European night trains

On the other hand , for many elderly, the privacy , and a toilet , would be far superior to a bus , or even plane.
Even at 59 , my prostate been the size of a baseball mean i was in trouble on a 3 hour bus ride with no toilet.
I have no real desire to go back to Europe , may do a few Asian / Aussie , African ( the Ugandan book has piqued my interest in East Africa, been to west Africa)in my bucket list years.Maybe take the kids to the states.

If ever you get to East Africa, please get in touch!

Withdrawn

Back in the 1990s when I too was in my 40s I once shared a sleeper compartment on the Nairobi to Mombasa night train with a chap who worked for the zoo and had a plastic box of live snakes with him! Fortunately the box remained firmly closed throughout the 12 hour journey.

johnthefireman wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 8:15 am Back in the 1990s when I too was in my 40s I once shared a sleeper compartment on the Nairobi to Mombasa night train with a chap who worked for the zoo and had a plastic box of live snakes with him! Fortunately the box remained firmly closed throughout the 12 hour journey.

I think there is a movie about that

snakes on a train.

While as I noted earlier in the topic, "one hotel for the duration" is a bit more "me @ 83". The hotel I noted in Berlin is literally "paces" away from the Hbf, and my room "had a view of sorts of the action" - even if one facing the Spree River would have been more appealing to most.

At 48yo during '90, I had my one and only ride in a Couchette Madrid to Sevilla; even though the three other guys in there were just great and we all parted with handshakes (one was Dutch who was equally fluent in English and Spanish; "we are a small country so we have to know everybody's language") it was still an experience I could have done without. My bag was between my legs and my wallet and passport were in a back pocket and I was curled up against the bulkhead.

I don't think I'd be much happier with the "coffins" Night Jet has within their new equipment. While they offer "Luxo" (€550,00 Berlin to Paris, 650 miles, Single room with potty and shower), which I guess is "more or less" competitive with Eurowings BER-CDG plus at least €250,00 for any hotel you would catch me in (definitely cheaper than Amttak: NYP-CLE Bdrm $850) they are pitching their product to the hostel crowd, who could otherwise well be sitting up overnight 2nd Class in an eight person compartment.

I had a rat scamper over me on a night train in India. No more sleep that night!
John, at this stage just a pipe dream, but certainly will contact if in your neck of the woods.

Riding Chang-Mai to Bangkok during Dec '67, I was advised to keep my Compartment open window shuttered. Reason: "at a station, they will climb through the open window and help themselves to your stuff.".

Gladly complied.

David Benton wrote: ↑Mon Jan 06, 2025 9:28 pm I had a rat scamper over me on a night train in India. No more sleep that night!

I've never had a rat on a train, but I've had them scampering over me while sleeping in a hut in Uganda's Ruwenzori Mountains, and I woke up one night in the desert in Sudan with one sitting on my face. We killed that one with a shovel, albeit not while it was still on my face!