What do SAS cancellations, Schindler's List, and AC/DC have in common? 🎸⚡
Spoiler alert: The answer lies in this year's most ambitious vacation-train journey - and why authoritarian forces make history lessons more relevant than ever. 📚
When SAS cancelled my flight home from a Muse concert in Stockholm last weekend, I got an unexpected rail warm-up: Northward along the Gulf of Bothnia through charming small towns in gorgeous weather, before the Meråker Line's endearing final stretch to Trondheim in horizontal rain. ☔️
Plot twist: That was just the dress rehearsal for this summer's main event. 🎭
The journey starts with history's weight, but the real adventure begins on rails 🚂
First: Europe's darkest and brightest chapters 📖
✈️ Krakow - Auschwitz, Schindler, and Wieliczka salt mines
🚂 Salzburg - Berchtesgaden, Eagle's Nest (and hopefully paragliding!)
🚂 Berlin - at my mother-in-law's, where the Wall's scars and Cold War wounds still tell their stories
This is a family vacation where the youth get to experience history viscerally - not just as TikTok videos and previous Berlin visits, but as the physical reality of what happens when authoritarian forces gain the upper hand. 👨👩👧👦
Food culture will naturally be thoroughly tested - both pierogi in Krakow and far more than Mozartkugeln in Salzburg! 🥟🎼
But here comes this year's revolution:
The entire journey home happens on rails for the first time! 🛤️
🚂 Berlin → Gdynia by train
🚢 Night ferry to Karlskrona in the bright summer night
🚂 Lund → Göteborg
🚂 Göteborg → Stockholm → Night train Östersund → Storlien → Trondheim
Bonus round: When AC/DC suddenly dropped a concert at Nya Ullevi, it was simple to swing by Göteborg by train – a flexibility flights can only dream of. Even Angus Young understands logistics better than certain politicians. 🤘
Reality check for "visionless politicians" 🎯
While they dream of electric aviation instead of efficient high-speed rail between major cities for both people and freight, no electric aircraft will ever compete with city-center-to-city-center travel between Göteborg-Stockholm. Even using X2000 tilting train on existing tracks: X2000 beats (electric) planes. Every. Single. Time. ⚡️
Meanwhile, I still have to use diesel trains on the Meråker Line because it's STILL not electrified. In 2025. (Once upon a time, politicians with vision used state budgets to build the railway to Bergen.)
Let that sink in. 🤦♂️
Masterclass: Why trains crush flights on every metric that matters 📊
Coverage + frequency = actual freedom
No 2-hour airport stress ordeal. No detours via Oslo to reach Trondheim.
Just: city center to city center, combined with local bus networks that actually function.
Geography's cinematography 🎬
Polish plains → German windmills → Swedish forests → Norwegian mountains.
Europe unfolds like a 4,000 km documentary outside your window.
Productivity hack 💡
While air passengers battle baggage belts and delays, I'm sitting with laptop, coffee, and WiFi that actually works.
4,000 km on rails = new personal record 🏆
This is more than vacation - it's an experiment in how seamlessly Europe can be experienced when infrastructure actually functions. And a bitter reminder of how far Norway and the Nordic region lag behind.
The truth nobody wants to hear: While continental Europe connects cities at 300 km/h, we're still debating whether to electrify the Nordland-railway. 🐌
In a world where authoritarian forces again threaten democracy...
...it becomes more important than ever to see how tightly interwoven our histories are. To experience how geography shapes culture, and how transport shapes society.
The question becomes: Where's your next journey taking you? And most importantly - how are you getting there? 🌍
The journey IS the destination. Everything else is just logistics. ✨
🌈 Have a great summer vacation!! 🌈