By Jules Cooper For Mailonline. Sitting on the other side of our compartment, our three-year-old daughter cocks her head and twists her face into a Picasso of scepticism as Dutch countryside rattles past our window.
I've told her that I'm about to flip our seats down into a bed, and that we're going to sleep here on the train we just caught from Brussels following a Eurostar journey from St Pancras International in London. Within moments she's laying out an argument for her being allowed to take the top bunk. We're on the train to Prague, a journey made far easier by the Bohemian extension of European Sleeper 's successful overnight service to Berlin via Amsterdam, and it's shaping up to be a lot of fun.
Our daughter wants to explore the train, so we go for a walk along the carriages. As we pass down the row of open compartments, I catch a glimpse of a child's legs wheeling around as they scale their bunk.
In another, two families are chatting over a bottle of wine, squeezed around the table like sardines. We have a five-person 'couchette' compartment to ourselves, the middle tier of three room options, which also include a 'seating' and 'sleeper class'. The fold-out beds are comfortable enough, though slightly short for my 5ft 11in frame, and we share a communal sink. More expensive rooms in sleeper carriages have private sinks and extra bed inches. The adventurer takes me to the very back of the train, where she stares out of the rear door window as the track near Antwerp snakes endlessly away.
As she traverses the corridor handrails on the way back, a chorus of 'Bravo! As children in pyjamas start to emerge in the corridors with toothbrushes, our daughter reaches peak excitement.
