his thing for a while. 14/
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The following day was spent exploring Trieste: having breakfast in a century-old café, wandering the streets, catching a ride up to Villa Opicina in a vintage tram that gets pushed up the hill by a funicular, and having drinks in a bar in a piazza.

I really liked Trieste, with its faded grandeur and sense of liminality at the periphery of Italy, the Balkans and Mitteleuropa, and wouldn’t have minded another day there, though it was time to move on.
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Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
We caught a train to Gorizia, caught up with a few friends then crossed the invisible border to Nova Gorica, Slovenia, seeing a small border museum, getting a tour of the area (including some spectacular views from Sveta Gora and the tomb of the last French king), and making our way to Ljubljana (by coach, as the train was apparently a lot slower). 16/
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Ljubljana felt like a fun city: compact and walkable, and with a youthful vibe. We explored the old town, visited an interesting letterpress workshop and had some good food. I took a trip to the Computer History Museum which was interesting (particularly the old Yugoslavian computers), though one floor was closed for an event. The machines that were plugged in and on show seemed to be the tip of the iceberg. 17/
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The next stop was Vienna. We visited the Friedensreich Hundertwasser exhibition at KunstHausWien and the Hundertwasser Haus, which was a sort of anti-Bauhaus. I’m still in two minds about Hundertwasser and his ideas. 18/
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At KunstHausWien there was also an exhibition of kinetic sculptures and videos by a US artist named Mika Rottenberg, which was interesting. 19/
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We also saw a few smaller museums (the Museum of Art Fakes, the Esperanto Museum and the Globe Museum), which were also interesting, and stopped for lunch at a café named Ulrich, which had its own gin, coloured blue from a botanical ingredient. 20/
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The next day, my travelling companion flew back to the US, and I had a day of wandering around Vienna, followed by a sleeper train to Hamburg. The sleeper journey was in one of the new single-person pods and is recounted in its own thread, at
https://mastodon.social/@acb/114262017840691840

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Show threadacbApr 6, 2025

From Hamburg, it was a straight run back to Stockholm: a train to Copenhagen, one across the Bridge to Malmö, and one last train home; I got home around 22:00. Having heard horror stories about the state of Germany’s railways, I was prepared for delays, but everything was close to punctual.

I was away for almost two weeks (from Thursday afternoon to Tuesday evening), and had a great time. There were many highlights, and things ran smoothly. I will definitely be doing more interrail trips. 22/

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If you want to see more photos from my trip,
there’s an album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/acb/albums/72177720325354505/

A few highlights have also been posted to my Pixelfed (@[email protected]@pixelfed.social) complete with alt text
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Interrail trip March-April 2025

Berlin, Dessau, Bern, Zürich, Trieste, Ljubljana, Vienna, Hamburg and places in between

Flickr
Show threadTim RichardsApr 6, 2025
@acb Fun city. I passed through by train in 2023 and had a beer down by the river.
Show threadApiaryApr 6, 2025
@acb this looks very much like a place you could spend a couple wandering days. Lovely.
Show threadacbApr 6, 2025
@Apiary it is