Train travel in Europe is usually a wonderful experience; the trains are clean (with the exception of Italian trains), modern and on-time. The conductors are friendly and helpful.

Trains in Europe are very prompt; they usually arrive and depart when they say they will. They stay in the station for different times depending on the size of the town. So, in Frankfurt, they may be there for 5 minutes, but in some little town, the stop may only be for one minute. We always get there early to avoid trying to figure things out at the last minute

Most trains have a little paper brochure put on random seats that gives the entire time-table of that train. Since that paper is in the language of the country you are in, we had at first ignored it. But we realized that you don’t need to know the language to figure it out. It has the name of each city where you will be stopping and exactly how long the stop will last. Some of the really modern trains we rode had a little computer screen at the end of the car that showed where we were in real-time, and when we would arrive at the next stop… a nice feature.

We also found out the the first class cars are always located near the Bistro (dining) car And usually near the front or back of the train, which is why when the train pulls in, you can see people rushing to get to their car; they don’t know where it is until it arrives. We try to stand where we think the middle will be and watch carefully to see our car, then make a dash for it. Not an exact science…

And finally, be assured that someone will help you. You are not alone in this world and you can rely on the kindness of strangers when you travel by train in Europe.