Just pack your rucksack and go

Most parents would recoil in horror at the thoughts of backpacking by train with two toddlers in tow but Rory Fitzgerald found it a cheap and fun way to see Europe.

I BLAME Thomas the Tank Engine. He has turned our kids into train fanatics. If it weren’t for him, we’d probably have taken a nice package holiday, like any sensible family with two toddlers.

Instead, we chose to travel by train through Italy and France - all of us living out of a single backpack for three weeks.