Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

As many of us already know, the train is the way to go when traveling through Europe. Since not everyone has the luxury of time or even if you do, but want to get out of town quickly (i.e., fallout with your travel partner, a small misunderstanding with the French police) or feel your schedule is getting a bit cramped, a sleeper car on an overnight train can be a perfect solution. Aside from it being a budget friendly choice, sleeping while traveling at night kills two birds with one stone by saving money AND time.

I’ve traveled through all of Western Europe by train with my eurail pass. Various ticket choices are available for however many days and train rides you plan on taking. Of course you can buy your tickets at each stop as you go along, but for those on a budget this can get costly.

Aside from smelling the worst smell that I have ever smelled in my life (seriously, it woke me from a dead sleep) in my 4 bed sleeper car on an overnight train from Paris to Barcelona–most of my rides were non-eventful and I always felt great the next morning to have gained ground while sleeping.

In my pack, I carried a sleep sheet made of fleece (that my mom sewed for me). Fleece is nicer than the thin sheet most travel stores sell mainly because it is warm enough to be your sole bedding. I recommend to anyone who plans on overnight train travel or staying in a hostel (or if you are lucky enough to have an experience like I had and spend the night on a heart shaped bed with a zebra skin head board in the last available room you can find in all of Frankfurt that of course is in the red light district),to pack one of these… and to wash it often.

As I was saying, most of my overnight rides were uneventful–that is until I got to Austria.

On this particular leg of my trip through Europe I was actually on work assignment with my then-job so the train tickets from Vienna to Amsterdam were covered for my travel partner (my friend Sheryl) and me. We felt we were living the high life as we purchased two first-class overnight tickets in our very own sleeper cabin.

diana on the tracks

Fritz, the concierge for our particular car who had a severe case of jazz hands, was overly eager to assist us with our every imaginable need. He gave us a tour of our cabin–and while it was larger than the normal cabin, it was still small and his tour really could have been conducted from the hallway. He explained how our table folded down and how to push it back up against the wall. He showed us how each light switch turned on and off and probably the only useful thing, was how to adjust the air conditioning. As he headed to the door to leave us, he stopped suddenly–his face serious and his stance firm. He held one finger up and with his thick accent in a hoarse whisper said: “do not forget to lock the door”. Looking at each of us, he repeated the statement slowly then added, “You must be safe”. With a click of the lock as well as securing the chain at the top of the door we thanked Fritz, rolled our eyes at each and laughed!
Before we had time to open our complimentary first class sparkling water there was a rap at the door. Sheryl unlocked the bolt and opened the door with the upper chain still fastened. Peering out the gap we saw Fritz slowly shaking his finger at us for opening the door. He was a bit freaky, I mean, was he warning us of his psycho alter ego?

sheryl sitting at the table fritz folded down for us

The laughs from Fritz’s oddness boiled over as we tried to move about our bedroom. Seriously, this was first class??!! There were 2 thin bunk beds, a reading light at each bunk and a small window. Sheryl is about three inches taller than me so she took the top bunk. There was no way we could both fit into the room at the same time so while I sat on my bed unable to sit straight, Sheryl stood in the doorway while we recapped our day. Neither of us were very comfortable in our respective positions so we decided to get some sleep. Our car was last in the train and as I was dozing off to sleep the swaying seemed somewhat more pronounced but it still had that soothing effect I looked forward to on night trains.

diana “sitting” on her bed

sheryl taking up the entire doorway. note the old school camera!

The route we were traveling though seemed to have more curves than normal and the swaying started to resemble that game you play as a kid at the roller-rink–the Whip I think its called; do you know what I am talking about? The last person in the chain of people gets whipped around the rink trying their hardest to hang on and not get “whipped” off.
I remember sliding up and down my bed vertically and a couple times even holding onto the bars of the bunk above me to try & keep still. Sheryl of course had the same problem and for some reason we weren’t scared–just sort of along for the ride and our laughs started up again until we heard a loud whoosh sound and then heard nothing but the train whirring along the tracks.
The night light I had turned on went out, the air-conditioning vent shut off and we could hear commotion in the hallway. Fritz was knocking on each door letting people know that the electricity was out and he wasn’t sure if it would be back on. The train kept moving and the room was starting to get warm with the a/c off. Fritz was passing out sparkling water and advising everyone to open our doors to let air circulate–but he was quick to point out that we shouldn’t fall asleep so as we would all stay safe. Sheryl and I threw the idea around that maybe the lights out and the doors open were all part of Fritz’s master plan–or his alter ego’s master plan…and our laughs came on even stronger while we waited out the electricity while toasting each other with our water.

We did end up making it to Amsterdam safe and sound and we had a fabulous time all over the Netherlands… but thats info for future posts! By the way, the power in the train did come back on after about 3 hours.

So–enjoy your train rides and do try an overnight route if you haven’t before.
Just remember: Avoid the last car, even if it is first class; if your concierge is named Fritz, keep your door locked and most important–keep laughing!

amsterdam by day

amsterdam by night