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Comment by Freak_NL | Hacker News Reader

The Caledonian Express is definitely on my list of trains to travel by some day. Pretty soon (when the customs part is sorted out on the Amsterdam end) it will be possible to travel from Amsterdam to London directly on the Eurostar without transferring in Brussels, so that helps too for me as a Dutchman.

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I've been on a fair amount of sleeper trains and the Caledonian has been the most comfortable so far.

For the opposite, the most uncomfortable one to sleep in was the Hong Kong to Shanghai one. I paid extra for the Deluxe option, can't even imagine how hard the bed would have been on the lower classes. Still, was a pretty cool journey.

I think that's just an (northeast) Asian bed thing. Preferences trend firm for mattresses and you can see this in traditional or luxury places that don't cater to Westerners. The most deluxe ryokans in Japan still have relatively thin mats on the floor, business hotels in China and Japan often have former mattresses, and so on.

I took a 44 hour train from Delhi to Bombay. The "bed" was a plastic-covered sheet of wood, like a cheap kitchen worktop. That was uncomfortable. I think it was standard class.

I took the train direct from London to Rotterdam a few days ago so I assume it goes straight to Amsterdam also. No customs required (unless brexit) and passport control was done at the point of departure.

On the way back unfortunately you have to stop in Brussels because Amsterdam/Rotterdam do not have passport control for departure.

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