Kylin's European Grand Adventure: Day 26 - Amsterdam but no Brussels

Getting on the train was no problem. In fact, not all the sleeper cabins were occupied! The conductor sounded just like Peter Sellers in the Pink Panther. Cracked me up every time I heard him talking in the hallway -- especially when he was speaking Czech! The sleeper was small with two bunks and several places to store bags up over the doorway and bathroom. The shower was quite small and the sink was on a rotating rod so it could be in the shower or toilet area. Very compact but very functional. The lower bunk flipped up and three seats could be pulled out. There really wasn't that much to do so I fell asleep early forcing John to give up his watch by the window of the scenery/train stations. I slept really well -- the motion of the train was soothing to me and the bed was very firm so I was content. John not so much! We were up at 4:30 because we thought we had to be off the train by 6:17 a.m. The morning conductor brought us breakfast about 5:30 a.m. He pulled out a table from a locked compartment in the hallway and hooked it into a pocket under the window. Cool! About six he informed us that the train was running about an hour late. What???

When we got to the Cologne main train station and got off the train, we saw that our train to Brussels was canceled. So off to the ticket office where we learned that the train was a Thalus which no longer had a relationship with other eurorail providers so even if she were to make a reservations the next train, there was no guarantee they would honor it. The train from Brussels to Amsterdam was owned by the same carrier. They only allow a few slots for eurorail pass holders so we were concerned if we could get from Brussels to Amsterdam. We figured God was sending us a message to go to Amsterdam so we made all the necessary changes -- train, hotel cancelation, hotel reservation change, etc. and headed to Amsterdam. Snag again: we had to change trains just before Amsterdam and that one was canceled because they are doing work at the Amsterdam central station. We finally got on a milk run train which was packed by the time we got to our destination but, at least, it ran! Then our room wasn't ready at the hotel so we had to go out to do things for a while. But we are in our room, it's spacious and we think an early bedtime is in our future!

Met a nice woman from Chicago on the train headed to Rotterdam to take a 14 day cruise to Norway. She just retired from All State.

We are tired of lugging the suitcases and sleeping in so many different beds so think we will be ready to come home Monday!

Sleeper car