January 1st 2015 - Travel from Krakow to Prague - Day 137
The New Years Eve party at the Sheraton continued late in to the morning and it was really hard to sleep with the band cranking right outside our door. As a result we slept late and got a very slow start on the day. We knew this would be a long day, not only because of the lack of sleep, but because we were taking an overnight train from Krakow to Prague and it did not leave until 10:00 that night. We had arranged for a late checkout at 4:00, but would need to kill 6 hours on New Years day, which apparently the Polish take very seriously because EVERYTHING was closed.
We got a nice workout in and attacked the free breakfast again before heading back to the room to study and try to get some more rest.
At 4:00 we checked out and gave the bellman our bags. Fortunately we were able to hang out in the club lounge for as long as we wanted so we settled in there for the wait.
At about 9:00 we headed to the train station and got ready for the overnight. We booked this specifically so the kids could have the experience of traveling by overnight train. I had done this so much when traveling around Europe as a 22 year old and loved it. However, train travel in Europe has become more expensive and less convenient as compared to the inexpensive flights that are generally available, so we have not really had the opportunity or need to do it much on this trip. I had done a little research back in Burford on what type of car to book for us, but forgot to refresh my memory before heading to the train station a few days before our departure. While I did make sure we had a private compartment, I booked a couchette rather than a sleeper car and knew it when I saw the car.
Tight quarters
We still had "beds" with clean sheets, pillows and blankets, but the "bed" was just a really hard seat turned sideways. In a sleeper car you get a real mattress and there are only 2 beds per car, here we had 6 "beds". The kids were psyched and climbed straight up to the top bunk. Stacie and I were not so psyched as we pictured 8 hours of sleeping on a rock hard bench. None the less we made our beds and tried to get as much sleep as possible. It was not the quite experience I was hoping for and my back is still letting me know about my mistake, but at least the kids had fun.
p.s. Thanks to Peter we actually have pictures, I was too busy kicking myself for messing up the booking to worry about the photos.
Having fun on the top bunk