Trains

      Larger train stations typically have two information offices.  One provides information about the trains, and the other provides general tourist information.  In smaller train stations, we needed to figure out how to get to the city center before we could find a tourist office. The sign with a yellow “i” typically will be the tourist information office and will give out a free local map.  Sometimes there is also a tourist information office in the center of each city’s “old town” where the tourist sites tend to be located. The train information office will provide you with schedules in English that tell you where you will need to transfer trains and, if within the same country, the platform for your connecting train.  Otherwise you will have to find the connecting platform once you arrive and sometimes you only have a few minutes to figure out what platform you need and then get there.

Hallstatt, Austria

            The website for German trains is as www.bahn.de.   You can opt for the English translation; however, it isn’t always clear.  For example, it wasn’t really clear what the restrictions (such as days of the week or hours it could be used) were on each of the potential special fares.  Something was definitively lost in translation. 

Bolzano, Italy

·             The special fare we found most useful was something called the Länder ticket on the Bahn.de website. This is a ticket that allows unlimited travel within a specific region.  We used the Bavarian (“Bayern”) ticket, which allows up to 5 people to travel anywhere in Bavaria and Salzburg in a 24 hour period for a fixed price.  There are some limits on when you can travel.  For example, you can’t use this ticket before 9 am Monday through Friday.  Also, be sure you sign your Bavarian ticket because if it isn’t signed when the conductor asks for it, you can be fined.  We were able to easily buy these from the ticket machines in Munich train station, which have different language options including English.  The ticket machines in the train station provided much clearer information than the information on the website.

Funicular above Bolzano, Italy

·        In Italy, there are little machines in the train stations where you must stamp your ticket before boarding.  Even if you bought your ticket from a real live person like we did (instead of a machine), you still need to validate your ticket before you board the train.  We were scolded (in Italian, but we got the point) for not validating our ticket, but fortunately we weren’t fined.   

A regional train - Nordlingen, Germany

         
   Different Ways to Open Train Doors to get OFF a train

   a.        Automatic with a button.  The magic button is not always labeled, and not always obvious.  
  

    b.       Turn Handle and push – but sometimes there is a little plate in front of the door that swings out with the door and if you stand on it, you can’t open the door.  Look down and see if there are painted shoe prints with an X through them. 

    c.       If you can’t get the door to open, stand back and hope there is a native around to do it for you. 

              

       Different Ways to Open Train Doors between cars:

   a.       Automatic button (easy)

  b.       Automatic with a sensor at the top left that you may have to run you hand over if you’re tall enough.  If not, then people like Connie have to jump up and down until they trigger the magic sensor.  

  c.       Handle slide

  d.       Handle pull