I have always been a supporter of sleeping car travel and during my career used them whenever possible rather than a bleary-eyed departure at stupid o’clock to catch a plane, or worse still spending a night in an anonymous hotel room that could have been in Edinburgh, Paris or Brussels.
For several years I had cause to visit all three capitals fairly often, and on one occasion not long after Britain joined the then Common Market I was in Brussels with an official delegation led by the Trade Minister. Even then, the Brits, or at least the officials, weren’t quite sure whether they were European or not and as soon as the business of the day was over, they grabbed their coats and headed for the airport in a desperate attempt to get a British Airways flight home rather than the then Belgian flag carrier SABENA – widely known as Such A Bloody Experience Never Again!
The Minister wanted some time away from his Foreign Office minders and, spotting I was not joining them, asked why not. I explained I was staying on to meet my chums – when in truth much of the real business with the French and Germans was done after the official British delegation had gone home – and would then be catching the ‘Night Ferry’ …
