Tom Bellhouse

"Hatunen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 14:57:22 -0400, "Tom Bellhouse"
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
(SNIP)

    > >Dave, do you recall what they consider "Senior"? It seems to vary.
    > >
    > At http://bahn.de it says "over 60"

Ahh, it's great to be an old fart!

Thanks,

Tom

Capture Boy

I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.

The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in about
2 hours sleep at a time.

You are also not guaranteed a couchette and trying to sleep in an upright
seat in a noisy carriage is not a good nights sleep.

"Tom Bellhouse" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > "Hatunen" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 14:57:22 -0400, "Tom Bellhouse"
    > > <[email protected]> wrote:
    > >
    > (SNIP)
    > > >Dave, do you recall what they consider "Senior"? It seems to vary.
    > > >
    > > At http://bahn.de it says "over 60"
    > >
    > Ahh, it's great to be an old fart!
    > Thanks,
    > Tom

Ulf Kutzner

Capture Boy schrieb:
    >
    > I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
    > sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.
    >
    > The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
    > border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
    > from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in about
    > 2 hours sleep at a time.

This should be over between Paris and Berlin as we are Schengeners now.

However, France likes to reinstate border controls depending on events.

Regards, ULF

Martin Bienwald

Capture Boy schrieb:

    > I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
    > sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.
    >
    > The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
    > border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
    > from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in about
    > 2 hours sleep at a time.

Not any more ... passport checks at the French/Belgian and Belgian/German
border have ceased with the Schengen treaty, and the third border on that
itinerary is completely gone. So you could sleep all night now. :-)

    > You are also not guaranteed a couchette and trying to sleep in an upright
    > seat in a noisy carriage is not a good nights sleep.

You can make a couchette reservation, of course.

... Martin

nitram

On 19 Aug 2004 12:36:04 GMT, Martin Bienwald <[email protected]>
wrote:

    >Capture Boy schrieb:

    >> You are also not guaranteed a couchette and trying to sleep in an upright
    >> seat in a noisy carriage is not a good nights sleep.
    >You can make a couchette reservation, of course.

Amsterdam Munich night train travel is with reservation only.

Lennart Petersen

"Ulf Kutzner" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
news:[email protected]...
    > Capture Boy schrieb:
    > >
    > > I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
    > > sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.
    > >
    > > The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
    > > border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
    > > from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in
about
    > > 2 hours sleep at a time.
    > This should be over between Paris and Berlin as we are Schengeners now.
    > However, France likes to reinstate border controls depending on events.
    > Regards, ULF
However in the old time it was custom to hand over the passport to the
attendant if you were in a couchette or sleeper. Usually it wasn't
necessary to wake up the passengers.
Only if you were in a seat car it was necessary to show the passport
personally.
Passport control between such countries as Germany,Belgium,France was as I
can remember typically a matter of an minute or so.

Piotr Strycharz

U¿ytkownik "Martin Bienwald" <[email protected]> napisa³ w wiadomo¶ci
news:[email protected]...
    > Not any more ... passport checks at the French/Belgian and Belgian/German
    > border have ceased with the Schengen treaty, and the third border on that
    > itinerary is completely gone. So you could sleep all night now. :-)

Well. Actually - not completely. It happened to me (and friend) in 2003. We
were travelling with Inter Rail ticket. We were approaching Lille. AFAIR 3
people came to our seat claiming that they are "customs control". They have
checked our tickets, asked for passports and asked if we had enough money
for entering France. Of course, the check was quick. Just formality.
However - it happened.

Piotr.

Hatunen

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 06:20:26 +0100, "Capture Boy"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
    >sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.
    >The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
    >border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
    >from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in about
    >2 hours sleep at a time.
    >You are also not guaranteed a couchette and trying to sleep in an upright
    >seat in a noisy carriage is not a good nights sleep.

When we rode the night train from Copenhagen to Brussels in 1996
in a sleeper compartment we gave our passports to the car
attendant and he showed them to customs officials so we weren't
awakened.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ([email protected]) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Hatunen

On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 11:30:08 -0600, Hatunen <[email protected]>
wrote:

Shamelessly piggybacking my own post

    >I have a suggestion for anyone who will spend much time on trains
    >in German: the Bahncard 50. It's good for a year and provides a
    >50% discount on all tickets for the cardholder and others in
    >his/her party. It costs EUR 200 and the senior version is EUR
    >100. I bought mine in Koeln and saved the EUR 100 price as soon
    >as I bought tickets for my wife and I to Muenchen on the ICE.

Forgot to add:

Besides providing a 50% discount, the Bahncard also covers your
local transit, U-bahn, S-bahn or whatever, from the bahnhof to
your local destination.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ([email protected]) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

Dave Smith

Piotr Strycharz wrote:
    > Well. Actually - not completely. It happened to me (and friend) in 2003. We
    > were travelling with Inter Rail ticket. We were approaching Lille. AFAIR 3
    > people came to our seat claiming that they are "customs control". They have
    > checked our tickets, asked for passports and asked if we had enough money
    > for entering France. Of course, the check was quick. Just formality.
    > However - it happened.


When I toured Europe by train with a Eurail pass in 1993 there were guys
checking passports in the train in Germany as we approached Switzerland,
and then again from Switzerland to Italy. Nowhere else.

Bob Lancaster

"Lennart Petersen" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
    > "Ulf Kutzner" <[email protected]> skrev i meddelandet
    > news:[email protected]...
    > > Capture Boy schrieb:
    > > >
    > > > I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
    > > > sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.
    > > >
    > > > The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
    > > > border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
    > > > from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in
    > about
    > > > 2 hours sleep at a time.
    > >
    > > This should be over between Paris and Berlin as we are Schengeners now.
    > > However, France likes to reinstate border controls depending on events.
    > > Regards, ULF
    > However in the old time it was custom to hand over the passport to the
    > attendant if you were in a couchette or sleeper. Usually it wasn't
    > necessary to wake up the passengers.
    > Only if you were in a seat car it was necessary to show the passport
    > personally.
    > Passport control between such countries as Germany,Belgium,France was as I
    > can remember typically a matter of an minute or so.

My wife and I travelled between Germany and France by train earlier
this month. From Germany to France we had to show our passports at
the border. It took more time for me to figure out what was going on
than it did for them to check the passports. On the way back we took
a night train, and left our passports with the attendant. he returned
them when he woke us up in the morning.

-Bob

Mike Roebuck

On Thu, 19 Aug 2004 10:38:57 +0200, Ulf Kutzner
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Capture Boy schrieb:
    >>
    >> I travelled on an Inter-rail ticket in 1990 and used the night trains to
    >> sleep on and to maximise my days in whichever city I visited.
    >>
    >> The one main gripe about this is, when you come to a border crossing the
    >> border officials wake you up and demand to see your passport. Travelling
    >> from Paris to Berlin involved several border crossings and resulted in about
    >> 2 hours sleep at a time.
    >This should be over between Paris and Berlin as we are Schengeners now.
    >However, France likes to reinstate border controls depending on events.

My (professional) experience in this field would suggest that it is
the German Immigration peole who institiute the checks, on trains
entering Germany from France.




--
Regards

Mike

mikedotroebuckatgmxdotnet

Greg Byshenk

Dave Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
    > Piotr Strycharz wrote:

    > > Well. Actually - not completely. It happened to me (and friend) in 2003. We
    > > were travelling with Inter Rail ticket. We were approaching Lille. AFAIR 3
    > > people came to our seat claiming that they are "customs control". They have
    > > checked our tickets, asked for passports and asked if we had enough money
    > > for entering France. Of course, the check was quick. Just formality.
    > > However - it happened.

    > When I toured Europe by train with a Eurail pass in 1993 there were guys
    > checking passports in the train in Germany as we approached Switzerland,
    > and then again from Switzerland to Italy. Nowhere else.

There is no longer regular, obligatory passport control within the
Schengen area. That said, checks are done at certain times (for
reasons that I have not researched).

In my own experience, on about one journey in eight or ten between the
Netherlands and France (that is one occurrence per 4-5 round trips),
police have checked passports.

And on a trip to Germany, German police boarded the train, but I
believe that they were looking for particular passengers, as they did
not check everyone. They did take four youths off the train, however
(the youths claimed to be Iranians living in the Netherlands, but
claimed to have no documentation -- of nationality, residence, or
identity -- which stretched credulity a bit).


--
greg byshenk - [email protected] - Leiden, NL

Ulf Kutzner

Hatunen schrieb:

    > Besides providing a 50% discount, the Bahncard also covers your
    > local transit, U-bahn, S-bahn or whatever, from the bahnhof to
    > your local destination.

This applies to many but not all places for DB tickets for more than 100
km.

Regards, ULF

Hatunen

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 17:40:54 +0200, "tim"
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >"Ulf Kutzner" <[email protected]> wrote in message
    >news:[email protected]...
    >> Hatunen schrieb:
    >> > Besides providing a 50% discount, the Bahncard also covers your
    >> > local transit, U-bahn, S-bahn or whatever, from the bahnhof to
    >> > your local destination.
    >> This applies to many but not all places for DB tickets for more than 100
    >> km.
    >and is apparently only availlable with an advanced purchase ticket
    >and is not added to a bought on the day ticket (which are otherwise
    >the same price).

It applies to any long distance Bahncard purchase.

************* DAVE HATUNEN ([email protected]) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *