Other travel notes
- Bosanski Brod - how the other half live
- Pianos in France
- A slice of Brod
- World heritage sites
- Barcelona by bike
- European bathing locations
- The biodiversity of dragons' teeth
- French night trains
- Let's Go! - exploring Gorizia and Nova Goriza
- A lasting legacy
- Meet and Greet Brussels
- Meet and Greet Lubeck
- What are the chances of missing a connection?
- How do you solve a problem like Monturiol?
- Sports report
- Sunnyland - an anti-war advert?
- The architecture tram
- Third Place
- Taking the train to Spain
Swedish night trains
What are Swedish night trains are like? Here’s a journey from Stockholm to Umeå.
Booking
I booked my journey using the SJ website, but could also have used the app. Overall, it was easy to book and inexpensive. The cheapest option is to get a seat, but it’s only a few kronor more for a couchette.
The choices for sleeping are a couchette (Liggvagn) where there are 6 berth compartments or a private cabin (Sovvagn).
Note: it costs more for an individual to go second class than first class as you are taking up beds you don’t need…
Liggvagn
The ‘ligg’ in liggvagn means ‘lying (down)’ in Swedish. Whether you sleep or not will be down to how well you get on with your fellow compartment sharers. I slept like a log and in the morning I got chatting to someone who was going up to their summer cabin near Umeå to pick the last of the summer berries and prepare the cabin for winter.
Sovvagn
‘Sov’ is ‘sleep’ in Swedish. It all look pretty comfortable and has a shower.
In the morning, we got views of the Västerbotten countryside.
Umeå for breakfast
There is a buffet car on the train but as it arrives into Umeå at 8:00 in the morning, why not go for a stroll around town to find somewhere for breakfast? You can even get ‘British fudge, handmade with passion’…
For more details on things to do in Umeå see: https://visitumea.se/en
