So! Various people said they'd be interested in a virtual trip to Istanbul, based on the holiday @frjonathanbish and I did last summer, going to The City entirely by train. I'll try and do a day each day. You may regret this, @DisabilityJ ... #theCitybyrail

I shall skip the half day that took us from Wakefield to London, though it was a pleasure to stay with @JulieGittoes . Our tale begins in the departure lounge at St Pancras, for a mid-morning Eurostar. The lounge was busy, but the trains were running to time #theCitybyrail

I still find the Eurostar pretty amazing, but you can't get round the fact that the tunnel itself doesn't offer much in terms of photographic interest... However, it was a fine day, and the bits of northern France you see on the Brussels line were looking pleasant.

Bye bye Eurostar, as we changed to the ICE in Brussels. Having done a lot of travel by rail in Germany, I am extremely fond of the ICE, and not solely because they dispense beer on tap...

And, indeed, following a late lunch, we were happily drinking a wee beer in the buffet car as we pulled into Cologne, where you get a brief, impressive view of Cologne Cathedral. But photographing it isn't easy.

You get a better view of the Rhine, and what I think is St Pantaleon, as you go out. But it might be St Albanus, where I once tried and failed to venerate the relics of St Alban, Britain's first martyr. One day... #theCitybyrail

In Frankfurt we changed trains again. As well as stopping to marvel at the facade of the station, we also got takeaway Eiskaffee to take on the train (large coffee with several scoops of ice cream). I love Eiskaffee, and we needed it, because it felt like thunder. #theCitybyrail

We were soon tearing through Franconia. I spent several summers volunteering at the @burgrieneck Scout centre, so I love this part of the world. The Main valley is gentle, but has some amazing historic towns and cities, such as Würzburg.

But due to slight technical difficulties in bringing you Würzburg or Fulda, have a picture of the Main by Zell am Main instead.

Shortly thereafter, we passed through Nuremberg. Nuremberg is a gorgeous mediaeval/ renaissance city you should definitely visit. Great train museum, too. Too be honest, though, you only see a tiny bit of this from the train... #theCitybyrail

We arrived in Munich at around 8. The sleeper wasn't until 23:20, so we did the obvious thing to do in Munich: head into town to find a Bierkeller.... #theCitybyrail

Munich is very pretty, but we really only had time for a beer and a snack. Have a picture of the Michaeliskirche, the Jesuit church, with the Frauenkirche behind it.

Back at the station, we were able to admire the departure board. I love a good departure board. As you can seen, the train was due to split in the middle of the night. Our section was going to Budapest Keleti, and the other part to Rikeja in Croatia... #theCitybyrail

The sleeper, hauled by a DB loco, pulls in....

And there we were for the night, in the comfortable Hungarian sleeper. That's all for today - I will pick up tomorrow... #theCitybyrail

#theCitybyrail Day 2. After the best night of sleep I have ever had on a train (sadly, given we had two more nights of sleeper travel to go, this record remains!) We woke up in Hungary - my first glimpse of the country was Nagyszentjános, not that far from the Slovak border.

Shortly after that, the railway joined the Danube (also the frontier with Slovakia), which it follows to Budapest. This is just outside Komárom, at about 8:30. We ate the cold breakfast provided by the train company, and watched the river. #theCitybyrail

Not a good photo, but an exciting moment: crossing the Danube as we approached Budapest, where we were spending two nights and most of the third day. (Pity we didn't have longer, but what can you do?) #theCitybyrail

9:50, and here we are, arrived at Keleti Station in Budapest. As you can guess from this photo of @frjonathanbish in holiday mode, it was already very hot, and the walk to the hotel with the cases was a bit unpleasant. But the hotel let us shower and change before we headed out.

Bonus trainspotting, and a glimpse of the fine interior of Keleti station before we move on... #theCitybyrail

Our hotel was in the VIIth district, which used to be substantially Jewish. We weren't too far from the glorious - and hard to photograph - Dohány St Synagogue, which was built in the 1850s. It is one of the largest working synagogues in the world (more about it on day 4!)

The plan was to head straight to the Danube, but we got distracted - first by the amazing art noveau buildings, then by iced coffee... #theCitybyrail

And then by the Cathedral. All my photos of the Cathedral are rotten, apart from this one, which is taken from some distance. I'm going to be mean, and suggest the most impressive thing about the Cathedral is the view from the roof, though....

Or not mean, because the view is fantastic!

Made it to the Danube! Down the river, you see the Hungarian Parliament building. And then we went to look for lunch.... #theCitybyrail

We ate in this very lovely cafe, whose name escapes me. A moderately priced set menu (I think - the exchange rate calculations with the Forint confused me), which included borscht and trout.

After that, we continued to wander. We first admired the Széchenyi Chain Bridge (a marvel of engineering, and built by a Scot, one William Tierney Clark) #theCitybyrail

Even quite close to the Parliament building, you can find streets that gentrification (or even restoration) hasn't touched.

Budapest recently acquired a somewhat dubious memorial to its wartime regime. It has also acquired some, um, informal contextualisation.

But the Parliament building is beautiful. Slightly reminiscent of the UK Houses of Parliament, and in a similar spirit, but... I think I might prefer this. #theCitybyrail

Well, we were on holiday and this cafe, near the former Central European University (now relocated to Vienna), was very inviting. And the wine was delicious, too. Note the wreath of dried peppers.... #theCitybyrail

I got a marginally better picture of the Cathedral (or the Basilica of St Stephen, if you'd rather). #theCitybyrail

We ate dinner at Cafe Kör, which does an extensive menu of traditional Hungarian dishes. And very nice it was too. #theCitybyrail

Finally, the evening ended at one of Budapest's "ruin bars" - pubs in the courtyards of tumbledown buildings. They started off as pirate operations, they're now legit, but they keep the feeling of improvisation.... and both the beer and the fruit brandy is good. Goodnight all!

Day two in Budapest! Our original hopes for breakfast was something more Central European - but the lure of the smell of coffee from the nearest cafe to the hotel was too strong. Mind you, it might have been unbearably hipster, but it was really nice.... #theCitybyrail

We hopped on a tram, crossed the Danube into Buda, and climbed up to Castle Hill, where there are a number of museums, as well as the famous Fisherman's Bastion and the Matthias Church. And this, um, imposing fountain. #theCitybyrail

The Fisherman's Bastion has incredible views of the Danube and of Pest. Not shown in the picture: all the other people who are also trying to get the same shots :) #theCitybyrail

The plan was to go and visit the Matthias Corvinus Church next, but we were short of cash for tickets, and we thought there was bound to be a cashline in the Castle District. To be fair, there was, but we couldn't find one that wasn't charging exorbitant fees. Nice signs, though.

So we joined the queue for tickets at the Matthias Church (really Our Lady of Buda, but commonly named after the 15th C king who put the tower on the mostly 14th C church). The church was extensively restored in the 19th C - the interior is a bit of an Arts and Crafts fantasy.

Mind you, as the William Morris curtains in my profile pic suggest, I like a bit of Nineteenth Century fantasy mediaevalism, so I loved this... #theCitybyrail

Possibly my favourite bit of fresco, though, was this raven pattern, a nod to King Matthias Corvinus's name (that's right: the Raven King is actually Hungarian). As you go out of the church, you also see this impressive double tomb. He gets a lion, she gets a puppy...

As we headed for lunch, we noticed that the Fisherman's Bastion was even busier than before... We set off without much of a plan, going down the other side of Castle Hill to see what we found.

We were tired and hungry, but we found a very nice restaurant in the end with a good set menu. This was a traditional meatloaf over potatoes and a light, herby sauce. #theCitybyrail. Time for a break....

After lunch, we decided it was too hot (we were there during a heatwave) to do any more sightseeing out of doors. So we hopped on the Metro....

And got out at Heroes' Square, which is one of those really impressive monumental public spaces that I never feel quite work unless they're full of cheering crowds, because they're just too big to take in (see also: the Mall in Washington DC). #theCitybyrail

We went to the Museum of Fine Art, which has many wonderful things, including a very fine collection of Spanish art. I am not good at taking photographs in galleries, but I can't resist these El Grecos.

Drat, I broke the thread. Hopefully this will work: https://twitter.com/mthr_jo/status/1251598360244629507?s=20