London to Istanbul – Epic Rail Journey : Introduction

With myself and Mrs MusingAnorak celebrating our Silver Wedding Anniversary in August we were determined to find a holiday to remember. After considering, and rejecting, a lot of options I came across the website of a company called Tailor Made Rail who specialise in holidays by rail. One itinerary particularly caught our eye, London to Istanbul with multiple city stops en route. We got in touch for an initial quote, but after considering the itinerary we asked whether it could be amended, Bucharest and Sofia would both be new countries and cities so we felt like an extra night in each would be good. TMR couldn’t be more helpful, unlike your usual package holidays the holidays that they offer are only limited by the rail timetables which are usually more frequent than flight timetables.

With an itinerary agreed it was time to start planning, me focusing on beer and Mrs MusingAnorak focusing on culture. All too soon the weekend of departure was upon us and the adventure began. I aim to provide a day by day account in subsequent posts, paying special attention to bar information for each of the cities visited. But you know how long it takes to me to post! I’ll try to be quicker this time…