dawna

okay, I will be leaving from Kaiserslautern to Mannheim, then Mannheim to Frankfurt, then possibly Frankfurt to Leipzig, then its off to Berlin.

Let me just say that the reason i will be doing this all in one day is because i have a 6 day eurail pass and i only want to use up one day of travel. My main destination on this part of my journey is Berlin.

So once i am in Mannheim, should i give myself a couple hours to just walk around or should i just get right on the next train out to Frankfurt? And once i am in Frankfurt, if i leave Mannheim right away, i will have about 7 hours there, unless I decide to stop in Leipzig before arriving in Berlin.

So basically i am just trying to find the best way to spread out my time; where i should give more hours to.

please advise!

Dukey

I suspect others will disagree but if it were me, and other than Leipzig, I'd get the most direct route possible and go straight to Berlin and spend any "extra" time there!

L84SKY

What do you plan to see in these places? Or I should say, not see.
Do you know these cities so well that you'll lose no time in getting to the place?
What do you plan to do in Frankfurt for 7 hours?

dawna

The most direct route for me to get to berlin would be kaiserslautern to mannheim to frankfurt to berlin. unless there are more updated travel times for trains, i should probably look online right. yeah.

and with frankfurt for 7 hours, i just planned on pretty much walking around, probably sitting at a cafe or something of the sort, just taking in the air basically, before hopping on my next train to berlin. i could get on another train right away, right when i get to frankfurt, but i figured that i may as well spend a few hours there, since it will probably be my only chance to do so.

and with leipzig, i know that i wont be able to actually experience much in such a short amount of time, but i am a person that just likes to LOOK at things anyway, so it might be okay to be there for a couple hours, just to see another part of germany. ... because..well...why not?

Robespierre

Keep in mind that any train you board on a given day counts against that pass day, even if it doesn't arrive at its (direct) destination after midnignt.

This is the only slack I know of that Eurailpass cuts for its customers.

ben_haines

I am afraid I do not know Kaserslautern, but as for the other three perhaps the best thing is to say what you might do as you sit or stroll.

Mannheim is a rationally planned city, the work of a proud prince, and a reflection of the Enlightenment, with broad streets and good views. We the allies bombed Frankfurt to bits, and apart from a few rebuilt buildings it is a post-war city, well laid out, but a bit dull. The centre has cafes and pubs, and the riverside offers good walks. Leipzig is my favourite among your cities, a walled city with the walls taken down bout 1850, with two great perpendicular brick gothic churches, memories of Bach, and in the Auerbach Tavern the pub where Goethe's play Faust I opens. What few people mention these days is the work of the citizens of Leipzig in the summer of 1989, before the Wall was breached, when each Monday evening all ages wrote home made placards, gathered in the St Nicholas Church, and walked around the old line of the walls. To left and right, along side roads, they could see parked lorries, with men with rifles, who were the factory militia, and might leave their lorries, armed, any time they were ordered out. Gorbachev had probably told the government that they would have no Soviet help in oppression, but the people who walked did not know that. For me the strongest memory of those days is in the church, where people gathered to exchange news of friends in East Berlin, Rostock, Dresden, and across East Germany, news they had gathered by telephone. The page http://www.nikolaikirche-leipzig.de/..._in_fall_1989/ tells the tale.

Ben Haines, London
[email protected]

quokka

There are direct ICE trains from Mannheim to Berlin, so all these changes are not necessary unless you want them. (Attention, these trains don't go via Leipzig but on the faster route via Kassel and Braunschweig.)

3 cities in one day - that sounds crazy to me. Pick one.

Mannheim will be interesting for specialists on baroque architecture. Otherwise, skip it.

Frankfurt? If you are a museum buff and/or interested in a special exhibition that's shown there, all right.

Otherwise, I'd give a clear vote for Leipzig. Among these 3, Leipzig will be the most interesting option.

Musicteacher

There is a direct train from Kaiserslautern to Leipzig leaving at 7:29 and arriving at 12:46. You could spend the afternoon in Leipzig and go on to Berlin whenever you choose. There is a train every hour from Leipzig to Berlin.

dawna

I cant seem to find a train schedule online. i looked on bahn.de, so why am i so lost?

help!?

okay, well, is there a train station in idar-oberstein that i could catch a train from with using my eurail pass?

there are more than a few train stations in idar-ober right? so which one is closest to baumholder?

If i could catch a train from idar-oberstein straight to berlin, maybe it would be better. i was just thinking of ways to break up my day and see a little bit of a few other cities before i went to berlin, since i will definitely have enough time there

Robespierre

Your pass should work on any DB train.

Try this: http://reiseauskunft.bahn.de/bin/query.exe/en

L84SKY

dawna, give Frankfurt a pass- there are much better places to spend 7 hours. Even the art museum there isn't worth more than and hour or two.

quokka

There is a train station in Idar-Oberstein.

Musicteacher

Dawna,

Use Robespierre's URL to search for trains. This takes you directly to the schedule page in English.

You indicate that you are really in Baumholder rather than Kaiserslautern. The closest train station would therefore be Idar-Oberstein rather than Kaiserslautern. There is only one station in Idar-Oberstein. It is on the Saarbrucken-Mainz route.

The long distance trains don't stop in the small station of Idar-Oberstein; therefore you would have to change trains in Mainz or Frankfurt in order to get to Leipzig or Berlin.

There is bus service from Baumholder to Idar-Oberstein, but perhaps you are going by car.

bob_brown

I have a question about this.
Did you plan on leaving the train station to look around a bit before going to the next place?

denis

I took a train from Kaiserslautern to Mannheim before. When I looked on the internet it look like only 2 stops but when I took train it stopped at every little town on the route. I only had 10 minutes to catch next train. By the time we got to Mannheim we were 15 minutes late. Luckily my train was still there. I ran to my train. As soon as I got on we took off.

Musicteacher

Denis,

You have stumbled onto one of the realities of European train travel. There are fast Intercity trains and slow local trains running on the same routes, sometimes with departures only a few minutes apart. You have to be careful which train you get on.

DAX

Another vote for stopping in Leipzig simply because it's very easy to enjoy Leipzig in a few hours. The train station is right at the edge of oldtown with cafes & shops abound. Leipzig is surprisingly vibrant & humming.