a nice view of Vienna , Westbahnoff

I'm in danger of forgetting how many times I've been to Europe by train this summer, it has been a completely brilliant year so far, and another trip the easternmost side of Germany coming up in late September. It's going to be very tempting indeed to take some time off and go and look at Poland. some handy tips for spending a comfortable night on a sleeper train are as follows:

One. Always make sure you have at least a 2 L bottle of water, even the poshest night trains tend to run out of water by the morning.

Two. Always bring a bottle of wine or spirits, which you can have lots of fun sharing out with the people who share your compartment.

Three. Bring herbal sleeping tablets, and earplugs or at least an MP3 of waves breaking on the seashore or a waterfall or somesuch. even on the noisiest night train, a heavy snorer will keep you awake all night.

four. And this is the most important one, climbing ladders in the dead of night, in order to squeeze yourself into a narrow shelf, where the temperature can be 50° due to stratification, does not always make for a good nights sleep, so try to get on the bottom bunk!

train travel by night, is one of the loveliest ways to travel . The sense of adventure as the sun comes down on the train steams on into the night is truly exciting, you can open the windows and look out. Small towns in the darkness as you pass through them, distant hills and mountains lit by moonlight, and the train gently rocks you to sleep. In the morning you wake up in a completely new city! I think I'm actually starting to prefer night trains to daytime trains.