This ride started on the French speed train, the TVG. It ended on a sleeper that took me from Irun, Spain, to Lisbon, Portugal.

 

This was the first time I used a Eurail pass, and it worked out really well (until it got stolen in Spain).  The ICE is an older speed train, so it only reached 198 kph as far as I saw on the information screen.  It was decent though.  Anything is better than Amtrak!  The ride down from Paris to the Spanish border took about 5 hours, and then I transferred to a Portuguese train in Irun.  By then it was night, so I switched to a sleeper car.  This was my first time in a sleeper!  What fun!  It is very comfortable to sleep on a train.  It just lulls you to sleep.  It goes a lot slower than normal so no bumps in the night.

My roommates were from Poland and Japan.  The 2 Poles didn't speak English, but the Japanese guy did, and he was able to share his story of coming from Japan across the Trans-Siberian Express.  I later took the TSE myself to get to Beijing, so his advice was very helpful.  We woke up the next morning in Portugal, and it was only another 30 minutes before arriving in Lisbon.