, I slept — or at least tried to — through sections of Germany, Switzerland and Hungary tucked under a dark sky. Through the snores of travelers inches from my face and the antics of schoolkids ignoring their chaperones. Through the morning rush for the bathroom and the exodus of passengers.
For my journey, my latest boarding time was at 10:30 p.m. , and my earliest arrival was 6:30 a.m. . My excuse: It was my first outing. Upon entering the cabin, I placed my hand on the upper bunk and felt something soft and warm. It was my roommate, who had boarded two hours earlier in Brussels. My other cabin mate, who hailed from The Hague, had an early-morning meeting in Berlin. She wasted no time transforming her seat into a single bed, layingBefore crawling into her cocoon, she stretched an arm across the narrow space separating our beds and handed me a wad of cotton containing wax earplugs.
“The trains have really stepped it up,” she marveled. “Breakfast used to be a dry roll and bad coffee.” In the morning, I opened my eyes to discover a Bernese mountain dog strolling by my window. We were in Basel, about 90 minutes from Zurich. The attendant dropped by with my vegan breakfast — green tea, two slices of Mestemacher bread and a pot of raspberry jam — which I ate in bed as scenes of Switzerland flickered by.