To read the Thomas Cook European Timetable
Jul 5th, 2004, 04:08 AM
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To read the Thomas Cook European Timetable
Some readers on the Lonely Planet forum admitted yesterday that they find the Thomas Cook European Timetable, the 544 page timetable for European trains, a little hard to use. Fodors readers may have the same thoughts, so Miss Judy Chen of Ontario (well known on these pages for her helpfulness) asked me to post my note here. My regular readers will enjoy the altered prose style that I use when addressing the flighty young.
As others say, it takes time to get comfortable with this book. I suggest you phone a big public reference library, check they stock it, and go along with pen, paper and time, and find a seat with a good reading light. You start by reading pages 5 to 9, How to Use. Now to exercise number one, which you chose: when in Amsterdam what train do you get to Germany. That is international, so the contents list on page 1 sends you to tables 10 to 99, and the map on pages 44 to 45. Page 44 shows Amsterdam, and east and south of there is Germany. You choose somewhere nice in Germany: how about Berlin ? OK, the line between those two cities is marked with many numbers. But out west, next to Amsterdam, there is just number 22, and that is your choice. Open up that table (not page, this time), and here is a maze of letters and numbers in columns. On the top left are places, including your cities. You want any column that has a time for Amsterdam and a time for Berlin Zoo station both in one column. There it is: IC141, Amsterdam Central d (depart) 0713, Berlin Zoo 1311s. So what is s when it is at home ? Look over to the right hand page and a crib tells you. s means stops to set down only. So hard luck if you were thinking of jumping on board for a quick coffee in 15 minutes before East Berlin, Berlin Ost.
Your quick look had the result that you missed tables 10 to 99. What you found were country tables. These give you all the international trains, but in little chunks. For example, the map on page (not table) 364 shows a line eastward from Bad Bentheim to Berlin and written above that 810. Right enough, table 810 shows plenty of small German towns (many of them charming, like Bad Oeynhausen or Braunschweig), and with your new skills you can tell me that the morning train from Amsterdam does not stop there. Oh no you can t ? Oh yes you can. In the cities list to the left of the lower half of page 378 you find Amsterdam. Run a steady finger from that name rightwards amidst all the numbers and you come to 0713. And that is the self same train IC141 that you chose on the international table. Look down its column, and you and the train reach Berlin Zoo at 1311.
Just letters and numbers are not enough to keep the editors happy: they like hieroglyphics, which I think they call icons. For example, at the top of the column with your train it says IC141, and has a picture of a goblet. So whatever is that ? Only sots admitted ? Ritual murder each Friday the thirteenth ? Sorry no. Page 4 has your goblet at the upper left, and it turns out to mean Snacks and drinks available (see half way down the left half of page 10).
Once you have bought the book you can use it in comfort in the privacy of your own home, with a decent coffee. Table 760 lower half, last column, train 76, is a train with beds, couchettes, seats, a buffet car, and a cinema and bistro car from southern Sweden to Lapland. The train has showers on board, but you have to go to page 346, Services, to learn that. Table 24 shows how you go from London to Moscow in two nights with just one change at Brussels. In table 61, top half, column D you find the Dacia Express, where you board at Vienna at 2001, dine on the way into Hungary (which is what the crossed knife and fork mean), go to bed (which is what the picture of a bed means), pass frontier checks in bed around midnight, set your watch back an hour (as the foot of page 2 tells you by signs), breakfast amidst the forested mountains of Transylvania, and get off at Brasov, where civilised folk speak three languages, at 1050. Page 47 lists the most beautiful lines the editors know, but with limited space they miss this Dracula country. They do list the West Highlands line, where you look out at deer while they watch you breakfast, and table 218 uses the letter x to mark times where the train picks you up at Ardlui only if you hold out your hand to signal them to do so. The same table lists the Jacobite Express, the summer steam-drawn service among those forests.
If you have stayed with me thus far you are getting on well, right up to the General Certificate in Ferrovian Education. If not, you should drink something stronger.
Ben Haines, London
[email protected]
As others say, it takes time to get comfortable with this book. I suggest you phone a big public reference library, check they stock it, and go along with pen, paper and time, and find a seat with a good reading light. You start by reading pages 5 to 9, How to Use. Now to exercise number one, which you chose: when in Amsterdam what train do you get to Germany. That is international, so the contents list on page 1 sends you to tables 10 to 99, and the map on pages 44 to 45. Page 44 shows Amsterdam, and east and south of there is Germany. You choose somewhere nice in Germany: how about Berlin ? OK, the line between those two cities is marked with many numbers. But out west, next to Amsterdam, there is just number 22, and that is your choice. Open up that table (not page, this time), and here is a maze of letters and numbers in columns. On the top left are places, including your cities. You want any column that has a time for Amsterdam and a time for Berlin Zoo station both in one column. There it is: IC141, Amsterdam Central d (depart) 0713, Berlin Zoo 1311s. So what is s when it is at home ? Look over to the right hand page and a crib tells you. s means stops to set down only. So hard luck if you were thinking of jumping on board for a quick coffee in 15 minutes before East Berlin, Berlin Ost.
Your quick look had the result that you missed tables 10 to 99. What you found were country tables. These give you all the international trains, but in little chunks. For example, the map on page (not table) 364 shows a line eastward from Bad Bentheim to Berlin and written above that 810. Right enough, table 810 shows plenty of small German towns (many of them charming, like Bad Oeynhausen or Braunschweig), and with your new skills you can tell me that the morning train from Amsterdam does not stop there. Oh no you can t ? Oh yes you can. In the cities list to the left of the lower half of page 378 you find Amsterdam. Run a steady finger from that name rightwards amidst all the numbers and you come to 0713. And that is the self same train IC141 that you chose on the international table. Look down its column, and you and the train reach Berlin Zoo at 1311.
Just letters and numbers are not enough to keep the editors happy: they like hieroglyphics, which I think they call icons. For example, at the top of the column with your train it says IC141, and has a picture of a goblet. So whatever is that ? Only sots admitted ? Ritual murder each Friday the thirteenth ? Sorry no. Page 4 has your goblet at the upper left, and it turns out to mean Snacks and drinks available (see half way down the left half of page 10).
Once you have bought the book you can use it in comfort in the privacy of your own home, with a decent coffee. Table 760 lower half, last column, train 76, is a train with beds, couchettes, seats, a buffet car, and a cinema and bistro car from southern Sweden to Lapland. The train has showers on board, but you have to go to page 346, Services, to learn that. Table 24 shows how you go from London to Moscow in two nights with just one change at Brussels. In table 61, top half, column D you find the Dacia Express, where you board at Vienna at 2001, dine on the way into Hungary (which is what the crossed knife and fork mean), go to bed (which is what the picture of a bed means), pass frontier checks in bed around midnight, set your watch back an hour (as the foot of page 2 tells you by signs), breakfast amidst the forested mountains of Transylvania, and get off at Brasov, where civilised folk speak three languages, at 1050. Page 47 lists the most beautiful lines the editors know, but with limited space they miss this Dracula country. They do list the West Highlands line, where you look out at deer while they watch you breakfast, and table 218 uses the letter x to mark times where the train picks you up at Ardlui only if you hold out your hand to signal them to do so. The same table lists the Jacobite Express, the summer steam-drawn service among those forests.
If you have stayed with me thus far you are getting on well, right up to the General Certificate in Ferrovian Education. If not, you should drink something stronger.
Ben Haines, London
[email protected]
Jul 5th, 2004, 04:24 AM
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<<If you have stayed with me thus far you are getting on well, right up to the General Certificate in Ferrovian Education. If not, you should drink something stronger.>>
Ben, what do you recommend for something stronger? LOL! I got lost right off the bat. I think I'll leave this to the experts!
Ben, what do you recommend for something stronger? LOL! I got lost right off the bat. I think I'll leave this to the experts!
Jul 6th, 2004, 06:54 AM
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Ben, you didn't mention the Index of Places in the <i>Thomas Cook European Timetable</i>. In the index is Amsterdam with many sub-sections including Berlin. Table 22 is listed. The index saves you the trouble of looking at maps to find table numbers.
Jul 6th, 2004, 10:56 PM
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I am afraid it had not occurred to me that people would try to use my notes without a copy of the book in front of them. I agree that to do that is unwise.
Crepes a go go: cider
Ben Haines
Crepes a go go: cider
Ben Haines
Jul 7th, 2004, 12:28 AM
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Mr. Haines - thanks so much for the explanation. I have referenced the Thomas Cook at the library and did indeed need something stronger to ease my muddled brain during the decipher process. Alas, US libraries frown on any type of beverage within their walls. I'm saving your instructions to review before my next Thomas Cook venture; they will save me decipher time and allow me more libation time.
Jul 7th, 2004, 10:52 PM
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Ben:
Your post brought back some great memories. I believe it was a year and a half ago when I enlisted your help and you were kind enough to test me. I gave my Thomas Cook a wild run for its money when I was in Europe last year. For a backpacker, it was invaluable...and usually a hit at hostels because I was the only one who had it! Still...I manage to screw up royally a couple of times.
I still think I remember how to read it, but a refresher course never hurts!
Your post brought back some great memories. I believe it was a year and a half ago when I enlisted your help and you were kind enough to test me. I gave my Thomas Cook a wild run for its money when I was in Europe last year. For a backpacker, it was invaluable...and usually a hit at hostels because I was the only one who had it! Still...I manage to screw up royally a couple of times.
I still think I remember how to read it, but a refresher course never hurts!
Jul 7th, 2004, 11:14 PM
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Good: let us start a movement to have cider served to readers of this book in public libraries.
The reason I failed to suggest use of the index is a little personal: my eyes can only just make out the 6 or 8 point typeface, so I use the maps. Overhead lamps in berths give more trouble again. All you young things will have no such problem. I can say, too, that the maps let you view the continent or a region or country, and plan out a first sketch of a route, clockwise, anticlockwise, with just three hotels, or as you fancy.
Ben Haines, London
The reason I failed to suggest use of the index is a little personal: my eyes can only just make out the 6 or 8 point typeface, so I use the maps. Overhead lamps in berths give more trouble again. All you young things will have no such problem. I can say, too, that the maps let you view the continent or a region or country, and plan out a first sketch of a route, clockwise, anticlockwise, with just three hotels, or as you fancy.
Ben Haines, London
