A 6,500-mile rail trip to Japan
It's early evening and I'm sitting inside a café in Cologne. A summer storm has forced me indoors and I watch as the rapid-fire rain rebounds on the square in front of the train station. The city's cathedral - a great gothic masterpiece - looms ominously overhead, silhouetted against a night sky lit up by flashes of lightning.
I get talking to a man next to me who's drinking white wine with his girlfriend and who turns out to be a fellow Brit. After commiserating each other a little about the weather (the eternal talking point for any Brit abroad), he eventually asks me where I'm heading.
