The City Night Line : The Night Train to Venice

17th – 18th July 2011. Written by Xin Li.
City Night Line 363
Munich Hauptbahnhof to Venezia Santa Lucia

To get to Venice from Munich, we booked an economy double cabin on the CityNightLine, a sleeper train by DB. The train was very packed on that day and those without reservations had to make do with the limited seats (as it was the peak season period).

Fortunately, we had our comfortable Economy Double with access to a shared shower cubicle and even include breakfast.

The train rides through Koblenz into the Austria, stopping briefly at Innsbruck before continuing its way to Brenner Pass where it would enter Italy from Austria.

In Italy, our train would split into two, one heading for Rome and another for Venice.

At night, there is not much to see but even in under the dim lights, you could spot the outline of the majestic mountains of the Italian and Austrian Alps.

A grumpy looking train conductor takes care of any food orders and the administrative matters.

Hours into the ride, I was too tired and fell asleep.

Breakfast was a simple affair of bread, croissant, biscuits, juice and a cup of coffee.

Besides the coffee, everything was fine, enough to start another day’s journey. The coffee on the train proved to be the worst in my life, so acidic, pungent and revolting. Italian coffees are like heaven compared to this.

Fortunately, the fantastic views of Venice were more than enough to rejuvenate my senses.

The sun rise at Venetian Lagoon with the historic city as backdrop was breath-taking.

City Night Line
http://www.citynightline.de/citynightline/view/en/index.shtml