At first we were planning to fly with our folding tandem to Zurich and then take the train to Donaueschingen. But it slowly dawned on us that flying to the starting point of a low-carbon holiday is not a good idea. We decided to investigate travelling by train. Since we stopped working we both have that magic ingredient of ‘enough time’. Not everyone is in this fortunate position, but we thought we would give it a go.

Our starting point for any rail adventure is the amazing Man in Seat 61. I learned on that site that InterRail tickets can now be used on Eurostar trains for a £30 seat booking fee. This opened up a whole new world of possibilities. The InterRail site offers an excellent app called Rail Planner. It downloads all of the European train timetables to the phone and keeps them updated. It provides an easy interface for planning trips giving exact routes and timings. Crucially, it also indicates any trains that require compulsory seat reservations, and provides the option to plan journeys excluding compulsory reservations.

Besides the traditional one calendar month, there are also options for 3 or 5 travelling days in a calendar month. This worked perfectly for us. We can get from London to Donaueschingen in one day, and back from Vienna to London in one day (just about). That leaves one spare travel day to use as we please There is a 10% discount for over 60s.

I have to admit that the complexities of planning train travel with a bulky folding tandem was not easy. There are different restrictions for bikes and bulky luggage in different countries and for different train types. It took several days of research and planning. Then it was necessary to purchase the InterRail tickets, then to work backwards through the most important legs of the trip making compulsory seat reservations where needed. The best tip I can offer is to book the Eurostar ticket at an early stage. Eurostar operate with some type of unwritten quota of InterRail tickets per train, so trains can become full for InterRail users. You need to have the InterRail ticket before you can book the Eurostar ticket.

I love InterRail. When I was 17, in my penultimate year at school, a group of five – slightly rowdy and shambolic – friends bought the recently introduced tickets and raced across Europe to Venice and Croatia, and thence like an arrow to a Retsina wine festival in Athens. We had a lot to learn about ourselves, one another, the dangers of sunburn, and goose-neck toilets. Along the way we met a couple of Norwegian girls who both came to play an important part in my life for many years thereafter. I became a lifelong, passionate Europhile.

It was quite an emotional moment when our InterRail tickets landed on our doormat. What goes around, comes around. But in a good way too.