Couchettes on Der Bahn

Thanks, Steve. That helps. I'll definitely be in a quad-room. I guess I didn't specify that particularly, but this website covers that too. Do you know about the folding down of the beds? Is it already done when you get on board? Is there a certain time they do it? My train leaves Berlin at 8:20 I think (or thereabout) and gets to Munich at 7. I just don't know the protocol.

Even though you'll be sleeping with strangers, if you keep your luggage in the couchette with you, you are not likely to have a theft problem. Couchette doors lock from the inside. However, there are some common sense things you can do for peace of mind like sleeping with your valuables and wearing your money belt in bed.

Liegeplatz means, literally, "a place to lie down". They are not beds with linens, but a flat bunk with a pillow and blanket. You are expected to sleep in your clothes. Genders could be mixed in the compartment. These are the old compartments with two seats facing two (or three facing three in 2nd class). The lower bunk fold out over the seats, the upper (oben) bunk is higher.

If, like some of us, you only have a carry on sized pack, you can put it at you head, as kind of a pillow (this doesn't work well with rigid, wheeled bags). If you have multiple suitcases, you'll have more of a problem. Maybe you'll be lucky and the compartment won't be full and you can put your bags in the open space.

The high bunk is no place for aless then fit traveler

Well, I did end up in a room for 4, but it still had 6 bunks. I was on the top bunk, which wasn't too bad, but was a little tricky because I'm 6', so it was hard to bend around the right way. The only weirdness was that I was in a couchette with three women who were all over 55 and were all German, so it was kind of awkward as a 34 year old male. But it was still better than wasting a day on the train.