Sleeper Car

Day 2: Somewhere in the North Sea (GB) to Somewhere in Northern Germany (D). I don't know what it is, but I have a certain affinity with Amsterdam. Maybe it's the classic architecture, the scenic canals, the stately mansions from the Golden Age or maybe it's the coffee shops, the smell of shishka or the ladies of the city. I don''t know – but I do like Amsterdam.

Karen and I arrived there about at about 10.30am and after a typical Dutch street breakfast we spent a wonderful day wandering around the streets and taking in the sights of this beautiful city on a cold but bright winter's day.

By early evening we were exhausted and we were looking forward the the next leg of our journey – new experiences for both of us: Our first time sleeping on a train (although it would be the first of many!) and, at 15 hours, the longest train journey that we had ever embarked on (although this was to be eclipsed by journeys later in our travels!), According to time-table, The DeutcheBahn train pulled out of platforrm 11b of Amsterdam Centraal at preciously 19:01 on its long journey across the Eurasian continent to Moscow. We however, would only be staying with train 447 until it reached central Poland.

We had been allocated bunks 83 and 85 in a 6 seater 'couchette'. By the time we had found our cabin, two of our room mates were already busy finding space for their belongings. Marek and Natelia were both from Northern Poland and were returning home having attended a conference in Holland on Zen meditation. Fortunately for us, they were both very kind and helped us to make the most of our journey in our confined space. Each couchette, measured approximately 7 ft by 7 ft and had 6 bunk beds arranged on either side of the cabin up to the 8ft height of the compartment. Whilst the couchette was comfortable, its size and lack of available luggage space meant that every movement we made needed the coordinated agreement and understanding of the rest of our travellers. It reminded me very much of a human version of that puzzle where you have to arrange the tiles, one at a time, in the right order. Still it helped to break the ice!

We went to bed at about 9pm and a combination of the days exertions coupled with the gentle rocking motion of the train soon had me fast asleep. It was however a broken sleep. At about midnight, as we arrived in Cologne, I was awoken by the arrival of two further passengers to our compartment, one of which had enough luggage for five people which she piled up next to my bunk to the extent I couldn't even get out of bed! Then later still we reached Berlin and I was awoken by the sound of trains de-coupling and coupling as our transport was split in to three, one segment bound for Copenhagen, another bound for Prague and then our section bound for Poland.

All in all, an interesting experience. And one we were definitely looking forward to repeating as our holiday progressed.