Let the train take the strain! 

Taxi to Bucharest `Gard de Nord`. Very impressive frontage to the outside, tall columns and wide steps. It a big old station with no barriers to the platforms. Busy with coffee shops and food outlets. The information boards are easy to read, our train leaves from platform 6. The tickets show wagon number 21, seats 33 & 35. The trains are old but spotlessly clean. There are step metal steps up into the wagons, nightmare for the elderly or disabled. Once inside, there is a corridor along one side and compartments each having 5 seats and a small luggage area (which we soon fill). Reminiscent of the old British slam-door trains but cleaner and roomier. Its like a step back in time, but not in a bad way. There is no lighting as we go through tunnels, reminds me of going to work at Gatwick all those years ago.

We have company on our journey. Two lovely men from Strasbourg. They are travel fanatics too. We talk about travelling experiences and the time seems to fly. Soon we are in the mountains and turn our attention to the beautiful scenery. Its `chocolate box` pretty. Mountains and forest covered in snow with the sun sparkling on the icy crystals. We pass through small towns and farmhouses with lazy smoke curling from chimneys into the perfectly blue sky. Its a lovely scene.