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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 21st Jun 2019 at 4:21 PM
Default Where should I go next?
So I really, really like city trips and I aim to make a few every month. I've got a railcard so I get unlimited domestic train travel, first class, for a flat rate of €40 a month. When I pay extra, it's usually for the foreign part of the trip. I went to Bielefeld, DE a few weeks ago (5h/€20) and I'm going to Hengelo, NL tomorrow (3h/free).
Now I've been eyeing a week in England for quite some time, again with a railcard, so I can go there and visit a different city every day. That's really not quite as cheap as I'd like it to be, though, so I've had to keep pushing it back and back until I can comfortably afford it. In the meantime I'd like to go abroad at least once more, and I've managed to unexpectedly save about €180 this month so I think I can get away with spending up to half of it.

Question is, how? The destination's important but so is the journey, so if I want the best of both worlds these are my options:
  • Afternoon in Brussels. I have mixed feelings about the city because it's said to be impressive, but also oddly underwhelming. Still, probably worth a shot. It's 2 hours both ways. 8AM Eurostar (Premium) there and 3PM Thalys (Standard) back. The trip might be more fun than the city, who knows. Total costs about €75.
  • Afternoon in Bruges. It's said to be a beautiful city, but a bit on the small side. Considering the journey's the same, albeit with an extra hour glued on at both ends, I'm not sure it'd be worth the money. Exact costs unknown but probably just over €100.
  • Afternoon in Lille. Possibly also worth seeing. Only 2.5 hours both ways, again Premium one way and Standard the other, but a 7AM departure from Amsterdam (which isn't even where I live) and the trip will cost me a minimum of €110.
  • Day in Frankfurt. I really want to see Frankfurt due to its imposing central district and green public spaces. German ticket prices are much more standardized though, because ordnung muss sein, which means prices don't swing downwards by much. Experience tells me the system is easy to cheat, though, since I'm Dutch and therefore clearly a clueless idiot (they're not even wrong). So that's 4 hours, at €70 one way. Last time I didn't even bother buying a return ticket, so chances are €70 is all I'll need to spend.

Let me know if you know anything about these cities. Also let me know if you don't, I figure randomly picking one is worth just as much as wasting time trying to make a well-informed choice. I did go to Bielefeld after all, and it doesn't even exist!

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Lab Assistant
#2 Old 21st Jun 2019 at 5:03 PM
I haven't seen much of Frankfurt, but as far as I'm concerned it is not a beautiful city. Interesting are the Senckenberg Museum and the Botanic garden. I'd recommend Nuremberg. It is a beautiful Gothic city with loads of museums, including the toy museum.
In Munic the English Garden is nice.
Hamburg also is a great city.
Heidelberg has a nice Botanic Garden, too, as well as a beautiful city center. The forests surrounding are great, too.
In Kassel is the Park Wilhemlshöhe. It really seems beautiful. I wanted to wander there but the weather was too bad.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 21st Jun 2019 at 5:36 PM
I'm definitely interested in seeing Nürnberg, München or Hamburg but they're too far away and too expensive for a day trip. It'd have to be a weekend and I'd have to budget it well in advance.

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Mad Poster
#4 Old 24th Jun 2019 at 4:28 AM
I may not be from Europe, but my advice: Weigh your options and if you want to go the other destinations, make a ranking of where you really want to go first and in succession, you go down the list over time.

I do that with all my big decisions. Even financial ones.

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#5 Old 25th Jun 2019 at 8:46 PM Last edited by AGuyCalledPi : 25th Jun 2019 at 9:02 PM.
I've changed my mind a bit, it'll be either Hannover or Bruges I'm going to next. Hannover may be a bit redundant because it's right next to Bielefeld, in fact, it's the same train for the same price and everything, but that also means it's cheap (€20) and it'll be pleasantly familiar. Bruges is also right next to a city I've recently visited but again, the journey's important and I happen to enjoy train travel. I have a variety of travel options for that, from a similar service for €20 or a premium high-speed one for about €50. I'm not loaded with cash at the moment but I don't like cheaping out on experiences. If I can get a Comfort Premium seat with lounge access and dinner served at my seat then god dammit, it'll have to be.

Edit: I cheaped out. Turns out Comfort Standard and Comfort Premium are actually one and the same, but you get access to a special (useless) lounge and free (mediocre) snacks in Premium. I'm not paying €9 extra when there's a guy selling crepes for €4,50 at Antwerp Central. Was hoping to go next week Wednesday but while Saturday isn't any cheaper, I still need to take a train to Amsterdam and I don't feel like spending €6 on that shit.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Alchemist
#6 Old 27th Jun 2019 at 8:34 AM
I haven't been in any cities except Hamburg, Bremen and Hanover. Hamburg and Bremen may be worth it, but Hanover isn't.

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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#7 Old 27th Jun 2019 at 10:53 PM
Bremen? I'll look into it. It's actually the exact same travel time, albeit with a transfer at Osnabruck. Bit more expensive but probably worth it. You could get to there cheap from Groningen at basically any given time in the past but I believe there was an accident and now they've put that train out of service for basically a full decade. Might be 5 years before it runs again, which sucks, but I'll gladly go and see the place when I have time and money.

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Alchemist
#8 Old 28th Jun 2019 at 8:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AGuyCalledPi
Bremen? I'll look into it. It's actually the exact same travel time, albeit with a transfer at Osnabruck. Bit more expensive but probably worth it. You could get to there cheap from Groningen at basically any given time in the past but I believe there was an accident and now they've put that train out of service for basically a full decade. Might be 5 years before it runs again, which sucks, but I'll gladly go and see the place when I have time and money.



5 years is very optimistic. They'll start planning what to do with the brudge in 2021. But they've got busses going as regular as the train went.
You could snatch a train from Groningen to Weener, which is a quaint little town. (I could show you around a little, I live there.) From the station in Weener you could directly take the bus to Leer (15-20 min drive) to get on the next train.

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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#9 Old 28th Jun 2019 at 3:09 PM Last edited by AGuyCalledPi : 28th Jun 2019 at 4:18 PM.
The funny thing about international railway connections is that everybody wants them, but in different places and at different moments. Now I'm not very old but my dad informed that in the 80s, there was a direct train from Bremen to Groningen, Leeuwarden and the coast at Harlingen which was consistently packed with German beachgoers. There were also successful trains from other border towns to other German cities like Aachen, Mönchengladbach, and Essen. Somehow, they managed to let that erode away after the Schengen zone was established. I don't know who's been in charge of transport policy in this corner of Europe but they're clearly all total fucking idiots. And now they're coming up with plans to bring these connections back by 2025 or something, and pretending it's a brilliant new idea.

Now I'm hardly representative of the population but you'd think any rational, socially capitalist state would have a bit of a hard-on for international train travel. It's a goldmine and it doesn't even look worse than being stuck in traffic in your €50,000 luxury car. But actually, you live in Weener? I might have to take you up on that offer sometime. I'm not opposed to seeing small towns, it can be fun if not for terribly long. Also it's called Weener. That's good for at least a slight chuckle.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Alchemist
#10 Old 28th Jun 2019 at 10:21 PM
I'd love to show you, even though there's not much to show, and it can all be done by foot easily. I could even show you the broken railway Bridge if it's still there by then

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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#11 Old 29th Jun 2019 at 2:28 PM
Judging by my past experience with German rail, that bridge will still be broken by 2040. I mean not to diss DB too much but last time I took an ICE, it was 45 minutes late and I had to climb up into it from a tiny little platform. The flip side of that story is that nobody checked my ticket, which was great because it wasn't valid. Over here you'd be crucified for that sort of thing.

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( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Alchemist
#12 Old 30th Jun 2019 at 1:34 AM
You're not even dissing, those are facts. I drove several times without ticket, the checks seem to be rather random.

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