the Grand Tour blog

Rail Plan for Germany

I shall, of course, be travelling to and through Germany by train, a Grand Tour habit that's hard to break! There will be 18 rail journeys altogether, including the Eurostars at each end. I'd hoped that the journeys would be somewhat less pre-ordained on this trip, but the reality is that certain places can only be visited on certain days, and the itinerary has become busier and busier during the planning process as I discover new highlights, so that I've ended up with a preferred train for every journey.

The longer journeys (Brussels-Köln, Bonn-Weimar and Berlin-Paris) have been booked in advance, partly because I really need to be on particular trains – and in a seat – and also because it's generally a lot cheaper; Deutsche Bahn (DB) have some very good deals if booked far enough ahead (up to 92 days). I'll be buying individual tickets this time, much cheaper for my typically short journeys than the fairly expensive InterRail Pass, so I will have to pay attention to the different fares for Inter City and Regional trains (sometimes a big difference, sometimes not). I do have a ticket for the shorter Liepzig-Berlin leg as the offer was €19.00 instead of the regular €43.00 – even if I pay the €15.00 fee to transfer to a different train I shall still be winning.

I'm pleased to find that on the Eurostar on the way out I have been booked into the desirable Seat 61, inhabited from time to time by The Man in Seat 61, online source of everything to do with rail travel!

The only bad booking was Brussels-Köln with DB. I had intended to book the high-speed Thalys train direct with Thalys, for €19.00, as I am a Thalys "Ticketless Booker". But well into the booking period their site still wouldn't allow the booking. So I requested Brussels-Bonn (for my first night's stop) on the DB website, which offered €34.00 for the same Thalys train plus a change at Köln. Anxious not to miss the only suitable train I booked with DB, paying an additional €3.50 for them to mail the ticket. But when it arrived I found it only covers as far as Köln anyway, so I still have to pay for the regional train to Bonn. DB's response to my email was to insist that I was "informed about that during the process of booking". Hmm. A couple of weeks later the train became available on the Thalys website anyway. Well, nothing serious, but irritating.

All the trains, with options for where I might change my plans, are carefully noted on the Train List, which I shall carry as a PDF on the iPhone (using the excellent Files Pro app) as well as carrying a printed copy:

Don't eat the tomatoes

The recent outbreak of E.coli infections – mostly in Europe and all apparently centered on northern Germany – is a little worrying in view of my travel plans (see previous post). Today's Telegraph reports: 

The bug has now been identified in people in the Czech Republic, France and the United States, adding to those in Germany, Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK... [M]ore than 1,600 people have been affected worldwide. 

All cases except two have been found in people from northern Germany or who have recently visited the area...

The outbreak is on course to be the world’s “biggest ever”, according to one of the country’s leading microbiologists. The [Health Protection] Agency added that it was shocked by its “unprecedented” scale and severity. Hundreds have been left seriously ill and at least 18 have died.

The UK Foreign Office travel page for Germany reports that "German authorities are advising people in Germany against eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce, especially in the north of the country." Which is a pity, as I normally eat quite a lot of salad. And as a non meat eater, other choices are in fairly short supply in Germany. 

The Guardian has an electron microscope photo of the ugly bacterium, which is helpful, and reports that 200 more cases have emerged in Germany in the first two days of this month. Sadly there have been 17 deaths there. But I guess about 82,000,000 Germans have not died, so it would be foolish to panic at this stage.