Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWhy can\u2019t we just fly there?\u201d my youngest questions as we stand on the platform waiting for our train to Paris.I’m about to go Interrailing with my husband and two children, aged eight and 11. I have never done this before. My youth was misspent hopping between beach huts in Southeast Asia, not trains in Europe.\u00a0But long-haul flights for four are expensive, and I\u2019m now more conscious of the environmental impact of flying. Plus, Interrail passes are very cost-effective for families. Kids under 12 travel free, and ticket prices are fixed year-round.\u00a0\u201cTrain travel will be more fun!\u201d I say. \u201cNo hanging about in the airport, more room to move around, and flexibility to change plans if we want to.\u201d Airports conjure up visions of queues, restrictions and long, uncomfortable journeys, while travelling by train feels far more civilised.\u00a0It seems others agree. Train travel is experiencing a renaissance, with more people opting to take to the rails. There are more routes than ever to enjoy, too, with the EU\u2019s high-speed network nearly doubling in a decade, along with the revival of night trains.**How to plan a cross-European rail journey with kidsOur route takes in France, Germany, Croatia and Austria, with most of our holiday centred in Slovenia, a country I\u2019ve longed to visit for a while. Slovenia is one of the greenest countries in the world, so it\u2019s a fitting tribute to venture here by one of the most environmentally friendly forms of transport.\u00a0Travelling by train instead of flying cuts individual carbon emissions by up to 90 per cent.\u00a0However, booking cross-border train travel can be more challenging than opting for a flight. Along with a myriad of different country and route options, juggling different operators, navigating which routes need seat reservations and still have availability, plus ensuring the itinerary isn\u2019t too intense for kids, becomes rather mind-boggling.\u00a0The Interrail and Seat61 websites are invaluable in helping smooth out our trip planning woes. For those less inclined to DIY, there\u2019s Byway, a company specialising in organising flight-free trips.\u00a0Plans are also underway to improve European rail travel, and the EU is working towards a unified cross-European booking system to simplify the whole process.Seat reservations open up to three months in advance, so make sure you book early if you want to sit together. When you\u2019re planning your itinerary, it’s a good idea to space out longer journeys too, to prevent kids from getting overwhelmed.\u00a0When it comes to accommodation, apartments are also often cheaper and easier for families.\u00a0And while you are on the train, a bit of preparation can save you a lot of headaches down the line. Download movies or TV shows to watch in advance as WiFi can be patchy and expensive. Many trains lack decent food options as well, so make sure you pack some snacks.\u00a0Trains are a luxury compared to overnight economy flightsPlanning now well behind us, we ease into train travel with a short first journey. Eurostar whisks us from London to Paris, where we bed down in a cosy Parisian apartment. In the morning, fuelled by warm flaky croissants, we hop on the metro to Parc de La Villette, a fantastic family-friendly urban park in the northeast of the capital and wander back slowly along Canal St. Martin to Gare de l\u2019Est for our onward journey\u2014first to Stuttgart and then overnight to Zagreb.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTThe novelty factor is still high, and my two children love sitting on the upper deck of the German train. \u201cIt travels at 199 miles an hour!\u201d exclaims my eldest, tackling a giant pretzel. Jaws drop when they find out that some Swiss trains have playgrounds on board.\u00a0Travelling overnight by train is also unique. Our private couchette had six small bunks, a lockable door and a bottle of water and a croissant each. Some of the newer sleeper trains have showers and room service on board, though I\u2019m selective in who I divulge this information to in case the kids feel like they’re missing out.\u00a0Either way, it\u2019s luxury compared to flying economy class overnight, and still a fraction of the price. And boarding just 15 minutes before departure? A dream.\u00a0Cable cars and wacky museums in ZagrebWe wake to softly falling snow in Austria before rattling alongside ice-cold rivers towards Zagreb, Croatia\u2019s overlooked capital. The city greets us with a blast \u2014 quite literally \u2014 as the Gric cannon fires its daily noon salute from the Lotr\u0161\u010dak Tower, a tradition that\u2019s held strong since 1877.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTZagreb\u2019s quirks are further unveiled as we admire grand Austro-Hungarian fa\u00e7ades rubbing shoulders with Brutalist buildings, a pretty botanical garden adjacent to graffitied walls, and damaged steps patched up with colourful mosaic tiles. There are nearly 50 weird and wonderful museums here too, covering everything from broken relationships to hangovers.\u00a0We plump for the more kid-appropriate museum of laughter, the Ha Ha House, with its upside-down rooms and distorted mirrors.\u00a0Our friend Ivo tells us Mount Medvicnica, to the north of the city, is a beloved part of Zagreb, so we board a cable car and ride dizzyingly high up to explore its trails.\u00a0\u201cOn Mondays, people will ask if you made it into the hills. If you did, it means you had a good weekend. Good moods are found up there,\u201d he says.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTMoods are good back on board the train, too. The rhythmic clickety-clack of old carriages and the ever-changing European landscapes unfolding are soporific and soothing. We settle into the enforced downtime easily with Uno battles, books and a little bit of screen time. A young interrailer remarks that our trip is \u2018\u2018so cool,\u201d and my boys grin, chuffed they have impressed her.\u00a0The urban sprawl of Zagreb soon gives way to forested hills, wide turquoise rivers, and clusters of houses on the hills. \u201cLook! A mountain! With snow!\u201d shouts my youngest, as we forge into Slovenia.\u00a0Fairytale castles and crowd-free skiing in SloveniaSlovenia\u2019s enchanting capital, Ljubljana, is instantly likeable. A compact, car-free centre of cobbled streets and caf\u00e9-lined riverbanks, it\u2019s made for wandering. Trees are in blossom everywhere when we arrive.\u00a0\u00a0We stretch our legs further in Ljubljana\u2019s prettiest public space, Tivoli Park, before stomping up to the medieval castle\u2019s viewing tower for sweeping views of the winding River Ljubljanica and the red-roofed city.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTAt Bled, we bike ride around Slovenia\u2019s most famous lake, admiring the fairytale cliff-top castle and 15th-century Gothic church marooned on a tiny central island.\u00a0But it is Bohinj we truly fall for. It\u2019s quieter and wilder. There\u2019s no station here, so more effort is needed to reach it. Better for us, I think, as we canoe through water as clear as glass on Lake Bohinj, with only the surrounding mountains for company.\u00a0Late afternoons bring the fresh mountain air and the kitesurfers, so we head home for thick hot chocolate and Bled cake, a cream and calorie-filled local pastry, which tastes as good as it looks.\u00a0Central to Bohinj are the mountains, and we are lucky enough to catch the tail end of the ski season at Vogel, 1535m above the lake. My husband takes off to enjoy the crowd-free slopes alone, and a one-to-three ski lesson enables my boys and me to wobble down a blissfully quiet blue run by mid-afternoon.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTThe boys are hooked. As the cable car carries us silently back up into the peaceful snowy peaks for another slow descent, we plot our return.\u00a0Alas, it is finally time to leave. Valleys become steeper and mountains loom larger as Slovenia moves aside for Austria. Fluffy clouds scud across the blue sky as we whizz through the dramatic alpine landscape. \u201cWe\u2019d miss seeing all this going by plane,\u201d my husband says.After a fleeting stop in Salzburg, where we eyeball Mozart\u2019s birthplace and play at the rather excellent Spielzeug Museum (toy museum), our journey takes us via Stuttgart back home to the UK.\u00a0\u00a0Breaking off another bit of Austrian chocolate, just to check it still tastes good, my youngest muses, \u201cIn the end, I\u2019m glad we didn\u2019t fly.\u201d High praise indeed.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTTrain travel was provided by Interrail.eu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic ADVERTISEMENT\u201cWhy can\u2019t we just fly there?\u201d my youngest questions as we stand on the platform waiting for our train to Paris.I’m about to go Interrailing with my husband and two children, aged eight and 11. I have never done this before. My youth was<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":292590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-292589","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292591,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292589\/revisions\/292591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}