They came for us in the middle of the night. On the train from Munich to Bologna, a dozen of us had been left in a car without lights.
The air-conditioning hadn't been working in the afternoon when I boarded and neither were the reading lights. As dark came on, train officials hung battery-powered lanterns along the aisle. But in the compartments, the only light came from outside.The train people tried with no success to fix the problem. The rest of the train basked in light and air-conditioning, while we unlucky ones rode in the dark through a warm, humid mid-August night.
The three Italian men who had been in the compartment left at stops along the way as the train went through Innsbruck, the Brenner Pass and the Dolomites, so I stretched out on the seat, using my bag for a pillow, and began to snooze. A little after midnight the compartment door slid open, and the conductor woke me and announced I was being sent forward to "Premier Class."
I picked up my bags and started forward, followed by half a dozen young people who also had been in the car with no lights. We journeyed through four or five cars to the head of the train. There the conductor caught up with us, put me in a compartment with an Italian couple, the others in other first-class compartments, and disappeared. We had lights, air conditioning and comfortable seats that collapsed into bed-like couches, and I was soon back to snoozing.
Traveling through Europe by boat and train for most of three weeks on a Eurailpass does work, mostly pretty well. Our car with no lights was the only instance I saw of malfunctioning equipment. And mostly, the trains ran on time.
Here's how it works:
The Eurail system covers 17 countries. You can ride its trains and boats from Athens, Greece, west to Lisbon, Portugal, all the way north to Narvik, Norway. It doesn't cover Britain, which has a similar BritRail system, or much of Eastern Europe or the Soviet Union.
Train and boat schedules are published in "Through Europe by Train," a 168-page pocket-size guide that also lists the availability of sleeping and dining arrangements. It comes with your pass, via your travel agent, or you can write for a free copy to Eurailpass, P.O. Box 325, Old Greenwich, Conn. 06870-0325.
If you planned it right, you could ride the trains with no travel cost beyond the price of the Eurail ticket. But you'd probably be more comfortable with reservations, which ensure you a window seat or a nonsmoking car, for example.
Reservations are required for some trains and for sleeping cars or benches.
Reservations cost a little, and there's a charge for sleeping arrangements: For the trip from Paris to Calais, for example, a reservation cost 16 francs, a little more than $3; for the boat from Turku, Finland, to Stockholm, Sweden, 40 finmarks, a little more than $10, and for a single cabin for that overnight trip, 99 finmarks, almost $26.
The Eurail "ticket" is bought before your trip, and it's convenient to buy it through your travel agent.
There are several versions, and prices vary. The Eurailpass I used cost almost $500 and allowed me to travel first-class anywhere on the system daily for almost three weeks. It is available in units from 15 days to three months. Another option is the Eurail Flexpass, good for a number of days over a longer period, for example, five days in 15 days or 30 days in three months. Also available are the Saverpass for more than one person and youth versions, plus national rail passes.
To use the pass, you have it validated at a station on the date when you plan to begin using it.
The beauty of the system is that you can travel when you want, as long as you want, and stop off whenever you feel like it. So you don't want too many advance reservations unless you're locked into a schedule.
If you need reservations, you may have your travel agent make them ahead of time or make them at the station. Making reservations at the stations was convenient; it meant standing in lines that usually moved along quickly. If you want first-class space, it pays to reserve a day or two ahead for busy trains.
I always was able to travel on the day I wanted to go, but occasionally I was bumped to second class, which wasn't bad at all, or to a car or compartment where smoking was allowed.
The Eurail guides suggest packing light. There are porters, and you can check your luggage through on trains to many destinations. But it was more convenient to pack everything in two bags that I could carry and keep with me.
I had heard warnings about thieves and pickpockets on the trains and in the stations - even of thieves pumping sleeping gas into compartments and carrying off all of a passenger's belongings.
I took elementary precautions - I bought two small locks for the bag in which I kept my valuables, did not let my luggage out of sight unless someone I could trust was nearby, and didn't flash a lot of money around. I had no problems and didn't hear of any among passengers who shared my compartments.
For train officials, concern for terrorism is a larger issue.
It was common to hear a recorded announcement in train stations warning passengers not to leave luggage unguarded.
Traveling light also makes it easier to get from one station to another. Since the larger cities have more than one station, you need to know which one your train departs from.
Once at the station you may face a bewildering array of information. TV terminals and notice boards display departure and arrival times, of course, but you need to sort out local from national or international trains. Your reservation card will help. It may tell which track your train will be on, and will give the train number and the number of your car. The track can be changed, though, so you should check at the station.
Each car bears a sign saying where it is going; Eurail guides warn that it isn't enough just to get on the right train. Since the cars may be switched down the line somewhere, you want to be on a car that's going where you want to go.
Once on the train, you find your seat by the reservation number. Without a reservation, you need to check notices posted in the windows of individual compartments to see whether seats are reserved. You're free to take any that are not reserved.
If you want water, carry it with you or buy it on the train. Water in the sinks is not drinkable. Most trains have a dining car or bar car, but it may disappear without warning just when you want it. I walked to both ends of what seemed like a very long train on the Munich-to-Bologna route, figuring that even though the lights were out in my car, I could read in the dining car - but it had already been taken out.
Food in the dining cars was good though expensive. Service varied. I reminded one harried and rushing waitress in a crowded dining car, as she placed my plate on the table, that I had ordered a beer with my meal. "I only have two hands!" she snapped. A few hours later, I returned and was one of only a few customers inthe car and things were calmer. She not only brought the food quickly, but sat down to chat.
Carrying pictures in my mind from the movies, I had half-expected border crossings to be accompanied by officials wanting passports and looking through the luggage. Even though I passed through parts of eight countries in Europe, I was asked for a passport only a couple of times; the train ticket was checked more often. In Europe, the luggage was never searched.
My trips ranged in length from a couple of hours in Finland - from Helsinki to Turku - to the overnight run from Copenhagen, Denmark, to Munich, Germany. All but one of the trains was on time - and some were early by a few minutes.