Is it always better to purchase DB train tickets ahead of time?

No, only for longer distances, when you can get substantial discounts on IC and ICE trains. These tickets you can buy from www.bahn.de up to 90 days prior to train departure. The discounts get less as the travelling date approaches.

For day trips, you usually are better off buying one of the regional day tickets, such as the Bayernkarte/Bavarian ticket for travel all over Bavaria plus Slazburg.These trickets you can buy at the ticket counter or from a kiosk at the station of departure. Sometimes you can make some money saving combinations: Strictly as an example:, if you want to travel from Wuerzburg to the Frankfurt airport. you buy in Wuerzburg/Bavaria a Bayernkarte, and a local ticket from Kahl (the Bavaria/Hesse state line) to the Frankfurt airport.

This ticket is not named "Bayernkarte" but, even in German, "Bayern-Ticket". If you ask for a "Bayernkarte" you will be shown a map of Bavaria.

It's a bit confusing for non-German speakers, is is not? For example, I went to the Staatsoper in Dresden, and was given an Eintrittskarte which was certainly a ticket and just as certainly NOT a map.

I like to buy the tickets ahead of time to ensure I have a reservation and a seat. I've been on a couple of train trips within Europe, the last one in December, where the train was full and people were scrambling.

If you are planning on crossing the German boarder, you can buy the tickets 60 days in advance, not 90. I just found that out when purchasing Berlin to Warsaw tickets for July.

>It's a bit confusing for non-German speakers, is is not?
It isb't. It's actually a very easy to understand. You have to know how nouns a "build" in German. You form a noun adding other words/syllable in front of it to describe it further. You go from more specific to less specific. At the end there's a general word such as "Karte" which only means cardboard. So to get an "Eintrittskarte", you have a piece of cardboard, then comes a "Tritt" which is a step and "Ein" which is the number one. So this is a cardboard which allows you to do the one step to enter into the building.

A Bayernkarte is a cardboard of Bavaria (what else could it be?)

The Hofbräuhaus is the house (haus) of the brewery (bräu) of the (royal) court (hof).

It works somewhat like in mandarin.

To get BACK to the original question, be aware that using some of those regional tickets may come with certain restrictions, e.g., restricted to use during certain time periods and on certain, perhaps slower, trains.

logos999 - good morning. It's good to have you back!

Logoss,
There is NOTHING easy about German language!
Mark Twain explained it rather well:

"Surely there is not another language that is so slipshod and systemless, and so slippery and elusive to the grasp. One is washed about in it, hither and thither, in the most helpless way; and when at last he thinks he has captured a rule which offers firm ground to take a rest on amid the general rage and turmoil of the ten parts of speech, he turns over the page and reads, "Let the pupil make careful note of the following exceptions"


http://german.about.com/library/blmtwain01.htm

Good afternoon adrienne

Actually German is very logical and straightforward. All the perceived complexity clears up, once you understand the rules.

Hey logos,

>Actually German is very logical and straightforward. All the perceived complexity clears up, once you understand the rules.<

I have heard people say that about English, too.


Who agrees with Twain.

and the rules by which one can learn if a noun is masculine, feminine or neuter
are....??????
the rules for making plural are??????

as my German friend said......." I have no problem with that"

Since my reference to "Bayernkarte" started this whole discussion (?), let me end it as a good German Rechthaber: When I was kid in Germany, there were also Bahnsteigskarten (tickets that let you get on the platform), and all kinds of other "Karten. I believe it was Karl Marx who claimed that the Germans in those times,if they wanted to start a revolution in the RR station, they first went and bought a Bahnsteigskarte .

Perhaps the OP has retreated to her more usual travel board.

A Bahnsteigkarte costs 40ct in Munich and is available at any MVV ticket machine.