By train to Munich and Budapest

(Self-catering with a difference!)

We'd had so many good reports of the self-catering holiday scene in Budapest that the chance to accompany railway buffs and go overland via Munich and Vienna to see some properties for ourselves was too good to turn down. At first it sounded too ambitious and exotic to be true. Overland? That would take approximately forever (a little longer if we missed our connections).

I thought of school trips in the 1960s: bleary-eyed schoolmasters pretending to be in charge of unruly boys whose voices were not long broken, as we rattled and bumped our way from London to Ostend via a fretful Channel 'steamer'. Especially my first, to Italy through the night, with several delays. (‘This is Milan’s main station, boys. Built by Mussolini. HIS trains RAN ON TIME!’)

Yet when we looked at the details it did start to make sense. Eurostar from St Pancras on a Saturday lunchtime, Paris's Gard du Nord in time for an early dinner and a stroll through thronging streets to the Gare de L'Est and the waiting 20.20 train for Munich.

However jaded a traveller you might be, the search for your numbered berth as you saunter along the platform beside your waiting overnight international sleeper is always a matter of curiosity. Even more so when at least one of the carriages among the dozen on German Railways’ (Deutsche Bahn’s) Saturday night service is likely to be in the distinctive dark blue or dark green livery of Russia Railways: this one continues after the train divides and will be in Moscow more than a full day after we reach Bavaria - but that Russian jaunt does include a day for sightseeing in Berlin: you return to your secure compartment as to your hotel. Very nostalgic, we thought, and a little known treat for independent minded tourists. Alas, we ourselves saw no high-cheeked Slavic beauties, received no invitations to drink vodka and champagne and sup on caviar blinis behind locked doors.

Deutsche Bahn City Nightline
German Railways

A reasonable night, sharing a compartment, a cheery attendant. We got a nod of approval as he looked in on three of us - that is, two plus guest – in dressing gown and slippers: 'Schön gemütlich!' Nice and cosy! But not all these trains have a bar or restaurant: check it out before you travel. You could take a nice picnic, or do as we did and dine well in Paris before your departure. Soft drinks were available. Two of the compartments in our new carriage had private shower, washbasin and toilet: especially convenient for avoiding early-morning queues at the end of the carriage, and another far cry from those couchettes we knew as teenagers, though it has to be admitted that as long as there are no heavy snorers even using couchettes can be an inexpensive and cosily cocooned way to travel, even in the company of strangers. Go for four in a compartment rather than six: six is just a bit too tight.

On our trip we met Mark Smith, the fountain of all railway knowledge, a former London terminus manager who operates one of the most-visited travel websites around: The Man in Seat Sixty-One...

There was a further bonus in this journey of discovery: after a reasonably comfortable night, with breakfast in the station restaurant - yes, one of our party DID have beer with his bacon and eggs at 9am – there was just enough time for a brisk walk into the pedestrianised centre of Munich. Just a taste of Germany’s ‘third city’ (after Berlin and Hamburg), and only as far as the elaborate Town Hall and the Frauenkirche and back.

'Another time’, we said ‘we’ll stay for 24 hours’. For this rail connection can be made on most days/nights, making a full day’s stopover in Munich - plus one night - a viable option, combining the intrinsic pleasures of the train journey and city-stopovers not just in Munich but incidentally also in Vienna and even Salzburg.

For 24 hours, of course, a hotel is the best bet, but for a longer stay Munich has a good choice of self catering apartments.

For decades Deutsche Bahn - German Railways - which operates the lion's share of this inspiring rail journey, has shown 'how it's done', setting the yardstick for rail travel in Europe. Travellers with a sense of history might, while marvelling for example at the present hour-and-a-half connection between Hamburg and Berlin - 255 km - also spare a thought for the German pioneers who even in the early 1930s brought the two cities to within two and a quarter hours of each other by diesel-hauled trains.

'What IS this sleek, stylish, dark-red space-age beauty?'

The new high-speed ‘Railjet’ we’re booked on from Munich is a new concept from Austrian Railways (ÖBB) It has a top speed of 230 km/h (143 mph) where feasible - though actually it's not often practicable. Following its successful introduction on the Munich-Salzburg-Vienna-Budapest route the trains will soon operate on the Zurich-Innsbruck-Salzburg-Vienna run.

Railjet was new enough to have had a good few of the people mooching about Munich's Hauptbahnhof at 8.30 in the morning stopping and staring. Perhaps thinking 'What IS this sleek, stylish, dark-red space-age beauty with its romantic destination display?' Including not just Salzburg, not just Vienna - romantic enough - but Budapest. Sleek indeed, inside as well as out, with attendants bringing coffee and newspapers, later handing round lunch menus, discussing tasty options.

As Bavaria gave way to Austria, we really did hear ‘the sound of music’, but it turned out to be just somebody's too loud walkman. One wag suggested there should be a free glass of champagne for anyone sharp-eyed enough to spot the join between Austria and Germany, as picture-postcard countryside swishes by at about 200 kph. Sadly, modern technology hasn't yet developed a way of slowing down the swish whenever you get to an especially scenic bit you'd prefer to dawdle through.

Just before you pull into the station, the River Salzach flashes before your eyes - if you're looking out of the window at the right moment.

Approaching Salzburg, just before you pull into the station, the River Salzach flashes before your eyes - if you're looking out of the window at the right moment. Blink and you’ll miss it: this is NOT the sort of train where you knock on the driver’s cab and ask him to slow down so you can get some photos.

Spare a thought as the Railjet glides into the station for local boy made very good indeed. For Wolfgang Mozart, high speed was getting up to about 25 kmp in a horse and carriage, with the ever present risk of a broken wheel, and no 'roadside assistance'.

After Salzburg, before Vienna, a congenial Hungarian goulash with perfectly done noodles is served at our seat or, or to be more exact, at a spare table where colleagues can swop notes. Once past Vienna, which sadly one sees little of, it’s only about 80km to the Hungarian border. This time you CAN spot the join. The countryside is suddenly less manicured, farms somewhat more ramshackle. For most of us, a less familiar landscape, a pleasant Sunday afternoon glimpse into the empty streets of one-horse towns with names difficult to pronounce.

Keleti Station, Budapest: 'strange-sounding places', at the very heart of Europe.

Though RailJet should perhaps be renamed RailTrundle for part of the Hungarian stretch, it does seem to pick up speed as it approaches Budapest, like a camel nearing home. We hit a heavy rainstorm as we travel alongside the Danube: grey rather than the customary green (was it ever 'blue'?). The river may be monochromatic, but under clearing skies Keleti station, doesn't disappoint. Built between 1881 and 1884, it's redolent of a more elegant age, and train buffs adore it. The less Hungarian one can read, the more exotic the electronic destination board seems.

The city – the twin cities of Buda and Pest, to be exact - is just raffish enough to appeal to sedate Brits. Pest's elegant mansions, hotels and early 20th century shopfronts have a slightly world-weary look. They've seen a lot of life, not all of it peaceful. Happily, a good number of century-old apartments blocks incorporate accommodation suitable for self caterers.

The view from the castle ramparts is a must-see, though the massive McDonalds ‘M’ on the far side of the Danube doesn't really deserve to be the most compelling sight.

Appropriately, two of our favourite things in the city relate to railways. One of these is new to us. The other is an old friend.

Firstly the ‘Pioneer Railway’, which runs among and above pretty, wooded hills high over the city. It was inaugurated during the Communist era and was and still is ‘run by’ Young-Pioneer-aged children, with limited adult supervision.

Secondly, The Railway Park, near the Keleti train station. A happy hunting ground for railway buffs. Under a warm summer sun, we hurried from pillar to post, from buffers to buffet cars, like children in a sweetshop. This is not so much an elephants’ graveyard but an elephants’ retirement home.

This high speed train was built in the early 1940s, and was used by the Nazi high-command in Hungary.

Among enough things to occupy a whole day is the legendary Árpád railcar, built in 1934, which covered the distance between Vienna and Budapest in less than three hours. Another gem is an elegant teak dining car from 1912, once part of the Orient Express. In the twilight interior of the original engine shed it wasn't hard to conjure images of elegant first class dining over romantic table lamps.

There are about fifty engines, twelve operational and thirty-eight cosmetically restored, plus a wide range of rolling stock: railcars, self-powered rail cars and hand-carts, inspection cars, steam cranes, snow ploughs and other curiosities.

The scarlet silk of Emperor Franz Joseph's private carriage.
Franz Joseph's carriage, left, was sometimes attached to 'ordinary' trains.

My own best few moments were spent luxuriating amid the scarlet silk of Emperor Franz Joseph's private carriage. He was the first European ruler to make full use of the network of rail routes that sprang up in the 19th century. Not always publicly: he would sneak off to favourite places and, in order to remain incognito, would attach his carriage to regular scheduled trains, travelling - until he was rumbled - as 'Count Hohenems'. This way he would not have to be officially received by local dignitaries.

Our journey home separated the sheep from the goats. Most took the plane, a couple went back via RailJet, Deutsche Bahn and Eurostar, and I travelled to Calais in the royal train with Franz Joseph's entourage and then took the paddle-steamer to Dover (in my dreams).