Blog2022 ≫ Midlife Eurotour part four - sleeper train to Vienna

Finally got on my sleeper train to Vienna, an hour and a bit late, and now to find where I'm sleeping. I was kind of expecting an open carriage with reclining seats somehow. I think the image I had in my head was of the super first class on some aeroplanes where the seats recline into beds. I don't know why I thought I would have such luxury when I had booked the cheapest version of this journey. I was actually in compartment in a carriage, like you had on the older style trains when the carriages were divided up like this. The compartment had six seats in it, three facing three, and there were five young people already sat in there. They didn't all know each other, two couples (one German I think, one Dutch) and a single (from Malaysia originally maybe? But studying in the UK), but they'd got to know each other as they'd been on the train since Amsterdam. And it was 11pm but they're not going to sleep they're going to stay up playing games all night is that OK?

This was not ideal for me, I was tired already, and this was my hotel, this was where I was sleeping. The seats did recline slightly, but the only way of reclining them enough was the the cooperation of the person opposite you. One of the couples were on opposing seats and could do this, so they had a flat surface to both lie on. For me to do this I would have to get very friendly very quickly with the other people in the carriage. This did not happen. I slumped as much as I could, and put my headphones in, quite antisocial really. I had that memory foam neck pillow to help a bit, but was not super comfortable. I thought I'd be drinking myself to sleep, in fact I had a couple of beers and a bottle of wine, but didn't feel I could crack this open in such close quarters.

I just about nodded and dozed through to the next morning. I sort of saw the sun rise somewhere around the border between Germany and Austria, but not really, as I was in the rear facing seat next to the corridor, so not directly next to the window. At least everyone did quieten down after a bit.

The train had also been through Utrecht and Dusseldorf before picking me up in Cologne, and also stopped at Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Passau, and Linz before our destination in Vienna. People got off at these other stops, and here is where I should have got up and gone and looked for another seat. When I finally did get up for a lok round before my final destination I found empty carriages with fully reclined seats, and even empty beds. I could have done this journey slightly better, but this was the experience I wanted. Each journey after this will be better won't it?

Here's what the carriage I was in was like. This isn't my carriage but a neighbouring one, after the neighbours got out. See you can only recline your seat if you can "scissor" with the person opposite you! See also there's not a lot of space for luggage. Luckily I didn't have much. I was in the equivalent of the seat nearest on the right.

a carriage like the one I slept in on the way to Vienna

See I found empty beds on this train, before my final destination, when some people had got off. Maybe they were free all along. I could have booked one of these beds, in a shared cabin, but instead I went for the super cheap option of a chair. It was an experience...

some beds on the train that I did not sleep in

Hoping my sleeper carriage is more luxurious than that one, but we'll have to wait and see.

There was a shower on this train, but it was locked.

a shower on a train

Right, that must be me pulling in to Vienna1! Lots more holiday to write up, I never get round to adding detail to the later parts. Ah well, I do have lots of photos to help me remember it...

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Paul Clarke's blog - I live in A small town, Kent. Married + dad to two, I'm a full-stack web developr, + I do js / nodejs, some ruby, python, php ect ect. I like pubbing, parkrun, eating, home automation and other diy jiggery-pokery, history, genealogy, TV, squirrels, pirates, lego, + TIME TRAVEL.