Slow travel - overland from UK to Croatia
The third leg - Paris Est to Munich Central
An overland adventure across six countries on six trains, one bus and one fast catamaran. And that was just the outward leg!
When Tanya Polegubic from Saltwater Nomads asked me to MC her Work.Place.Culture Conference in Dubrovnik in May 2022, it was an exciting prospect. Who would be there, what would we talk about, what would we all learn?
The next consideration was how to get there. A cheap option (in terms of cash) would have been to fly to Dubrovnik, but this does not factor in the high environmental cost of flying.
It was an easy decision to go overland, using the helpful logistics of the Man at Seat 61 website to plan the legs by train, starting out from Bristol, UK to London; London to Paris by Eurostar; Paris to Munich; Munich to Zagreb and the final leg, Zagreb to Split.
Above the clouds, over the mountains
The journey is enchanting. We opted for the daytime travel version. On Day 1, you lunch in Paris and dine in Munich. We resumed on Day 2 for the picturesque ride through the mountains across Austria, into Slovenia and along the long River Sava valley to Zagreb. We reached Zagreb mid-afternoon and had a very pleasant late afternoon exploring before dinner.
St Mark’s Square, Zagreb
Day 3, we set out for Split, reaching the coast in the evening for a two night stay, and then followed Tanya’s advice to take the fast catamaran between Split and Dubrovnik, a four hour whizz along the coast stopping at idyllic islands on the way.
Fast catamaran island hopping between Split and Dubrovnik
Arriving by sea into Dubrovnik is lovely - the catamaran hugs the coast for the whole journey. It docks on the other side of the city from the old harbour but then the pleasure is discovering the smaller boat trips you can take from the old harbour to nearby islands.
Dubrovnik old harbour view
The return leg was quicker because we took the fast bus from Split to Zagreb and hopped back in a weekend rather than indulging in two night stays, as we did on the way out.
The return leg, Zagreb to Munich
And what of our carbon savings? Including the factor of two for the greater impact of high altitude emissions, we saved over a tonne of CO2 by travelling overland and by sea.