Sebastian Crane 🏳️⚧️Last night was my first ever aboard a sleeper train! I took the European Sleeper (ES 452) from Berlin Gesundbrunnen to Bruxelles-Midi in Comfort Standard class.
With disruption on the north-south lines of the Berlin S-Bahn and construction work on sections of the U-Bahn, getting from U-Bahnhof Mehringdamm to Gesundbrunnen was unsettling but thankfully uneventful. After extracting my essential nighttime items - pyjamas and blåhaj - from my suitcase on the platform, I boarded the European Sleeper train, which departed punctually at 22:59.
Upon boarding, I quickly noticed that the air in the train was much warmer and drier than I had expected, and the 500 ml bottle of water provided for each passenger would have been entirely inadequate. Luckily, there was an extra bottle of water, and after a brief discussion with the one other passenger in the compartment, I drank that too. Only in the morning did I notice that there was a climate control panel for the compartment, which was set to 'medium'.
The mattresses were comfortable (as were the pillows) although the bunk was ever so slightly too short for me to lie down straight on. There was also loads of luggage space, both below the seats and on a narrow shelf at the head of the bunks, but I think it would have been much less spacious in the couchette carriages, which fit six passengers into each compartment - there, I would expect space for no more than a rucksack per passenger.
There was another Träwelling user on board, but we didn't get to meet each other! Judging by the tags on our respective check-ins, we were in different carriages.
I got to sleep at approximately midnight, which is pretty typical for me. However, I woke up at 03:00 after a dream in which I had a productive discussion with @marcprux about KeepAndroidOpen.org shortly before the train derailed and plunged off the side of a bridge (metaphor?) - considering the subject matter, this dream did not bother me as much as it perhaps should have. In fairness, I think the dream might have had more to do with some very intense lighting around Rheine than with anything about the ride quality of the train.
At this point the train had stopped at Bad Bentheim, where we stayed for close to an hour. I don't know what the wait was for, but we had a driver change during this time. I also took the opportunity to use the WC (one per carriage, seemingly) while the train was stationary, and I found it to be well-designed, clean and fully functional. I went back to bed at about 04:00 when we started moving again.
I slept pretty soundly until 07:30, when the announcements for the stop in Rotterdam woke me momentarily, and then I fell back to sleep again, finally being woken up for good at 09:20 by my fellow passenger, who alerted me to the fact that we were already at Brussels! We crawled along at a snails pace through the underground North-South connection and arrived in Bruxelles-Midi exactly on time at 09:27.
In total, out of the 10 hours and 28 minutes of travel time, I got about 8 hours of sleep - not bad at all!
The train didn't wait long at Brussels - by 09:40 a member of staff on the train chivvied me politely to leave, the train pulled away at 09:56, and another train had already arrived at the same platform by 10:00.
My suggestions to others taking the European Sleeper: bring long cables to charge whatever devices you have (the compartment I was in only had two electricity sockets, which were situated below the window), bring something to cover your eyes (the curtains did not block much light, and there is lots of artificial lighting on that route), and something to block out the creaking and clanking of the train - my fellow passenger used noise-cancelling headphones.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience, and one which I hope to repeat soon. Not only did it fulfil a key part of my itinerary, but it was also relatively good value: the bunk reservation being priced at €89 with an Interrail pass, it was approximately the same cost as a hotel room in Brussels, which I would have had to book if I'd taken day trains instead.
https://traewelling.de/status/7336542
#CrossBorderRail #traewelling #EuropeanSleeper #NightTrains #NightTrain #SleeperTrains #SleeperTrain
Martijn 
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