After endlessly strolling the cobbled streets, I eventually found just the right spot. With the bells of passing bikes tinkling, Amsterdammers cruising by on little boats and the evening light just about perfect, settling in here for many hours — or potentially forever — was a tempting prospect.
As I stood on the platform, yellow-and-blue NS Nederlands Spoorwegen commuter trains buzzed in and out. Bikers and backpackers aimed for the seated compartments, families sought out their couchette compartments and I walked to the back of the train and my designated sleeper carriage.
For anyone used to flying across Europe , the first difference you notice is the lack of security or passport control to worry about. For this trip, wholly inside the Schengen Area , you simply turn up at Centraal, board a few minutes before departure and get settled in as the train rumbles onward into the sunset.
Carriage and compartment number are written on tickets, while display boards make it easy to find the right place to get on, with train staff on hand to check you in for sleeping compartments. There are multiple ways to travel aboard a Nightjet service. These are the Austrian-operated sleeper trains that fan out across Europe from Vienna and Salzburg , reaching Hamburg in the north, Rome in the south, Budapest in the east and Paris , Brussels and Amsterdam in the west — and countless points in between.
Some services — like the one I was about to take — do not pass through Austria at all. For only a few euros more, a bunk in a couchette offers a lie-flat bed in a lockable compartment, shared with other passengers of the same sex.
