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AC power and food in European Trains?

I'm taking the train from London to Copenhagen this summer. I've got two questions:

  1. Is there AC power availabe on trains in Europe? I'm riding Eurostar to Brussels, Thalys to Cologne and DB to Copenhagen. I'm taking a laptop. I like to use the downtime of travel to write or perhaps watch a movie, and my battery wont lat that long. with 20 minute connections, I won't be able to rechage the battery in the train station.

  2. Is food provided for first class passengers on any of the above mentioned railroads? I'm looking at a 20 Euro difference between first and second class for the Cologne to Copenhagen. I'm trying to weigh if the 20 Euros is worth it.

Rick

Posted by
9099 posts

First class on both Thalys and DB do have outlets for laptops; I'm not sure if it's available for second class. There is food for sale, depending on the train you take it can vary from a cart with a limited selection of drinks/snack, to a cafe car, and even a full-service restaurant car. Check out the schedules at the various web sites, it will tell you whats available on the exact train you are taking.

Posted by
2779 posts

On DB ICE trains that are not labelled as "Sprinters" there is no free food in 1st class but there is waiter/waitress service in 1st which there isn't in 2nd class. That's particularly helpfull when the train is packed. Also you got seats a tiny bit wider and covered with leather instead of cloth in 1st. People tend to be less noisy as they're usually business travelers and you could even and up being the only person in a compartment, if that's what you'd prefer... And holders of 1st class tickets can use the DB Lounges at the train stations where they serve free soft drinks (some times free beer), coffee, tea, and some sort of candy or mini-snacks...