Archived:PlanB
B for Baltic, not to be confused with Balkan.
White nights 2015 runs 23 May - 10 June. Or 11 June - later. Or 22 June - 25 June (that's the film festival anyway?). Ballet and Opera apparently runs 28 May - 27 July? Scarlet sails are allegedly June 23?
We should be able to avoid Rev's wedding on July 25th.
So, Plan: A trip from June 13 - June 28, with much of the second week in St Petersburg.
The ferry from St Petersburg to Stockholm is every 4 days, so rather irregular :(. But St Petersburg - Helsinki is almost daily, overnight (depart 19:00, arrive 08:00). Alternately, high-speed trains.
Helsinki - Stockholm: daily ferries, or overnight ones.
So, working backwards:
Sunday 28th: If Copenhagen-Cologne sleeper is still running, day in Cologne, then an afternoon/evening Eurostar home. Otherwise, day in Paris, that being the only place one can get a decent overnight train to from Hamburg.
Saturday 27th: Day in Copenhagen, or possibly Hamburg. If no Copenhagen-Cologne sleeper, then leave at 15:42 on the train to Hamburg (train ferry! woo). Urgh, no dice, that gets in after the sleeper leaves for Paris. Well, figure something out. Worst case we take the Hamburg-Cologne or Hamburg-Amsterdam sleeper, assuming those still exist.
Friday 26th: Day in Stockholm, then sleeper train to Malmö (arrives 5:45), and a follow-on train to somewhere more interesting (Copenhagen, or Hamburg via the train ferry).
Thursday 25th: Day in Helsinki, then 17:02 train to Turku and overnight ferry to Stockholm. Or a direct ferry leaving at 17:00 (arriving at 9:30 rather than 6:30).
Wednesday 24th: Last day in St Petersburg, then high speed train to Helsinki. Last one is the 20:25 arriving 23:01 (or possibly 22:01, DST shennanigans).
And working forwards:
Friday 12th: Overnight ferry to Amsterdam
Saturday 13th: Day in Amsterdam, overnight train to Prague
Sunday 14th: Day in Prague, overnight train to Krakow
Sunday 15th: Day in Krakow, overnight train to Lviv
Mon 16th: Day in Lviv, overnight train to Vinnytsia or Kiev (runs alternate days - may have to wait a day?)
Tue 17th: Day in Vinnytsia, train to Kiev, overnight train to Minsk
Wed 18th: Day in Minsk, overnight train to Vilnius (at 4am, yuck). Or to Kanliningrad to tick the box. - arrive 11:29, depart 13:14.
Thur 19th: Morning in Kaliningrad, afternoon train to Vilnius (arr 18:45). Or just day in Vilnius. Either way, overnight train to St Petersburg (depart 19:50). This ticks the Latvia box but not the Estonia one, so we should do that on the way back.
Fri 19th: Arrive in St Petersburg, stay there until Wednesday 24th. Leave early (or even the day before) by train to Helsinki and ferry to Talinn, and spend the night of the 24th there. Then on Thursday 25th, take the ferry back to Helsinki for a day there. Then as above.
Alternate, incomplete thought:
Saturday 13th: overnight train to Warsaw
Sunday 14th: Day in Warsaw, overnight train to... probably has to be Minsk? (Or Kiev, if the gang finds that acceptable) The Kaliningrad train doesn't seem to be running any more, nor the Vilnus one :(.