On Friday 12th July, I was lucky enough to secure a ticket to the EURO 2024 final to watch England play Spain in Berlin. However, with the game just 2 days away on Sunday 14th July, I had to figure out how to get from London to Berlin and then back again at very short notice – and without breaking the bank.
Flight prices to anywhere in Germany were astronomical – starting at €400 for a one-way ticket. And that’s before even considering the journey back or transport from whichever German city I landed in to Berlin. So, it was the perfect opportunity to see if the European rail network could get me there on-time and for a more reasonable price.
Booking the rail journey
The first step was to work out the route. A quick search on Rail Europe showed me that the most efficient route was London-Brussels (2 hours), Brussels-Cologne (2 hours), and then Cologne-Berlin (4 hours). Around 8 hours on trains, but probably more like 9-10 hours of travelling to account for transfers between trains. A long journey, but certainly doable and I was confident that I could get some work done and keep myself entertained in the relaxing comfort of a train carriage.
Rail Europe also allowed me to research the price of point-to-point tickets: it would cost me €569 for a round trip, and that was with the benefit of a EURO 2024 ticket holder discount on the Cologne-Berlin leg. Still quite an eye-watering amount. It would probably have ended up cheaper than flying overall, but not by a huge margin.
Now the question was… could I make this journey cheaper with an Interrail pass?
With the Interrail pass, I would only have to pay a seat reservation fee on the Brussels-Cologne & Cologne-Berlin trains. For the Eurostar between London & Brussels, I could also get a discounted passholder fare of €30 – which would shave off a couple hundred euros from the overall cost of the trip and mostly pay back the cost of the Interrail pass on these journeys alone. The challenge, however, is that there is only a limited number of passholder fares available for each Eurostar train. I needed to check that I could get a passholder fare before I committed to buying the Interrail pass.
Fortunately, as an experienced Interrailer, I knew the different ways to check & book the Eurostar passholder fares and, using the SNCB website, I managed to find an available reservation on the Saturday for the 15:04 Eurostar from London to Brussels. This was the only train that still had availability – other Interrailers & England fans had already secured most of the other ones.
Using the SNCB website, I was actually able to search for passholder reservations for the entire London-Cologne journey, which was very convenient and showed me I could get a connecting train in Brussels that would get me to Cologne at 20:15, with a short 20-minute transfer. I would need to spend Saturday night in Cologne but could travel to Berlin the next morning and still make it to the game on-time. A quick check on Hostelworld showed me there was a hostel bed available in Cologne for €45. This could work.
I checked the return leg on the SNCB website and there were no Eurostar passholder fares available on the Monday, but I could get home on the Tuesday. Luckily, some friends who were going to the game already had accommodation booked for Sunday & Monday night in Berlin, which I could join. Using Deutsche Bahn, I could also see that there were plenty of seat reservations available on the Cologne-Berlin leg, both ways. This was going to work.
On top of this good news, Interrail were offering special EURO 2024 Interrail passes, with 25% off the price of regular Interrail passes for EURO 2024 ticket holders. This meant I could get a 2nd Class Adult Interrail Pass for 4 travel days within 1 month for only €213, saving €70 on the usual price. Another crucial bit of help towards reducing the cost of the journey.
Below you can see the cost breakdown of the trip with and without the Interrail pass. Using the Interrail pass would save me a huge €266 compared to buying point-to-point tickets. Even without the EURO 2024 ticket holder discount, Interrailing was by far the better option.
| Point-to-point tickets | Interrail Pass | |
|---|---|---|
| London to Cologne (Round trip) | €509 | €80 |
| Cologne to Berlin (Round trip) | €60* | €10 |
| Interrail Pass (4 days in 1 month, Adult, 2nd Class) | €213* | |
| Total | €569 | €303 |
With that settled, I bought the pass and pulled the trigger on the seat reservations & Cologne hostel bookings. My travel was sorted, I’d loaded up the Interrail Rail Planner app with my digital pass & all my journeys, and I was heading to Berlin!
London to Cologne
On Saturday, I headed to St Pancras International to catch my 15:04 Eurostar to Brussels. They say to arrive 60-90 minutes before departure at St Pancras, but I find you can quite comfortably aim for the lower end of that window – security and passport control is usually quite efficient, and boarding doesn’t start until 20 mins before departure anyway.
My brother met me at the terminal to give me a crucially important item for my trip: an England wig to wear at the game.
As anticipated, I breezed through security & passport control, and then found a rare seat in the always-crowded departures lounge. The train departed on-time and I was on my way to Brussels.
It was a smooth journey, and as I approached Brussels, I thought I should probably try to find out the platform for my next train to make my short 20-min transfer as easy as possible. The Interrail Rail Planner app isn’t the best for this, but I was helped out again by the SNCB website which had live departures from Brussels and was already showing the platform of my train to Cologne. So, I’d definitely recommend doing that if you have a tight transfer!
Disembarking the Eurostar & getting to the main part of the station was straightforward. I quickly confirmed on the departures board that I had the right platform and made my way there with plenty of time to spare.
This was the most comfortable train of the whole trip and it was a relaxing journey to Cologne. The ticket inspector did come round to check tickets, but my Interrail Pass QR code worked perfectly when scanned – so much smoother than when I did my first ever Interrail trip with a paper Interrail pass.
On the journey, I overheard other England fans discussing their plans for the next day to get to Berlin from Cologne and how there had been lots of delays with trains, so they were erring on the side of caution with early trains. I was currently reserved on the 9:48 departure, arriving in Berlin at 14:16. The game didn’t kick off until 21:00, but to be on the safe side and get more time to soak up the pre-match atmosphere, I took a look at whether I could reserve a seat on an earlier train using the Deutsche Bahn website. Most trains were unavailable, but I was able to get a seat on the 7:48 instead and went for it as it was only €5. And I still had the reservation on the 9:48 as a back-up as it was too late to get it refunded. This really demonstrates one of the key benefits of an Interrail pass – having the flexibility to change your plans at the last-minute rather than being tied to specific trains.
One night in Cologne
Upon arrival in Cologne, you are greeted by an imposing cathedral right next to the station.
My train arrived at 20:15, so I didn’t have long to explore Cologne, but I wandered around a bit and concluded that it looked like a pretty fun place to have a few drinks – and in fact, that seemed like what most people were doing! It’s probably not somewhere to stick around for more than 1 night of an Interrail trip, but worth passing through. And if you are starting an Interrail trip from the UK and trying to get to eastern Europe as quickly as possible, Cologne is definitely a sensible first stop before continuing east.
My hostel was slightly out of town, so I grabbed a bite to eat for dinner and began navigating Cologne’s public transport system, which was quite straightforward with the assistance of Google Maps. I was staying at the MEININGER Hotel Köln West, which is a reputable brand in the hostel game, so I was expecting good things. Unfortunately, check-in went a little bit awry: first, my key card didn’t work so I had to go back for a new one, and then, once I’d entered the room, I realised my bed had already been slept in.
It was back to the check-in desk again for me, but the team was friendly and helpful and sorted me out with a new bunk in a different room. I cheekily requested to be in a room with very few others as I needed to get my head down to sleep, and ended up in a room with only one other guest – which, as anyone who has travelled extensively in hostels will know, is an absolute result. This person ended up also being the most considerate hostel roommate of all time, which was an even bigger plus. Good hostel etiquette can be hard to find!
Given my early train the next morning, this was very much a flying hostel visit – I prepared what I would need in the morning and just went straight to sleep in what was a comfy bed.
Cologne to Berlin
I woke up bright & early and headed to Cologne train station for my train to Berlin. I managed to pick up a pretty decent breakfast at the station from Crobag and board my train with no issues.
The train had been decorated for EURO 2024, which was fun to see and started to build the anticipation for what was to come later that day!
I had a productive journey working on some things, helped by a completely un-interrupted, perfect mobile network connection – if only I could count on that in the UK! Despite fears of a delay, everything went fine and we arrived in Berlin on-time.
Match Day
Berlin Hauptbahnhof was full of England fans and I joined the hordes as we walked towards the city centre where I would meet up with my friends, who had spent the morning doing a free walking tour – a classic Interrail activity. I met them at their final stop at Brandenburg gate, which had been completely taken over by football. Hundreds of England fans were drinking & singing in the surrounding area and, after watching matches on the BBC at home up until then, I discovered that the studio did actually back onto the Brandenburg gate for real, it wasn’t a green screen.
We grabbed some lunch (surprisingly hard to find something open on a Sunday afternoon) before dropping my stuff off at the hostel. We were staying at Kiez hostel, which was a typical budget hostel experience and took me back to my first Interrail trip. I changed into my England shirt, donned my England wig, and travelled to the fan park for a pre-match beer & atmosphere.
Then, it was back onto the S-Bahn to go to the stadium. I have to say, the Berlin public transport system was very impressive and dealt with the influx of EURO 2024 fans with ease. The train was direct to the stadium and full of England fans, chanting away and banging on the inside of the carriage for some additional percussion. We arrived at the station and the weather was glorious as we made our way to the stadium entrance, mingling with opposition fans along the way.
Security was tight as you would expect but we made our way through with relative ease. The match was being played at the historic Olympiastadion, which was used for the 1936 Berlin Olympics and had impressive architecture. We fueled up on some classic German bratwurst before heading in to take our seats. My long journey was complete – I had made it into the stadium and was about to watch England take on Spain in the EURO 2024 final!
I won’t go into the details of the match (mainly because I don’t want to re-live England’s loss), but here are a few more photos to show the atmosphere inside the stadium, including fireworks for Spain’s celebrations:
After the match, it was straight back on the S-bahn for a muted journey back to the hostel and straight to bed.
Berlin for a day
In the morning, we slept as late as possible before saying goodbye to most of the group who were travelling back that day. The one remaining friend and I were changing to a different accommodation so we headed to a different part of Berlin. We found a Persian eatery called Meet Me Halfway nearby the hotel that had some good brunch options.
I had been to Berlin a few times before, so had seen most of the touristy stuff. I spent the afternoon working from the hotel, and in the evening we went to check out the Schöneberg area. It’s a fairly quiet, relaxed neighbourhood with a lot of Asian restaurants, which was what led us there. After dinner, we engaged in the typical German pastime of buying a beer from a shop and walking around. I highly recommend this approach to exploring Berlin, or any other German city for that matter! We walked most of the way back to the hotel, including a detour through the Tiergarten, before taking public transport for the final stretch. Then, it was off to bed before a long journey the next day.
Coming home
Football wasn’t coming home, but I was. I was making the long journey from Berlin to London in a single day, with plenty of buffer time between trains in case of delays – again, I relied upon the flexibility of the Interrail pass to reserve an earlier train from Berlin-Cologne at the last-minute just in case. My schedule for the day was as follows: Berlin-Cologne (11:41-15:40), Cologne-Brussels (17:41-19:35), Brussels-London (20:56-21:57). Over 10 hours of travel! And if I missed any of the trains, I probably wouldn’t be getting back to London that day, so it was important things went well.
My first train was delayed by 45 minutes along with a number of other Berlin to Cologne services, so it was lucky I had booked onto the earlier one. I still arrived in Cologne with plenty of time to spare and went to a bar called Gaffel Am Dom just outside the train station for a beer while I waited for the next train. It was the perfect place to stop for a drink between trains: you sit down, they automatically bring you a small beer, you drink it, they offer you another, and then you repeat until you decide to pay up. And it was fairly cheap! Only €4.20 for two small beers.
I safely boarded my next train and was in Brussels in no time. The Eurostar terminal was easy to find and I refilled my water bottles for free at the Pret A Manger opposite – top tip for anyone who is taking this long journey and wants to stay hydrated!
It was even quicker to get through security and passport control at Brussels than it was at St Pancras, and the departures lounge was much more spacious. However, St Pancras wins when it comes to amenities inside the departures lounge – Brussels only had a few vending machines and a duty-free style shop, so I’d recommend getting some food in the station before heading through security. Luckily, I had bought a sandwich from Pret.
The Eurostar journey was smooth and I was grateful to be back home in London after 10 hours travelling.
A win for Interrailing
It was a wild few days and, whilst the match didn’t go the way I wanted, it was a great experience to go to the game. I think it is a credit to Interrail and the European rail network that I could make it to Berlin and back so smoothly, with such short notice – and, whilst it was still expensive, it was great to see that I could genuinely cut down the cost substantially by using an Interrail pass compared to buying point-to-point tickets or flying.
So, even if it wasn’t a win for England, it was a win for Interrailing!
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