Like I say, a *lot* of Toulouse coaches. #Shengen200

Vines of a country that isn’t famous for producing wine stare across the Mosel at vines of a country that is. #Shengen200

Aurora borealis? At this time of year? In this part of the country?
(Or to quote the captain when he announced it ‘We have some northern lights, outside, in the sky’, which was good to know that they weren’t in the sauna.) #Shengen200

It’s rare to still see so much damage from World War 1 as you do on the Chapel of St-Nicholas… #Shengen200

By contrast, today there are no border guards, and the handful of train staff and permanent way teams all fit happily into the Bistrot de la Gare. And why not, when this lot cost €13? #Shengen200

Arriving at Hammerfest for a 90min stop. Hammerfest may be the world’s most northerly town/city, though both Honnogsvåg and Longyearbyen quibble about definitions. While Castor did turn southeastwards after Margøyasund, we are still just about north of where we started in Vardø. #Shengen200

The astonishingly placid waters of the lake at Lapphaugen belie that we are now within the battlefield of the insanely destructive 1940 Battle of Narvik. A clash at Lapphaugen saw the first point at which German forces were repelled. #Shengen200

No midnight dips on this ship, unlike the Castor, unless someone is coming along with a big hosepipe soon. V much a ship of two halves, the Volcán. The forward part - reception, VIP lounge etc, doesn’t seem to have been touched since 2011. The rear half is beautifully refurbished. #Shengen200

At last, there we are. The French government has in the last few years started to regrow the night train network (couchettes, not sleepers) but the train to remote Latour, with lots of winter sports and summer leisure market, never quite died out. #Shengen200

Within a minute or so of leaving Latour, our train crosses the border into Spain, in an otherwise featureless field, the crossing marked only by a sign noting the change of infrastructure companies. This is it - our final country of the journey (very long way to go yet, mind). #Shengen200

You can tell we’re nearly in Denmark because the trains have rubber rings on the front (this is not in case they fall off the bridge). The Öresundståg network spreads across southern Sweden like an octopus with København as its head, turning the transnational area into one commuter zone. #Shengen200

A second small breakfast is permitted when the previous one was consumed on a heaving catamaran, and you are now on firm ground so the orange juice machine can be operated safely (that’s a dot, which as the name suggests is a much smaller and therefore healthier doughnut). #Shengen200

Our first stop is Odense. I’m sure local lad Hans Christian Andersen’s tales were inspired by the twinkling lights of the cycle bridge over the station, and the unbelievable story of how one of the barely-working IC4 trains parked under it ended up being gifted by Berlusconi to Gaddafi. #Shengen200

Having followed the Moselle through 3 countries today from its confluence with the Rhine, this is our final crossing of it in Thionville.
France is, oddly given how far we have to go, one penultimate country on this journey. We’re going to take a slightly eccentric routing through it. #Shengen200

For a moment, I think I’ve managed to get a 15,000 tonne ferry to call at Finnsnes just for me and I feel guilty for interrupting the flirting of the steward and the cleaner. But it turns out there’s a solid cargo of fish being loaded for points south, so Castor would have called anyway. #Shengen200

Things have calmed down a lot as we enter the shelter of the mountains that climb dramatically up from immediately behind Santa Cruz de Tenerife. I think the swell cut speed from 35 knots to 31, as we are slightly late despite the early start. Still fast - castor did 14 knots, Volcán 22! #Shengen200

That’s our train - hauled in by one of the timeless ‘nez cassé’ (broken nose) locomotives (probably one on the front too). We are in the section for Latour de Carol, high in the Pyrenees, just three coaches on the front of a *very* large number of coaches only going as far as Toulouse. #Shengen200