One way ticket

by 14.10.12

Hi sweets,

This is the first time that I blog during a train ride on my iPhone. Some of my most common train rides are those from the Netherlands to Germany. These travels always last approximately 5 hours if I'm lucky.

In Germany the train system is quite different compared to the Dutch railway. Trains don't drive every half and hour and have all different connections. I find this a bit a con compared to my fatherland. The prices are much higher, but for your price you mostly get a comfortable seat.

When you travel via the ICE it is advised to reserve a seat for €4. That is what I did, but when I arrived in Aachen I saw that my train had a delay of 25 minutes. That already gave me the knowledge that I would miss all my connections.

I rushed my way to the counter to rebook my train and also make a new seat reservation. These train rides are so much more comfortable when you can sit in a chair and not on the ground in front of the toilets.

When my train arrived, and I after quite some hassle found my seat, I saw that it was taken. I always feel really bothered to tell these people that I reserved their seat. Those people were grandma and grandpa which probably never travel and look at the signs above the chairs. It was not a very nice 'Stoelendans' because grandpa changed seats to another reserved seat and had to move again a couple of minutes later.

Point of this message is that whenever you travel by train in Germany; always reserve a seat in the trains that have such a system. I still have some hours of rail road ahead of me. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that my travels won't get more delayed.

Love,

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10 comments

  1. Besonders nervig ist es, wenn die Reservierungsanzeige nicht funktioniert und man keinen Sitz reserviert hat -.- hopping from Seat to Seat... Aber ich fahre meist nur 1 1/2 Stunden, das ist auszuhalten ;)

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  2. I understand you soo much! i´ve to travel via ice every 2 weeks to see my boyfriend and it´s always very annoying if the train is late :( But if you drive via ice without a seat reserve, you can take the last wagon. There are always non reserved seats left and it´s very empty there, too :)
    Hope you can stay at home today and watch onother Tatort this evening ;)

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  3. What a bored situation!

    i'll keep my fingers crossed for you

    Have a nice trip from now :)

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  4. I know the german trainsystem, and i hate it. they dont drive often and late at night theres no trains anywhere. i hope at the netherlands its better, because i come to Retrospect :) see you there at the meet and greet

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  5. Does it happen often that people recognize you on the train (or anywhere else in public), Simone? :) I'm not quite sure what I was to do if ever met you on the train! I think I would be so excited that I wouldn't dare speaking to you lest you could be annoyed to be bothered by fans all the time :D

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  6. hard time, uh? that's really annoying :s hope your travels didnt get delayed, did they??
    Love you

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  8. I totally agree with you, Simone, it's always a bad thing when you have made a reservation and someone else got it and I also fell very bad to "kick the person away".
    But I'm from Brazil and here we don't have trains at all!! So, it's quite funny see you guys complaining about the german train system.
    I lived in Germany for a while and I totally felt in love with the trains and their organization. And in 4 moths, I only had to deal with 2 delays. Maybe (and possibly) it was luck.

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  9. Oh, I see you've never traveled by train in Poland. This is a crazy ride! I hope you'll never have to try it... I'm unbelieveble pissed of every time I come back home ;/ Only 300km takes about six hours.

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