From Zurich to Berlin by Night Train

A couple of months ago the great ash cloud over Europe forced me to quite radically change some of my travel plans – fortunately for the better. I was in Zurich for a couple of days for business. As it happened I had caught one of the last flights into Zurich Airport before the airspace was shut down. I wasn’t too concerned since it seemed that there are many far less pleasant cities to stay in. And I discovered the lovely Hotel Adler. But after a pleasant few days with my Air Berlin not able to give me any idea when flights would resume I decided that if I waited for a plane I might end up waiting for weeks. I looked into hiring a car but they were already all booked out so I thought I’d try the train.
Now there are plenty of fast train services between Zurich and Berlin that take about half a day and I’m sure would be really pleasant. But I decided that for a change I would try the night train (or City Nightline, as it is called by Deutsche Bahn, the German railway company). We got onto the train at about 7 pm or so and because we were travelling as a family with our two kids were given a 6 sleeper coach for the four of us. This was economy class so there were no frills. I looked at the first class sleeper coaches and they looked really great.
But I had no complaints about our coach. The beds were neatly made, it was spotlessly clean and the members of staff were friendly. After a quick supper in the dining car we tucked the boys into bed and they passed out. Our 3-year-old was in a state of absolute rapture as he loves trains and this was, for him, the most exciting way to travel. I’m sure most kids would love the night train. The movement rocked them both to sleep pretty quickly and my wife and I also had great sleeps.
It was also an incredibly beautiful trip as we travelled first to Basel along the river and through the mountains before crossing over into Germany and going on our way. The train travels relatively slowly and also pulls into a siding for a little while to give you more time to sleep. That way they time your arrival so that you get in at about 7 a.m. in the morning. After doing the trip once I’m determined to do it again. For business journeys between Berlin and places such as Munich, Zurich or even Paris it seems for more sensible to get onto a night train, have a good nights sleep and arrive refreshed rather than get up at 4:30 or 5 in the morning to catch the first flight.
The trip was marred by one unfortunate incident. A winter coat was stolen from our compartment while we were out for supper. Unfortunately it is impossible to lock them from the outside (first class may be different) and although our bags were locked we didn’t think a coat would be nicked.
The second lesson was that if you want a table in the dining car you should book in advance. We were lucky to get one as some people didn’t arrive. But apart from that we would have been in real trouble as all the tables were reserved.
Apart from those grumbles, it is hard to think of a more civilized way to travel than by old style train.