Jeff Mowatt wrote:
You've lost me! An hour on what train?

I assume: the one to the airport, that you didn't want to catch because
you wanted to sit on a bus for an extra (24-5=) 19 hours, instead of a
plane for 5.

....
Anyway this is how I see it. Getting dragged out of bed at 3.30 isn't
pleasant, but in this case the only flight which could make the connection
to Ukraine, the final destination.

Where in Ukraine are you going that you want to break in Bratislava??

There are direct flights to Kiev from Gatwick, and even if those don't
catch onward connections overnighting in Kiev isn't that expensive, and
it saves at least one change extra change of currency...

I did use the German on-line timetable to work out London-Kiev by rail a
couple of years ago; IIRC it takes about 12 hours to get to the Berlin
Zoo (or Vienna, then Bratislava(!) depending on route), after which you
sat on a train for two nights and 36 hours for Kiev.

I was warned though that the odds of getting through the wilder parts of
Byelorussia in one piece were lower than I might wish.

I wimped out in the end though: 48 hours on a train is a *long* time,
yay even compared with some of GNER's efforts...

Henry