In early September of this year I'm going on a honeymoon to Germany, and I'm trying to plan things out to some degree before we go. We're flying in and out of Zurich, and plan on making a rough circle through southern Germany. We're also planning on doing this by rail, and not driving.
I'd like to be able to get a sense of the trip before we leave. I'd like to use something a little less primitive than a sheet of paper and a calendar to plan things. Ideally what I'm looking for is something similar to Microsofts Streets and Trips, but for train travel in Germany. I'd like to be able to input cities we want to visit, and have it give me a rough idea of the travel time between cities, etc. I'm aware of the www.bahn.de site and I know that I could use the site for each individual leg of the trip, but it would be nice to have something that can keep that information for each leg and put it all together for me.
Failing that, my next best idea is to have a large map of Germany with the train lines printed on it and go from there, using note cards or something like that. The problem there is that I haven't been able to find a nice sized (as in larger than a sheet of paper) map of Germany with all (or at least the major and medium sized) rail lines. I could probably take a small map and have it enlarged, but if there were a nice map I could purchase that would be great.
If anyone has any suggestions, I would really appreciate it. As you can probably tell, I'm a very visual person and writing everything out doesn't let me see the big picture.
Thanks
AC
Planning rail trip in Germany
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aclight -
Online rail maps for the southern German states are available at the following:
BAYERN
www.bayern-takt.de/htdocs/bahnkarte.htm
BADEN-WURTTEMBURG
www.rail-and-relax.de/index1.html
RHINELAND-PFALZ & SAARLAND
http://www.bahn.de/pv/view/mdb/content/pdf/regional/saarland/25.pdf
The Rhineland-Pfalz map takes a while to load in, so be patient. The green lines are the regional bus lines.
I'm not aware of any software to help in your planning. I rely on the Die Bahn query page for all my rail planning, simply printing out the schedules I'm interested in and keeping them in a notebook. All of the information is right on those pages - travel time between locations, train number (with route), platform number, type of train, etc... I'm not sure what additional information you are looking for.
You are aware of the Lander-tickets available for travel within the German states?
For a good online map, visit viamichelin.com
I'm also in the process of planning a trip to Germany, unfortunately, it won't be for another year or two. I'm using a map (about 23" x 33") which shows most of the towns, which I received for free when I requested information from the German Tourist Board, but that was many years ago (1993). Perhaps they still send a map with their brochures.
I know this isn't exactly what you were looking for, and perhaps the software is not availabe, but this should help in your planning. If you do find software, please post here and let us know. Otherwise, happy planning and have a safe journey. Peace.
Robyn
In the English section of the www.bahn.de site, you can click on Personal Timetable and generate schedules in PDF or Palm or Java for the different legs of your trip.
There are a number of little-known features within the Deutsche Bahn site, such as maps of the neighborhood near your destination station.
No matter how good the internet train info gets I still prefer a copy of the Thomas Cook European Timetable in my hands. Check it out along with a lot of their other publications at
www.thomascooktimetables.com/series.htm?series=Travel_Essentials
I ordered mine from the publisher in England and had it within 2 weeks. This is a monthly so if you order it now some of the summer trains might not be running when you get there but that is not normally a problem.
The Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe would probably serve your map purposes though it's scale is 1:1,500,000. A Michelin road map with a scale of 1:200,000 would show all rail lines and stations.
You might also wander into a travel agency and ask for the current Eurail brochure. It has maps showing the main lines. You'll probably want to consider buying one of the rail passes with the program you have in mind, and in that case get the free Eurail Map and the Eurail Timetable. These also show only the main routes. You'll be happy you have the Thomas Cook European Timetable for serious training in Europe.
My husband and I also took our honeymoon in Switzerland and Germany. We however did rent a car and drove everywhere. However I can recommend some lovely spots my husband liked ,as it was his first time in both countrys. We satarted out with 2 days in Zurich and them went onto Schaffhausen,Switzerland followed by Stein am Rhein, Germany. We took the Rhein river cruise between those two cities, very fun. From there we traveled onto Meersburg, Germany, a small town on the "Bodensee" or Lake Costance as we know it in English. From Meersburg to Friedrichshafen( where the blimps were originally made)then on to Lindau which is a very pretty small town with a great shops and restaurants along the lake. Then back to Zurich via St. Gallen and Appenzell which is a small village up in the mountains. Some of this is not as accessible by train ,but other cities are. Well woth the visit and off the normal beaten path. As the say in German "{ Gute Reise"
First of all, thanks to all of you for providing valuable advice.
I checked out all of the links provided, and have come across a few other things that I thought I'd mention in case anyone else is in a similar situation.
Rick Steves sells a Germany, Austria, Switzerland planning map [http://travelstore.ricksteves.com/catalog/index.cfm?fuseaction=product&theParentId=117&id=168]
This is identical (though larger, of course) to the one that is at the front of the Germany, Austria, Switzerland book. On the back there are maps of Berlin, Munich, and Vienna. This is pretty much what I was looking for, and at $5 you can't beat the price. I bought it at a local bookstore, which also carried the Thomas Cook Rail Map of Europe. I compared the two, and they looked to be pretty similar in their level of detail, at least as far as the train routes were concerned. The Thomas Cook map was about $17.
I also found a map that I think is quite a bit more detailed. To find it, go to www.vcd.org and click on Shop on the upper right corner. Select "Bus and Bahn" and the item is the "VCD-Fahrplankarte für Bus und Bahn ? Deutschland." My German isn't great, and Google doesn't provide that great of a translation, but this looks to be a bit more detailed map of bus and train routes in Germany.
As for software, other than what's at www.bahn.de, I haven't found much else. I did find it interesting that this site will tell me the amount of CO2 emissions that my trip will create.
Thanks for all of your help