Night Trains #
It was several years ago that a frequent traveller told me about it being more comfortable and time saving to travel
mid-sized distances (e.g. from Berlin to Amsterdam) by train - night train that is - instead of flying. Back then
without decent knowledge of which combination of booking early and discount card make prizes of trips by train somewhat
comparable to those offered by airlines that wasn’t really an option for me.
It took me years and a conference in Vienna to re-visit to his proposal: Trying to find ways to reduce the amount of times I fly I looked for alternatives. Going by car clearly is not an option as it’s more time consuming and on such long distances also more stressful. Going by regular train seemed like a waste of time as well. So I re-checked the offers for night trains. The idea of going to bed in Berlin and waking up at my destination just seemed too good.
Currently sitting in a CNL to Amsterdam I have to admit that for now this is the most relaxing way to travel I’ve found so far: Get on board, sleep heavenly (though not as comfortable as in your preferred hotel, beds are still ok), get your breakfast brought to bed in the morning. Mix in meeting friendly people (so far maybe I was just lucky) that are either discovering Europe as backpackers (met one from Australia and one from Canada yesterday) or happen to be taking that train as part of their weekly commute.
I think at least for most European cities I’m converted now :)