200mph/320kph GERMAN ICE TRAINS will run direct London to Frankfurt in three years' time, it was announced last week. I found out at the same time that Deutsche Bahn offer fares (one-way though ~ there had to be a catch!) from London to anywhere in Germany for under €50! The only (other) catch is you currently have to change trains at Brussels. A rail website gave two prospective rail routes to Berlin.ROUTE 1: Eurostar London to Brussels Midi; Brussels to Cologne; Cologne to Berlin. Each journey taking about two hours.
ROUTE 2: Eurostar to Paris Nord in late afternoon; metro (or just walk 10 mins) to Gare de l'Est; night train direct to Berlin. If you don't get a berth and are willing to camp out in an ordinary seat the fare is under €30 one way!
I LOVE TRAINS anyhow, but it's the fact that you're hardly allowed any luggage on budget flights that really swung it for me.
I wanted to return home with a couple of year's worth of brilliant German books. That is, a weight-restriction-busting entire suitcase full of weighty tomes. Which you can't even keep with you on an aeroplane, and then if you kick off at the terminal because your luggage has basically been STOLEN, BA will prosecute and slap you with a lifetime ban (if you're Naomi Campbell)...
(A THIRD OPTION could be to fly, e.g. by Air Berlin ~ and buy a Kindle!)
SO I THOUGHT ~ if this is possible on one ticket; and most things are possible if you want them enough ~ it might be nice to overnight in Brussels, take a late night train to Cologne, spend the day there, moving on at night to Berlin arriving late at whatever room I've booked there (or park bench/space under a bridge (joke! I'm not into that kind of holiday any more. I "celebrated" new year 1991 going into 1992 with a crazed Japanese tourist, sleeping with homeless Berbers at Fez station. My Welcome to 1992 came at 6am when an angry station master started hitting my companions with a broom. He stopped what he was doing and looked aghast when he spotted my blond hair and pale face. In a way it was good he woke us up as I'd woken at five, convinced the poor old man next to me had died in the frosty night.)
Anyway, back to Berlin. I'm so excited. I'm going somewhere! At last!
Now I need my eyes and teeth seeing to. No cig-stained gnashers and new glasses or contact lenses. I'm not travelling Europe with my current intellectual scarecrow look.
Also I was looking into taking a night train to Budapest or Prague. (Budapest, I think. Everyone does Prague.)
I'm so excited! All these years of German and did you know, I've yet to set foot on German soil!
You'll all know when this happens as pictures of clean streets and exotic posts shall suddenly appear ...
In times past, I had always assumed this type of expedition would have to wait until I'd cleaned myself up enough to be OFF METHADONE.
I didn't realize, you see, that I'm allowed to travel with methadone ~ which they'd give in pills to prevent spillage tragedies. All I need do is provide proof of travel (ie a ticket) and enough notice and the druggieservice will give a certificate saying I'm entitled to hobnob across the EU with hardcore narcotics in my possession...
It's nearly 12 years since I went anywhere abroad. My feet are itching now, even more than that pussing wound on my leg!
***I JUST CHECKED AIR BERLIN's prices and was quoted €294.95 departing London Stanstead on September 28, returning from Berlin on October 7! Something tells me it's gonna be the train.***
Deutsche Bahn: bahn.de
Rail Booking: seat61.com
European Rail Ticket: raileurope.com
SNCB Europe: b-europe.com/Travel
British Rail Tickets: thetrainline.com
AN INTERRAIL (EURAIL) PASS valid for travel on 5 days out of 10 costs only £224!
http://www.internationalrail.com/interrail/interrail-global-pass.aspx
I hope that you get there. It sounds like a great trip. It would be a beautiful time of year to travel as well.
ReplyDeleteBTW, there was no single event that happened to me. It was the accumulation of years of little things--maybe the final shot was having to walk home after she got drunk at a party, refused to give up the keys, drove off and left me. There were lots of other things like that over the years. But no single horrific event that stands out. Each drunken episode added to another was what took its toll, until I was no longer caring to continue with the way things were. Hope that this makes sense. It's all in posts on my blog.
Really, you are so lucky to be so close to so many cultures. I'm sure you can get off-time commuter flights much more reasonable - my husband sees them all the time (he dreams of the two of us one day touring Ireland and then popping over to Europe and seeing what we can see).
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you have something to look forward to at last Gleds. x
ReplyDeleteMy son was planning a trip from London to Beijing on a train... it is doable apparently in about 7 days via the trans Siberian express.
ReplyDeleteHowever Berlin sounds doable - I'd have thought Brussels and then onward myself.
Once they are running through trains I might have to go that sounds brilliant - to me Berlin still has all those black and white movies of checkpoint Charlie and all that associated with it :-)
Syd: I hope to get there by spring. Need to fill my piggybank 1st! Re the alcohol, yep, I get it.
ReplyDeleteJeannie: one thing I like most about London is that you can just hop across the water to all that culture. Not that we don't have enough here, but the grass is always so much greener ...(!)
David: OK. I think I did that before and ... OK let me try again
Akelamalu: for once something positive that doesn't involve coming off methadone or writing a book!
Further: You know what I'd love to ride that Beijing to Lhasa railway. I know some say it's bad, that it will dilute Tibet culturally by making it "too" accessible but it would be one hell of a ride. The highest railway in the world!
Good to know, especially the trains from Brussels ! Thanks for the info !
ReplyDeleteHi Gleds,
ReplyDeleteJust wondering what happened at casualty regarding your leg wound?
Also, nice to see you enthusiastic for something so clearly doable...
I'm wondering if these trains are wheelchair accessible?
I've been trying to plan a trip and not gotten much help as a wheelchair user. I would need to fly first and flying with a chair can be dreadful if it is lost, stolen or broken...
As mine is a lightweight titanium frame it would be expensive to replace...
Best of luck with your planning.
I've been to Budapest in September (this year). God it was beautiful! The time went by much too fast, i loved it so much. They have the fastest subway i've ever been on. So cool.
ReplyDeleteI've also been to Prague back in 2002. Loved it as well. Both cities are seriously beautiful. You need to see them :)
But i have yet to see Berlin. We'll go there for vacation, maybe next year or so. City travels are my favorite.
Take care of your wounds! Damn. Hope it will heal soon. I just saw your posts about that. Sorry i haven't been online recently.
Forgot to tell you about the methadone. Of course i had my methadone with me on my Budapest vacation. It wasn't even complicated. I had the official EU permit for carrying narcotics (methadone) with me (like the one you were talking about in your post). But we didn't even have any form of border control, as we were traveling by train, and well it's the EU. So no one was bothering me at all.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, we do not have methadone in pill form here in Austria, just the liquid. So i had to take my usual liquid methadone with me. I was worried at first about spillage. But i packed my bottles so well that i didn't spill anything. I packed every single bottle into their own little water tight plastic bag. Then i put them into a plastic container (Tupperware), that was exactly the size of my 10 bottles. So they couldn't fall over since they were tightly packed together. And of course i carried this box with me in my purse and i took great care to hold it evenly at all times and not shake it too much (while we were traveling) :) Then i hid this container among my stuff in the hotel room (just to be on the safe side. For various reasons, but mostly because i'm paranoid).