I don't normally take pictures of the trains I'm about to board and compare them with the pictures taken by a stranger sitting next to me in the carriage. But this train, which ran between the Baltic capitals of Riga in Latvia and Vilnius in Lithuania, was special. As the Lithuanian conductor told us (in his unexpected Devonshire accent), there had been no rail connection between the two cities for twenty years until the Lithuanian Railways started operations on December 27.
My Swiss neighbor, Markus Specker, had bought tickets for the first service. "I got sick so I postponed my trip until now," he said. "It's not that I'm a train fanatic - I just love to travel."
Me too, especially when the four and a bit hour connection means I can easily see the highlights of two Baltic capitals in one long weekend, flying from Stansted to Riga at crazy hours on a Friday (well, 6.45am) , where we take the train to Vilnius the next day at 3:28 PM and return from there to arrive in Stansted at 11:45 PM on Sunday. The very comfortable train journey costs only €24, and both cities can easily be reached on foot.
Unfortunately, Riga and Vilnius remain much maligned when it comes to seeking out the "beautiful corners" of Europe. With Lithuania and Latvia both being former Soviet Socialist Republics (gaining their independence in 1990 and 1991 respectively), their capitals are all too often dismissed as drab post-communist wastelands - all brutalist housing blocks and grey, angular sprawl - when in fact this might not be the case can be. It couldn't be further from the truth.
The medieval heart of Riga, with its cobbled streets, narrow alleys and hidden courtyards, flourished when it became an important trading post of the Hanseatic League. Highlights include three interconnected medieval houses known as the 'Three Brothers', and the ornate House of the Blackheads, a guild for unmarried merchants.
Once you've ticked them off, get a bird's-eye view of the city's red roofs. You can see them from the top of the Gothic St Peter's Church, but instead of paying the €9/£7.70 fee, head to the Radisson Blu Latvija hotel and take the glass lift to the Skyline Bar, for a beautiful view of the city. golden dome of the Nativity Orthodox Cathedral and over the old town to the river.
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Just a short walk away is Albert Street, where the houses are dripping with decorations, with sphinxes outside the doors, lions atop towers and theatrical elements everywhere. Riga has the highest concentration of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe, and at the end of the street one facade reminiscent of a wedding cake stands next to another that looks more like a gingerbread house.
If all this talk of pies makes you hungry, there's plenty of good food in the city - so much so that Michelin has just unveiled its first selection of restaurants there.
For excellent seafood dishes, visit nearby Tails, a hip meeting place with cool music where even the butter is shaped like little fish swimming over a shell. For more traditional dishes, visit Milda on the river for an incredible porcini mushroom soup, served in a loaf, which I followed with the most delicious traditional cabbage rolls filled with buckwheat and pumpkin puree. And if you want to stock up for the train, the station is close to one of Europe's largest covered markets, housed in five pavilions that were formerly Zeppelin hangars.
But before I left, I chose to explore a dark side of Riga, which is also shared by Vilnius. Both cities (which were part of the Russian Empire before World War I) were occupied by the Soviets at the start of World War II when the Nazis invaded and decimated their Jewish populations, and again from 1945 until independence in the early 1990s. Both saw mass deportations to Siberia and a reign of terror by the KGB.
Inside the KGB headquarters, the Corner House, I followed the grim journey of some 48,000 people, from the registration room to the interrogation room to crowded, overheated cells and finally to the execution chamber, where colored dots marked bullet holes on the walls.
Sufficiently sober, I boarded the train to Vilnius, and that evening I arrived in a city full of pastel-colored buildings and 52 churches.
The golden age began with the 14th-century Grand Duke Gediminas (you can take the funicular to his hilltop castle). After a series of favorable marriages, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and became the largest country in Europe in the 15th century.
Vilnius Old Town is now an architectural puzzle of Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical buildings, many of which have been converted into tempting gift shops, cafes and restaurants. My hotel, the Pacai - housed in a beautiful building dating from 1677 - was not far from the Church of Saint Casimir, converted into a museum of atheism under Soviet rule. "I remember going there once a week as a child and learning that God didn't exist," said my guide, Asta.
It is a reminder of the dark side of Vilnius, which can also be explored in the Lukiskes Prison, built in 1904 for 600 prisoners, but under Stalin housed more than ten times as many prisoners. Today you can see their grim living conditions and spot the locations where some of the hit series have been shown Stranger things was filmed, watching a fake Vladimir Putin in a cell and even taking a sauna in a newly opened capsule in the prison courtyard.
Once marketing itself as Europe's G-spot, Vilnius is clearly a quirky city with a sense of humor. Be sure to cross the Vilnia River to the Republic of Uzupis, plagued by artists and intellectuals, which celebrates its "independence" on April 1.
The 41-point constitution engraved on a wall states that "everyone has the right to die, but this is not an obligation," and "a cat is not obliged to love its owner, but must help in times of need ".
There was still time for one more unusual offering before we left for the airport. At Restaurant Lokys in the old town I tasted traditional zeppelins, potato dumplings filled with meat or curds in the shape of an airship, and the local specialty: cold beetroot soup.
It looked like Barbie's favorite meal, but tasted absolutely amazing. A good lesson perhaps not to judge a former Soviet city by its appearance.
Essentials
Jane Knight traveled as a guest of Riga Tourism (liveriga.com) and Go Vilnius (00 370 686 57232; govilnius.lt), flying on Ryanair (ryanair.com).
The Radisson Blu Latvija (0283 0640900; radissonhotels.com) has B&B doubles from £97; the Pacai (00 370 5 277 0000; hotelpacai.com) has B&B doubles from £145.
Train tickets cost €24 (£21.50) on Lithuanian Railways (ltglink.lt). Holiday Extras has three-day Meet and Greet car parks at Stansted from £80 (0800 316 5678; holidayextras.com).