Travelling in 2024 has been difficult. Or, to better put it: the choice of destinations has been difficult.
Deciding on a holiday destination can be complicated, especially when you’re travelling alone, and you also want to make sure you get to squeeze in a few days to go see your family.
Furthermore, I’m not a ‘beach person’, so I tend to prefer spending time visiting cities.
That’s why I stayed in Europe this year, and I favoured travelling by train when possible and short-duration flights otherwise.

My summary for this year:

  • I set foot in 9 different countries, with this breakdown of nights spent in each country:
    • Belgium: 321
    • Italy: 30
    • Sweden: 5
    • Norway: 4
    • France: 2
    • UK: 2
    • Luxembourg: 1
    • Switzerland: 1
    • Denmark: 0
  • Aside from Brussels, I walked around 10 cities:
    • four ’new to me’ European capitals: Bern, Oslo, Stockholm, Luxembourg
    • three additional new cities: Lyon, Genève, Malmö
    • three old favourites: London, Rimini and my hometown
  • I reached seven of these main destinations by train, and three by plane.

Some highlights:

  • the feeling of open-air breathing through the squares and bridges in Lyon
  • visiting the birthplace of cinema, outside the Institut Lumière in Lyon (currently located in the appropriately named Rue du premier film; the museum itself is nothing special)
  • visiting two Yoko Ono exhibitions - one at the Tate Modern in London, the other (much smaller) one at the Nobels Fredssenter in Oslo
  • admiring the original version of Skriek - that is, Edvard Munch’s The Scream; I haven’t taken the time to write about it, but the first one I saw (the one in the Nasjonalmuseet in Oslo) gave me such intense emotions that I had to sit down, almost breathless, for several minutes. The three versions in the Munch museum, which are on display on rotation in a smaller and very crowded room, didn’t elicit the same effect
  • walking around Oslo: the Norwegian capital felt very welcoming and liveable
  • seeing Hamilton and Les Miserables live in the West End
  • going to the ABBA Museum in Stockholm: ok, it’s not a must-do experience, but it was good fun