May 6th - Sale of the half-century is upon us for European rail enthusiasts
Simon Calder's Independent Travel Podcast
The Independent
3.6 • 628 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2022
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Two bits of good news has put a spring in my step into the weekend. Overnight Ryanair has aligned with the actual European rules on passport validity. And even better than that, the sale of the half-century is upon us: half-price Interrail passes for one, two or three months of travel on the trains of Europe. Tempted? Buy by 11.59pm on Tuesday 10 May. Seen you on board.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The future is unpredictable at times, that the open university are the experts in distance learning, allowing you to fit study around your life. |
| 0:11.3 | What's more, you'll have support from dedicated tutors every step of the way. |
| 0:16.1 | Now, suddenly your possibilities are open. |
| 0:20.2 | Registered by the 5th of September to get started the open university |
| 0:26.7 | the future is open hello I'm Simon Cawdell welcoming you to independent travel podcast, bringing you the latest news on travelling, whether you're just dreaming of a great escape, looking forward to one, or actually away and having the time of your life. |
| 0:48.5 | Well, as you might be able to tell, I'm an awful lot more cheerful than I was yesterday. Two reasons for that. |
| 0:56.9 | Last night, Ryanair confirmed to me that at last they are going to adhere to the actual |
| 1:04.3 | European passport rules. That is very good. I hope nobody gets turned away who shouldn't be. And the long, slow business of |
| 1:14.5 | claiming for people who had that extremely distressing and expensive experience now begins. |
| 1:23.0 | No doubt we will be talking about that. The other reason I'm very happy though is that I've finally spent |
| 1:30.2 | really quite a lot of money on a ticket for which I have no idea what I will be using it for. |
| 1:39.6 | Let me tell you what's going on. Interrail is 50 years old. Yes it is. 1972 was the first summer |
| 1:48.1 | that young people started roaming around Europe. They could buy a ticket for 32 pounds. |
| 1:55.8 | It was valid for anybody under 21 and it gave you three weeks of unlimited travel on the rails of Europe. |
| 2:06.7 | It was really just an experiment. |
| 2:08.6 | But now, well, of course, Eurointerrail is open to anybody and to celebrate 50 years. |
| 2:16.4 | The organisers, which is a company called Eural BV, based in Utrecht in lovely Netherlands, |
| 2:24.5 | city well worth going to on your interrail pass, by the way, |
| 2:28.1 | has said, we are going to do something absolutely unheard of. |
| 2:54.2 | We are going to halve the cost of the three kind of real prime purchases for interrail. These are the so-called global passes valid in 33 countries and valid for one month, two months or three months. |
| 3:03.4 | I've gone for the full Monty. A, I can have to say this carefully, first class, three month global pass. And again, I've got no idea what I'm going to use it for but the price |
| 3:09.7 | for an adult of a three month global pass is 601 euros so call it 500 pounds |
... |
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