Hello all,
I'm finishing up my two-year stint teaching English in Poland in June and I'm thinking about taking the train back West to ultimately fly out of London. I'll start out heading towards Prague, since I live on the Polish/Czech border. After that I'll head towards Germany and the Netherlands, neither of which I've visited. Since my brother visited Cologne last summer I'd like to see that for a day or two, but I'm looking for smaller-town suggestions between Prague and Cologne. Unfortunately I probably will have a sizeable suitcase, but as long as I could leave it at a station safely I don't mind hauling it along. Basically, I'm just looking for a short stop (probably no more than two nights) to get a glimpse of German culture and society. Hopefully I will have visited Berlin by that point, so I'll have the big city perspective in my pocket. Also, would people recommend a railpass or just point to point tickets for this long-ish trip? Assuming Prague->Stop in Germany->Cologne->Amsterdam->London (you can do Eurostar to London from Amsterdam, right?) Thanks!
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33846 posts
you can do Eurostar to London from Amsterdam, right? Nope. You will be back-tracking if you go from Koeln to Amsterdam. Eurostar goes from London to both Paris and Brussels. From Brussels there are Thalys fast and expensive high speed trains between Amsterdam and Brussels, or the slower, apparently gently being run down, International Train. The easier connection is Koeln to Brussels via the frequent Thalys or the less frequent DB ICE train. How much out of the way? Koeln - Amsterdam Centraal is 2:40 at fastest, more usually about 4 hours with connections plus Amsterdam Centraal to Brussel Zuid which is 2 hours Thalys or 3 hours International. Direct Koeln to Brussel Zuid is under 2 hours by either the ICE or Thalys.
Posted by
Columbia, SC
389 posts
One good option for a stop in Germany is Bamberg, a delightful little city with wonderfully varied architecture and and a beautiful setting on the river Regnitz. From Prague it's a pretty easy connection with an express bus (run by German Railways I believe) to Nuremberg, then a train to Bamberg. Alternately, there is beautiful Dresden, a fairly big city but very different from Berlin or Cologne. Dresden is also perfect for a two-night stay. Good luck / Viel Glueck!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
My initial thoughts were how you could go across southern Germany via cities like Nuernberg, Frankfurt, Köln, but since you seem interested in Berlin and Amsterdam, try this. There are Eurocity trains every two hours from Prague to Berlin and they take 4¾ hrs. With sufficient advance purchase, online, from the German Rail (Bahn) website, you can get Europa-Spezial tickets for as little as €29/p. I might suggest a few cities between Berlin and Amsterdam, but maybe you should spend 2 nights in Berlin to get a good feel of it, then take another 6½ hr train to Amsterdam for €39 with Europa-Spezial. If you want to take in Köln as well, leave Berlin after 1 night and go to Amsterdam. After Amsterdam, you can get a Europa-Spezial fare to Köln via an ICE and avoid the high cost of Thalys in Netherlands/Belgium.