peaks

Mountains and fjords in Norway

I travelled across Norway by rail on the spectacular Bergensbanen, running between Oslo and Bergen, and the unforgettable Flåmsbana branch line. The Bergensbanen crosses the high mountain plateau of Hardangervidda, passing lakes, forests and snow‑covered peaks before descending toward the fjords of western Norway. At Myrdal, I transferred on to the steep Flåmsbana, which drops dramatically to Flåm on the Aurlandsfjord, with waterfalls and sheer-sided valleys at every turn.
Daniel

Charmed by the Vienna to Zagreb train

The journey from Vienna to Zagreb saw mountainous central Europe relax into Balkan charm. Stunning Alpine scenery melted into forest, settling down into rolling hills as we passed through Graz and reached the Slovene border, stopping for an hour’s changeover at the tiny Zidani Most station, where we enjoyed afternoon beers gazing over lush Slovenian countryside. The connection to Zagreb boasted dramatic lake scenery that gave way to farm land, golden in evening light, as we passed into Croatia, soon rattling into its underrated capital. We booked this through Omio, which came in relatively cheaply at £41.
Matt

Vintage locomotives in Tuscany

We took the Treno Natura from Siena last May for a whole day out in the beautiful Tuscan countryside. It’s a real steam engine with classic coaches. Most passengers were friendly locals: we only encountered two other foreign tourists, a Swiss couple. A band came aboard to entertain us, and an optional walk through vineyards was also available. Fabulous value at only €42 each.
Nigel Gould

Historic gem in Brandenburg, Germany

I took the RB26 train from Berlin-Lichtenberg to Müncheberg (45 mins) and changed for the Buckower Kleinbahn historic narrow-gauge train that runs from April to October. Opened in 1930 as an early electric railway, it closed as a regular service in the late 1990s. It is now volunteers who run the line that takes you through the rolling hills of the Märkische Schweiz in Brandenburg to the pretty spa town of Buckow. Here, I visited the residence of Bertolt Brecht and Helene Weigel on the peaceful reedy shores of Lake Schermützel, and then relaxed on the beach after a hike through the woodlands. I returned refreshed to the Berlin bustle.
Rachael

Alpine beauty on the Montreux to Interlaken line

From Montreux station I took the MOB railway to Interlaken. Weaving up through vineyards, Lac Léman shimmers below as the panorama broadens. Suddenly, you’re in pine forests and glimpsing jagged mountain crests. Bridges straddle rushing white water. The clanging and hooting warnings for road crossings. A long tunnel. Then burst into alpine pastures peppered with chalets. Le Pays d’Enhaut. Valleys filled with crisp air, summer cowbells, flowers and crickets – perfect for long walks. Or winter-snow-muffled land, all skis and fondues. Arriving in Château-d’Œx feels like discovering a new world.
Christian Vassie

Slow travel at its best: Belgrade to Bar

The train trip from Belgrade to Bar must be one of the slowest in Europe, taking 11 hours to cover 296 miles. At €23, it was probably the best-value travel money I’ve ever spent. In fact, the train trip was about the only time in my life when I longed for a journey to go slower rather than faster. It took me through some of the most dramatic scenery I’ve ever seen. Passing through deep gorges, canyons and mountain peaks, the train crossed more than 400 bridges and seemed to stop at every village. The Mala Rijeka viaduct was a highlight. The route took in spectacular dams, ancient monasteries and stone houses where old black-clad women waved at us from open kitchen windows. At one point, the passengers got out to feed a herd of goats and once we were overtaken by a mountain cowboy on a galloping horse. For the last part, you can see swimmers and sunbathers on Adriatic beaches.
Peter

Through Italy’s Apennines to Rome from the Adriatic

The cross-country east-west train trip from Pescara on the Adriatic to Rome is magnificent. It traverses the spine of Italy, single track all the way across the Apennines, stopping at towns such as Sulmona and Avezzano. The scenery changes as the route traverses mountain passes and ridiculous gradients before descending to plains over a period of 3 to 4 hours.
Stephen

The watchmakers’ railway in France and Switzerland

When time is not important, a little-known French railway line allows you to enter Switzerland through the valley of the watchmakers. The line from Besançon in France drifts through the beautiful Jura foothills, and on to Le Locle, a town at the centre of the Swiss watchmaking industry since the 1600s, terminating at La-Chaux-de-Fonds. No one got on or off at L’Hôpital-du-Grosbois, a byway station named after a leprosy hospital. At Morteau, the French border station, the douanes (customs officials) seemingly left a long time ago. A line that Dr Beeching would have closed still delivers you into Switzerland “on time”.
Martin

Best way to see the Pyrenees? On a little yellow train

Le Train Jaune runs between Villefranche-de-Conflent and Latour-de-Carol in France. Le Canari, as it’s known locally, climbs to 1,595 metres at Bolquère-Eyne during its spectacular 40-mile (63km) route. Fresh mountain air, breathtaking views and valley-crossing suspension bridges can all be experienced either from the train’s bright yellow open-air wagons or from within the cosy comfort of its carriages. It is the best way to discover the wonders of the Pyrenees. My wife and I went for our honeymoon and fell in love with the little yellow train.
Joe Brownen

Winning tip: urban drama on the Porto metro

A controversial choice, perhaps, but I love the surprise of urban rail. Porto’s metro D line heading south probably tops the list for the fact it emerges dramatically from the darkness of the underground to suddenly skim rooftops and then rattles across the fantastic Eiffel-inspired Dom Luís I bridge (it was completed in 1886 by Théophile Seyrig, a former partner of Gustave Eiffel). Choosing to walk back across the metal deck is a completely different experience.
Amy

Limestone stretches on all sides like an inland ocean – appropriately enough, since the shimmering white rock has its ancient origins in coral, shells and the skeletons of sea creatures. We advance carefully, stepping on clints (blocks of rock) and avoiding grykes (the deep fissures between them). It’s a warm, dry day and, even if it were not, limestone drains better than most types of terrain. For a long while, it’s broad, flat and hallucinatory and then, suddenly, the rocky sea collapses like a waterfall and we’re at the edge of a huge fault. The words Yorkshire Dales might evoke pretty villages and walled-in sheep fields, but this landscape is raw and wild, the kind of natural realm WH Auden celebrated in his poem In Praise of Limestone, and the kind that prompts geological speculation and inward ruminations. To cap it all, there are just three of us and nothing much and no one else all the way to the far horizons.

It’s my first decent yomp of the spring. I’ve come here with two walking pals on the egregiously under-promoted direct train that connects Rochdale and Manchester with the national park and Yorkshire’s Three Peaks. While the Leeds-Settle-Carlisle service – which recently celebrated its 150th birthday – is deservedly famous, the Yorkshire Dales Explorer, which started in June 2024, is much less celebrated. It’s also far less frequent. Trains travel between Leeds and Settle, continuing to Carlisle or Morecambe, 20 times a day Monday to Saturday, 11 times on Sundays. Trains between Manchester Victoria and Settle run on Saturdays only and just once in the morning each way and once in the late afternoon.

We alight at Horton-in-Ribblesdale, the penultimate station before the terminus at Ribblehead, where rises the magnificent viaduct. Both stops are great for walkers, but ours takes us immediately into the heart of the Three Peaks. Pen-y-ghent is behind us as we leave the station, Ingleborough ahead and, to the north, on our far right, is Whernside. All have summits of about 700 metres and if you’re super fit, you can do them in one day – even between the two train services if you want a challenge. The men’s running record is 2hrs 46mins 3secs, set by Andy Peace, of Bingley Harriers, in 1996. Victoria Wilkinson, from the same club, set the women’s record, 3hrs 9mins 19secs, in 2017. It’s more than 23 miles (37km), and trained, fit walkers can manage it in 8-10 hours.

Ours is a less daunting mission: walking on a plateau between the peaks down to Settle, for a pub lunch. It’s still an adventure in the sense that there are very few marked footpaths on the OS app (OL2 is the Ordnance Survey printed map), but this is open access land and so you find your own route. We use cairns to navigate, climbing from the station platform at about 250 metres to the Moughton trig point at 427 metres, where we get a sweeping view of the Yorkshire Three Peaks and Bowland Fells to our south and west, and a chance for a cuppa. I hear my first skylarks of the season, but the air is also filled with the unmistakeable gurgling croak of ravens. Shake holes break up the limestone pavement and you have to be alert to these sudden depressions, but the only significant obstacle is getting down the scars, where the elevation suddenly drops tens of feet. At Long Scar we pause to plot a path and to take in the vertical edge, and in the middle distance, the Norber Erratics – 100-plus boulders transported long ago by glaciers and abandoned wantonly above the village of Austwick.

But the edge is enthralling. You can imagine this formation as an underwater cliff, aeons ago, though glaciation, weather and uplift have played their part in creating the static drama. It could be a rift in the Patagonian steppe or a Yorkshire-tinted section of Arizona’s Monument Valley. We sight an obelisk and head for that and soon find ourselves at the edge of another drop, Moughton Scar, where we descend again, passing a massive quarry; here the material hewed out of the strata is a tough gritstone called greywacke, the colour of cement.

It’s green and agricultural the rest of the way, and while we’re hitting the 10-mile stage of the walk, it’s fine to have wobbly legs now we’re off the tricky pavement. Wild garlic is bursting through, newborn lambs are dozing, and daffodils are sprouting around the tiny hamlet of Feizor, where there’s a teashop that used to be for walkers but now seems to pull in mainly car tourists.

We plough on, over two small rises, and finally on to the banks of the Ribble, which begins its long, meandering journey close to where we began. Settle is full of bikers, shoppers and sightseers, but there are also pints and late lunches in the pubs. We’re contented and have earned our pies. We can either get the late train back or hop on the number 11 minibus to Clitheroe. Those travelling from farther afield have the backup option of later trains to Leeds or Lancaster.

Ours was an ideal first long walk if you’re getting back into exercise after the wet winter. If you want to use the train to attempt the Three Peaks, I’d recommend splitting up the hikes over a weekend. Horton to Pen-y-ghent and then on to Ribblehead, 10 miles all told, is a nice day’s jaunt. You can do Whernside and Ingleborough on the following day, covering a similar distance, ending back at Horton. There’s a choice of campsites and a pub with rooms – the Station Inn – at Ribblehead.

The three hills have different qualities. Pen-y-ghent is a proper big lump, with a dramatically steep southern face that requires a short scramble. Ingleborough is a similar shape, but more haughty and spread out, almost mesa-like in its flat-topped appearance. Whernside is a long-elevated whale-back ridge, running north to south.

I can see the Three Peaks from my kitchen window, 22 miles away as the raven flies. The day before our hike, it had rained at home. But it had snowed on the top of the peaks, making them look out of place. They bear the full brunt of cold westerlies and are higher than anything nearby, and consequently create a micro-season of their own. Bear that in mind if you’re aiming to bag them on your next weekend outing.

Published on
05/05/2026 – 7:12 GMT+2

Oil prices fell back in early trade but remained elevated as investors kept an eye on escalating tensions between the US and Iran and progress on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.

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At the time of writing, Brent crude was trading 1.38% lower at $112.86 while US crude, or WTI, was down 2.27% at $104 per barrel. US futures edged 0.1% higher.

Elsewhere, regional trading was thin overnight with markets in Japan, South Korea and mainland China closed for holidays.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell 1.1% to 25,805.98. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.5% to 8,649.80, while Taiwan’s Taiex traded 0.2% lower at 40,626.22.

The fragile ceasefire between the US and Iran was tested on Monday after the US military said it had sank six Iranian small boats targeting civilian ships, while two US-flagged ships successfully passed through the Strait of Hormuz.

The key waterway for oil and gas transport remains largely closed despite repeated demands from the US for Iran to reopen the strait and as the United States imposed a sea blockade on Iranian ports. US President Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom” plan under which the United States would help guide stranded ships through the Strait of Hormuz began on Monday.

Brent crude, the international standard, surged above $114 a barrel on Monday, gaining nearly 6%. Before the war began in late February, it was trading near $70.