The Trip

This time we have chosen to fly to Frankfurt, Germany via Singapore with Qantas.  This decision was driven by the frequent flier points.  I thought it was more likely that I would find a suitable award flight to Frankfurt than I would to London, and it was indeed the case.  As an experiment we are travelling Premium Economy, to test whether a Premium Economy flight with no stopover will deliver us to Europe and Home again in better condition than an Economy flight with a day or two break each way.  Part of the reason is that I have limited time due to business commitments back home and the other part is that the Frequent Flier points make it an economic choice. 

The part of the trip I am looking forward to the most is, not surprisingly, the overnight train trip between Berlin and Paris.  Ever since my two years working in Durban for the South African Railways, with cheap trips to Johannesburg in the overnight sleeper train, I have loved the experience of arriving at the station in the evening, finding a bed on wheels, dining in the dining car and sleeping on the top bunk with the rock of the train motion to put me to sleep.  I have travelled around Europe on sleeper trains on my under 26 Eurail Pass in the late 70s, and more recently between Madrid and Paris, Johannesburg to Cape Town, Sydney to Broken Hill on the famous Indian Pacific and even between Sydney and Melbourne.  So Berlin to Paris will be one more to add to the list.