If you're thinking of a European trip, do it right now - Deutsche Bahn are withdrawing many of the sleeper trains in December as they're unprofitable.

I went London-Tokyo by train and ferry. Chinese sleepers were probably the best - both luxurious and cheap, particularly in the northwest there is gorgeous desert and canyons out the window. But the train from Moscow to Uzbekistan was fascinating in its own way, red leather and steaming samovars, fresh-caught fish being sold on the platforms of these rural stations alongside enormous kebabs of mysterious meat. Carriage attendants knocking the snow off the steps with pokers at every stop. Looking out the window and seeing a solitary line of telegraph poles across the empty snowfield, the only human thing as far as the eye could see. A bunch of men lining up on one side of the corridor as we passed the steaming silos and metal towers at Baikonur, hoping to see a launch.

> If you're thinking of a European trip, do it right now - Deutsche Bahn are withdrawing many of the sleeper trains in December as they're unprofitable.

The same is true across Europe — HSR has helped kill sleepers in recent years.

That's a lovely paragraph, evocative and well written.

I'm curious, what is it that you like about the Oslo-Stockholm trip?