Hi, we have not done any train travel through Europe, as up until this point we have gone by car. At the end of September we are taking an overnight ferry from UK to Rotterdam. Ferry arrive at around 7.00 am. From there we are hoping to get on a train from Rotterdam to Cologne, spend the day in Cologne ( put our luggage in storage) and in the afternoon get a train from Cologne to Bacharach. I know this is a lot of travel but we are trying to keep travel 'days' to a minimum as we are on a rail pass. Is this doable, and do we need to make reservations in advance? Thanks
Posted by
winston salem, nc, usa
1078 posts
You better make reservations for the ferry, especially if you are planning to go on the weekend as it fills up fast. Locally, they weekends are know as "booze runs" as you can buy duty free as much as your car can hold. Also, the ferry offers (if I remember) a 10 Euro bus ticket from the boat in Rotterdam to the train station in Amsterdam. Can't advise on the train tickets if you need reservations.
Posted by
Paradise
7072 posts
Katie: Whether it's doable can be determined by entering your start and end destinations at the following webpage from the German Railways site. Enter also your travel date and hour, and a stopover under "via" (Cologne, in your case) with the number of hours there that you wish to spend. http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19275 posts
Rotterdam to Koeln: It looks like you have two legs, Rotterdam to Brussels and Brussels to Koeln. Rotterdam to Brussels is either via Thalys, which has only reserved seat, and requires a passholder surcharge to ride with a rail pass. The other conveyance from Rotterdam is an IC, which does not require a reservation, although one is possible. From Brussels to Koeln looks like by an ICE with a mandatory reservation or by regional trains with no reservations available. . . . . . . . ¶ Koeln to Bacharach is also two legs, Koeln to Koblenz, which can be by IC (again reservations possible but not required) or regional train (reservations not available). Koblenz to Bacharach is only by non-reservable regional train. . . . . . . ¶ In ten years I have only been on one SRO ICE and although all seats were occupied, only about half were actually reserved. I could have reserved seats when I bought the ticket, less than an hour before train time. Thalys limits passholder tickets to less than the number of full fare tickets, and Thalys into and out of Brussels is the only place I have ever heard of where passholder tickets were sold out in advance. . . . . . . ¶ You can get 1. cl. reservations in advance, online, from the Bahn website, for the Koeln-Koblenz IC for €11 for both of you. It looks like the Bahn will also sell you reservations online for both the Rotterdam IC and the ICE to Koeln for €11 for both of you (for both trains). For passholders, online reservations from the Bahn are no more expensive than the counter price over there. RailEurope charges $24 for reservations for 2 from Koeln to Koblenz.