Lessons learned with Deutsche Bahn

2. Soccer Lesson If you travel on a Saturday you may want to coordinate your trip with the Bundesliga schedule. Especially if you transfer in any city where a game is happening. Example: I was on a train heading towards Essen (the Ruhr area always hosts half a dozen matches or so) when the train was boarded by a large group of Rot-Weiss Essen fans returning from an away game. In an instant the noise level in the carriage changed and of course the aroma of alcohol and cigarette smoke was added to your olfactory experience. Exiting the train in Essen for my transfer me and my new "friends" were greated by scores of police on the train track to ensure our safe transfer/exit from the station. Safe it might have been but to make your way through a crowded station takes extra time. Which in turn made me miss my connection. And how to make a phone call in the midst of such noisy singing crowds to explain your delay to whoever was supposed to pick you up at your final destination is another lesson all in itself. cont.

3. Cycling Lesson Many many train stations in German offer bike rentals. Something I highly recommend. The quality of bikes varies, in smaller off the beaten track places they will be functional but often a bit older. In a place like Muenster where the underground bike parkade is larger than anything that's available for cars you will be in cycling heaven! My bike looked brand new, had a nice little basket for my purse and my rain jacket (first lesson to learn when you cycle in Muenster to never ever go out without a rain jacket), and I got personal service to get it adjusted for my height. What I wished I had known: if you show your train ticket you get a small discount on the rental fee. Shoot ... I had used it as a bookmark and left it with my luggage in the storage locker :-(

4. Phone Lesson As mentioned under no. 2 when travelling by train your cell phone is your friend. At least that's my impression when 90% of the people around you have one of those in use at any given time. And you may actually need to use it as well, especially if you have arranged for pick-up at your destination and need to advise of a delay in schedule due to any of the many reasons the train is delayed. However, if your cell phone doesn't work in Europe you might feel left out but there's no need to feel lost. As hard as it is to find pay phones anywhere in town you will always find one at the train station. Most tracks will have a pay phone and additional ones are found in the main lobby. They do accept all kinds of small coins but for anything long distance be prepared to fill at least 1 Euro.

5. Announcement Lesson Station announcements are notorious. Notorious as they are often crucial to your travel plans. Notorious as even native speakers have a hard time understanding them, let alone any non-German tourist. Most often they will advise travellers about delays, changes of tracks, or Schienenersatzverkehr or other small but crucial details. If you do hear something do make sure you find out what the announcement was about. It might not pertain to your own travel plans but if it does you're screwed if you have no clue what's up. Do not hesitate to ask any traveller waiting on the platform with you. Germans know how hard it is to understand these announcements and are happy to help out. It might take a while to find somebody who was actually able to understand the announcement but do not give up!

6. Reservation Lesson If you travel solo there is no need to make a reservation. I'd consider it a well calculated risk. Yes, you may end up standing for some time but never for long. Example: travelling from Frankfurt Hbf to Dortmund in an ICE it was standing room only from Frankfurt Hbf to Frankfurt Airport. After that it thinned out a bit but all seats had reservation signs on. You can still sit down if it's not occupied, just be prepared to vacate it should the traveller with the reservation actually show up. But they don't always show up! Who knows, maybe it was reserved by a business traveller whose meeting ran later than expected or somebody had a train delay in their itinerary and missed the connection. If you travel as a couple or as a group do check out if your particular route has a recommendation for reservations. The DB booking website is actually quite accurate for this and I would definitely pay the small fee for a reservation if it shows that recommendations. Especially on Fridays and Sundays. I've been on a lot of train where I was able to eventually find a seat as a solo traveller but there would not have been any room for a couple sitting anywhere close to each other - or at least in the same carriage.

Great report, thanks! Really good information for others, too.

Just to put things into perspective. Yes, I am bitching a bit here about some of the problems DB is facing with construction, delays etc. In fact, as I've been using the German train system now every time I go to Europe - and I do go about once/year - I have yet to have a vacation without any substantial delays and/or missed connections. Nevertheless, considering the alternatives with either endless Staus on the Autobahn or standing in line for hours at the airport this is still one of the best deals for travellers in Europe!

Enjoyed reading this, thanks Beatrix.

Beatrix, I can absolutely relate to your experiences with the rowdy soccer fans. When I was in Europe in 2010, the World Cup games were taking place, and I encountered rowdy soccer groups on several occasions in both Switzerland and Germany. My most memorable trip was a trip from Bacharach to Koblenz. I boarded the train at about 10:00, and the party was already in progress, with copious quantities of Beer (in Kegs!) and Wine (the participants appeared to be all high school age). They offered me a Beer to toast the German team, and although I don't usually drink at that time of the morning, they "twisted my arm" so I had a Beer. As the trip progressed, the noise level increased considerably, especially when they were singing team songs. Before too long, they were standing in the aisles, jumping up and down and banging the ceiling tiles. As you mentioned, smoking is Verboten on trains, but that didn't seem to matter. I didn't see any Conductors for the entire trip (not surprising). I got some entertaining videos and photos of the festivities in several different places.

Thanks for posting this Beatrix. Count me in as someone who loves taking the train all over the place, but I am also fully aware of the downsides. Every time I read someone telling a poster to stay in a town quite far away from the airport and take the train a couple of hours to catch their flight, all the red lights and whistles go off, going no, no, no! I find the trains to be on time for the most part, but not always. Nothing like throwing an unpleasant glitch into a vacation, like being stuck on a train while your plane takes off. Agree about the loudspeaker announcements, one can hardly understand them, German speaker or not. I find the same thing at the airport. Who do they get to make these announcements and why don't they have a decent speaker system in this day and age.

Ken, I do remember the 2006 World Cup quite vividly. However, despite the huge crowds (every single match was absolutely sold out!) it felt less rowdy on the trains and around the stadium than during the regular soccer season. Like many event tickets in Germany those, too, included the train fare for the regional trains and we went to one of the games in Dortmund. Dortmund Hbf had to handle 65,000 soccer fans plus the regular rush hour crowd and did so beautifully! I loved the Swiss with their team songs on the train, the Togolese with their drums reverberating through the station (no room for a beer bottle if your hands are busy with the drum!!!) ... and the German guy dressed in nothing but his shoes and a fan scarf around his mid section .... As I mentioned, a lot of event tickets do include the train fare (hey, there's lesson 7!) so if the train is full of fans there is no need really for the conductor to check on tickets.

I find the trains to be on time for the most part, but not always. Nothing like throwing an unpleasant glitch into a vacation, like being stuck on a train while your plane takes off. Jo, I know that feeling! I've been on trains several times in panic because I was not sure if I would make it in time for my return flight to Europe. Those all leave in the morning so there's not much wiggle room even if you take the very first train of the day! There's another lesson: don't schedule your return flight on a Sunday morning and count on a train to get you to the airport on time. I did that the last time thinking that I would take the 20-minute S-Bahn ride to the airport in after a visit with my brother. However, I ended up changing my itinerary after I had already booked the flight and was about 100 km away on that Sunday morning. Had to get a car ride because the first train would not have gotten me there in time. Mind you, I have family and friends to help me out in that situation, a taxi ride would have been quite expensive ... If you do have a tight train connection to get to the airport make sure you do at least an online check-in the night before. That saved us a couple of times when we got to the airport just 60 min before departure time ...