Fancy inter-railing but think you're too old? Here's how to get on the right track

Inter-railing around Europe most definitely isn’t just for young backpackers. Janet Hughes reveals what it's really like for readers of more advanced years who are thinking of taking the plunge for the first time

- JANET HUGHES

Swe rounded a corner revealing yet another breathtaking view of a perfectly pristine Alpine village nestling within the luscious green lowlands of a snow-capped mountain valley it was impossible not to be mesmerised by the idyllic scene outside the train window.

From picture postcard villages to magnificent clifftop castles, a succession of breathtaking vistas unfurled as we chugged our way through the Swiss Alps on one of the most picturesque train journeys in Europe.

But as the famous Bernina Express crossed the impressive 65-metre-high Landwasser viaduct, skirted the milky waters of the magnificent mountain top Lega Bianco and corkscrewed down the valley towards northern Italy a little thought kept niggling away.

“Gosh, I must be getting really getting old”.

Forty years earlier when I'd set off alone clutching a hard-earned Inter-rail ticket, the journey was nothing more than a way of reaching exciting destinations such as Paris, Amsterdam and Rome for the very first time.

Eager to see the Eiffel Tower and the Coliseum, it would never have occurred to twenty-something me to plan the trip around taking a train ride between two virtually unknown towns simply to admire the views outside the window.

Yet here I was aged 64 enthralled by the fact that 55 man-made tunnels and 196 bridges and viaducts had made it possible for this little red train to wend its way through the towering mountains between nice but unremarkable Chur, the oldest town in Switzerland, and supposedly sleepy Tirano in Italy (which turned out to be anything but thanks to an unexpected wine festival).

Back in those days the cardboard Interrail pass was considered the preserve of scruffy students.

Nowadays you don’t have to look far on the train platforms of Europe to spot the seniors adjusting their rucksacks or wheeling their little suitcases between Brussels and Berlin courtesy of the electronic interrail QR code on their phones.