Three glorious cities by cruise ship and rail: no baggage limit here.

Choose a journey to see routes you might only find with a paper timetable:

How to get from there to Paris? Alas, the Elipsos Train Hotel recently stopped running—a shame, because the grilled swordfish in the dining car was delicious. But now there’s a new high-speed service all the way to Paris: just over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in six hours and forty minutes, from the center of one city to another.

* Yes, it’s the one from this Justin Timberlake video .

Other things to enjoy include the magnificent Gaudi architecture and the iconic cable car*.

At 18:15 the next day you’ll arrive in Barcelona. If you get a taxi straight off the ferry, you can make the evening concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana, or just go and eat tapas galore.

Or… wild card… you could select the cruise control and opt to make the journey by ship. Take the train from Rome to Civitavecchia, eat some seafood while the sun sets, and board the 22:15 sailing. There are reclining seats for those who want to party all night, or comfy cabins if you want to sleep off dinner. There’s a casino, several bars and a swimming pool for the next morning.

Obviously, you could fly between these three fine cities. But that’s boring. You could also take the Frecciarossa , the glamorous red high-speed train. Depart Roma Tiburtina at 18:29, get to Milano Centrale at 21:40, and then take the night train at 22:55—you’ll wake up in Paris the next morning.

Lapland - Copenhagen

All aboard for the Arctic adventure. After hanging out with the reindeer, drinking Lapin Kulta beer and enjoying the snowy surroundings, it’s time to get the night train from Rovaniemi to Helsinki. This stretch of railway is Russian gauge: much of the network was built when the Grand Duchy of Finland was a region of Imperial Russia.

Lapland, as described in Bradshaw's 1913 pages—a classic timetable that included tourist tips for the traveling classes. Courtesy of Old House Books

The Russian gauge means the tracks—and the trains—are wider than the European standard. So the night train is super comfy and even has owl-theme bedding. Goodnight!

The iconic main station in Helsinki was designed by Eliel Saarinen and inaugurated in 1919. Fun transport fact: his son, Eero Saarinen, designed the TWA Terminal in New York JFK Airport—capturing the spirit of the golden age of the train and plane respectively.

Next stop: Stockholm

Photo credit: Tallink Silja / Marko Stampehl

This is where the European Rail Timetable comes in handy. Rail apps – even German Railways’ DB Navigator – only cover trains. But the paper timetable has several pages of ferries – including a choice of operators for Helsinki-Stockholm. Table 2465 shows all the options. There’s an overnight crossing so after enjoying Helsinki, you can have dinner on board and sleep your way to Sweden.

Photo credit: Ben Goodwin

Stockholm-Copenhagen

It’s nearly 650 kilometers (400 miles) between the two cities—as the paper timetable tells me in the left-hand column. Luckily there’s a dining car and a range of trains including express and InterCity ones.

Credit: Jan Kofoed Winther / Visit Denmark

The last part of the journey is over the Øresund bridge, which stretches five miles between Sweden and Denmark and played a starring role in TV drama 'The Bridge'. At one point, the bridge joins a tunnel on Peberholm, an artificial island. It was named by the seasoning-loving Danes to complement the natural island of Saltholm!

You’ve arrived in Copenhagen. Now you can admire the Little Mermaid statue, go to Noma, one of the world’s most famous restaurants, and stroll around the picturesque streets.

Photo credit: Robert Thomason / copenhagenmediacenter.com

Copenhagen was a popular destination for travellers 100 years ago. According to Bradshaw’s ‘The city is one of the pleasantest of the smaller capitals of Europe; picturesqueness takes the place of grandeur, and added charm being the numerous parks and gardens.’