The joys of train travel in Europe

Sarcasm? Well, it was the Deutsche Bahn

Everybody knows that the Deutsche Bahn has not the best reputation. I mean the Swiss even cut off the German ICE trains from operating in Switzerland. Not entirely but if a train arrives with too much of a delay – too much by Swiss standards – they’re out. We’re not dealing with that. We can’t have foreign trains screw up our perfectly tuned timetable.

I knew the Deutsche Bahn was a bit of a wildcard. I mean when the trains operate on time, they are great. Great service, excellent travel time between cities - they have it all. I’ll give you an example. To get from Basel to Cologne takes you about five hours on an ICE train. If you took local trains or even intercity ones it would take about 8.5 hours and you’d have to change trains several times. The ICE between Basel and Cologne is a direct service.

Once you are on your train you have a screen displaying the arrival times at the different stops. There are special columns for “planned arrival time” and “expected arrival time”. That already tells you something. My trip started out perfect. For the first hour we were right on time. You could hear the surprise and pride in the loudspeaker announcer’s voice. It was kind of cute. I think he said something like “we are super punctual today”.

He might have been a bit too cocky as things started going wrong soon after. I can’t even remember how late we ended up being. My planned connection(s) had come and gone that was for sure. I had hoped to just step outside the train station in Cologne and have a look at the cathedral, but I didn’t dare take the connection to Aachen with a short transfer time. I just went for the next one and that left in 15 minutes. Traveling with luggage and actually needing the elevator takes almost that long. Trust me.

I did carry my suitcase down the stairs, but up? That was never going to happen. Have I mentioned the two backpacks? Well, I was/am planning on doing some hiking. And the hiking backpack has different functions to my laptop/travel backpack. That’s just a fact.

I managed to catch a climpse of the Kölner Dom from the train

I miss the Swiss system where we show you where the train will stop and where first/second class cars are located. A lot of guess work here. Luckily the train from Aachen to Maastricht started in Aachen. And it was already there when I got to the platform. Plenty of time to get organized and situated. I just had no idea which direction the train would drive off in. The person I asked was also a foreigner so we both sat there waiting for the train to move. That was quite fun. It doesn’t really matter to me as I don’t have a preference - I just like knowing.

This train was a tri-country one, traveling between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. Announcements on the train were in four languages. German, Dutch, French and English. Exactly the kind of thing I absolutely love. A good end to a long travel day.

Made it - that building is actually quite stunning. Not something appreciated at the time.

I had planned on walking around Maastricht a bit in the evening, but by the time I made it there, I was just too exhausted to do anything. Luckily, my hotel was right by the station. Just the way I like it. The room was cozy but comfortable. And yes, cozy is code for tiny here. Great design, I loved that the door to the toilet was painted half black, half white. The shower and sink where on the other side of the room. That makes it sound bigger than it was.

Next fun thing, the mirror was too high up for me. I couldn’t see anything. I’m not that short. At least not by Swiss standards. I’d say I’m about average height.

Since I hadn’t had the chance to get the lay of the land the night before I opted to have breakfast at the hotel. There were breakfast timeslots. I went for the first one. A decision I regretted in the morning. On the upside it was nice and quiet at breakfast. I was all by myself and the buffet was already fully stocked. So, it ended up quite being quite perfect.

A different perspective on the cathedral in Maastricht.

Now traveling on from Maastricht should be pretty straight forward. I just have to remember to check-in and check-out whenever I get on or off a Dutch train. I also have the public transport app and it’s really cool. Not sure if it measures up to the Swiss one but it’s super easy to use.

Looking forward to the next part of my trip. It’s only a short one this time. I got some art to finish at home 😉.

Top tip: if you travel on ICE trains get yourself a seat reservation. It costs like $7 and while it’s not mandatory, it’s usually worth it. The trains that do run tend to get crowded.

Things not to worry about: loudspeaker announcements at stations. Just ask somebody what they said. I mean German is my mother tongue and we were all looking at each other going “what did they say?”. Eventually we figured it out as a group.

Do you have any European travel stories to share? Or from elsewhere around the world? I’d love to hear them.