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  • I think the slow trains in France are a bit better. They are in Germany, I've got around by train fairly easily there. You can even generally blag on to ICEs with no bike spaces left if you take wheels off and put your bike in a bin bag. I've seen people doing that on the platform in France too - just it's different rules for each TGV line.

    But flying is 100x easier to plan. And forget trains if you want to go east of Slovenia.

  • Yeah I know a few people who travelled back through France with their bikes unboxed from TPR via the TER trains. I think it was 2-3 changes from St Jean La Luz up to one of the ferry ports, and only an hour or two more than the TGV would have been.

    As well as trying to not fly short haul, the sheer reduction in stress by

    a) not having to travel to Stansted with my bike in a box and;
    b) not having to disassemble put my bike back in a box on very little sleep in a cramped hotel room with 4 hours until my flight

    would have been priceless.

    Would have of course meant 1-2 days extra annual leave doing it that way, but I'd forgotten about all that crap with liquids etc on flights as I'd not flown short haul in years, plus my set of Wera allen keys were nearly confiscated as dangerous weapons after a schoolboy hand luggage packing error.

  • Last year I looked into getting back from Tarifa by train and it didn't look like it would be easy. I dropped out of the event before it got to the detailed planning stage, but going beyond Barcelona seems to add an extra day.

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