Mark Wilshin

From taking the train to school each day to 48-hour rail journeys across China, travelling by train has always been my favourite way to explore the world.

Now based in Europe, I’ve travelled more than 150,000 kilometres by rail across the UK and further afield — particularly across Europe — from Rovaniemi in the Arctic Circle to Lisbon in the south, and from Thessaloniki in the east to Dublin in the west.

Long-distance journeys remain my favourite way to travel – whether settling in with a good book, sharing a meal in the restaurant carriage, watching unforgettable landscapes sail past the window, or falling asleep to the rhythm of the rails and waking at dawn somewhere entirely new the next morning.

What I love most about train travel, though, is the freedom it offers — the chance to stop off spontaneously to discover somewhere new and meet life-long friends along the way.