Man goes viral by seeing how far away he can get from London in 24 hours using only trains

A man embarked on a 24-hour adventure to see how far he could get by train - and managed to pass through some of Europe's idyllic hot spots.

Jo Kibble, an Ealing Council worker, set off from London St Pancras and documented his entire journey on Twitter. He also pledged to donate 20p per kilometre to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to support people living in Ukraine.

His venture was inspired by a similar trip he took six months prior and his yearning to explore after "being starved of international travel for two years." Kibble travelled 260 miles from his starting point by bus, through Northampton, Leicester, Aylesbury, Peak District, and Morecambe.

"What is the furthest point I can get from St Pancras in 24 hours? I think I know on paper, but there's some tight connections ahead…" he asked followers in the early hours of Wednesday morning, before jumping on the 7.01am Eurostar to Paris.

A trip as such takes plenty of meticulous planning. Kibble, a self-confessed train-timetables nerd, researched his destinations and weighed up his options.

"It took a lot of planning - there was a lot of trial and error finding the furthest place you can reach, and like many people, I initially thought it would be to the east," he told The Independent.

"I had to do a lot of spreadsheets, timetable wrangling and map measuring to come up with the eventual answer. And some backup plans if the trains played up!"

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Kibble managed to hop on board nine European trains and pass through four different countries: France, Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

His 24 hours came to an end in Bovo Marina in southern Italy. Kibble described it as: "an archetypal southern Italian town by the Ionian Sea, with a grey volcanic beach, prickly pears and palms, but where bizarrely everyone speaks a Greek dialect dating back to the Ancient Greek occupation and all the road signs are in Italian and Greek. It feels totally forgotten and a bit end of the world."

He highlighted the journey on the Zurich-Milan Express as his favourite.

"You pass about five beautiful lakes, cows, goats and meadows, and go through the Gotthard tunnel, which gives a complete landscape and cultural change from German speaking to Italian speaking Switzerland," he said.

"And they have beautiful new trains, called 'Giruno', or 'Buzzard' in Rhaetian, with huge windows, low floors, very comfortable seats and a nice restaurant car."

As for what's next for Kibble's adventures, he hasn't really thought about it, "but I expect social media will give me some ideas…"

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