Before leaving Houten, I decided to buy a Eurail Pass thinking I could save a good deal of money so the day before leaving, I had to go to Utrecht to find out more about the pass. If you have a smart phone, you can simply buy the plan you want and install in on your phone. I do not have a smart phone and when I asked train information in Utrecht about the pass, they told me I had to go to the airport in Amsterdam to have a hard copy pass made. So I made a spontaneous trip tp the Schiphol Airport. All went fine with the pass until I was asked for my passport. Which I did not think to bring. So the next day, before taking the train towards Strasbourg, I had to return to Amsterdam with my passport and this time I did buy the Eurail Pass. I can travel for 15 train days over 2 months for $450. That is a deal.
But on my way back to Utrecht, I saw the ticket I had made for Strasbourg from the Eurail office was incorrect. My contact in Strasboug told me to take arrive to the train station in Kehl, Germany across the Rhine River from Strasbourg, because German trains are more friendly to carrying bikes. When I bought the ticket, the ticket person made the ticket out to Kiel, rather than Kehl. Kiel is north of Hamburg, the wrong direction. So now, I had to change the ticket because the ticket included a required reservation for the bike on a fast train. That was another headache.
So I had the ticket changed, returned to Peter and Mariam's for my gear, rushed back to Utrecht for the train to Hannover. All went well for a while. I had to make several train changes and I was new at this. European train stations are real train station, even a modest city in Europe has a train station a lot more busy than New York's Grand Central. For the fast train, I had to find the bike car, which you don't know where it is on a train that could be 100 yards long. When I couldnt find the bike car, I put the bike on the last car I came to, afraid the doors would close and the train would leave without me. So I loaded my bike onto first class. And that worked for 100 miles during that time I had conversations with various people and the train was going over 100 mph.
The conductor finally arrived and politely told me to move the bike when we stopped in Frankfort. When I tried to put the bike on the bike car, the conductor would not let me. So all of a sudden, I am stuck in Frankfort. Its a huge station, very loud and a lot of sketchy people around the entrance. I ended up taking local trains all night long to reach Strasbourg.
I finally did arrive to the final station before Kehl about sunrise and decided to bike to Kehl and then across the Rhine River to Strasbourg,,, from Germany to France.
And finally, after biking around Strasbourg for a couple hours, instead of arriving at 7 inn the evening, I arrived at 10 the next morning. The streets are really scrambled,,, one street can change names several times in a short distance. But I finally did arrive to Sabines's place.
I belong to a travel/peace organization with members in a lot of places so I have wonderful opportunities to stay with people.
Strasbourg is an impressive city. Both international and many hundreds of years old. Its a very popular place to visit. I had a one hour nap while Sabine went to a market. When she returned, we were out the rest of the day site seeing. An hour of sleep in the previous 30.
But on my way back to Utrecht, I saw the ticket I had made for Strasbourg from the Eurail office was incorrect. My contact in Strasboug told me to take arrive to the train station in Kehl, Germany across the Rhine River from Strasbourg, because German trains are more friendly to carrying bikes. When I bought the ticket, the ticket person made the ticket out to Kiel, rather than Kehl. Kiel is north of Hamburg, the wrong direction. So now, I had to change the ticket because the ticket included a required reservation for the bike on a fast train. That was another headache.
So I had the ticket changed, returned to Peter and Mariam's for my gear, rushed back to Utrecht for the train to Hannover. All went well for a while. I had to make several train changes and I was new at this. European train stations are real train station, even a modest city in Europe has a train station a lot more busy than New York's Grand Central. For the fast train, I had to find the bike car, which you don't know where it is on a train that could be 100 yards long. When I couldnt find the bike car, I put the bike on the last car I came to, afraid the doors would close and the train would leave without me. So I loaded my bike onto first class. And that worked for 100 miles during that time I had conversations with various people and the train was going over 100 mph.
The conductor finally arrived and politely told me to move the bike when we stopped in Frankfort. When I tried to put the bike on the bike car, the conductor would not let me. So all of a sudden, I am stuck in Frankfort. Its a huge station, very loud and a lot of sketchy people around the entrance. I ended up taking local trains all night long to reach Strasbourg.
I finally did arrive to the final station before Kehl about sunrise and decided to bike to Kehl and then across the Rhine River to Strasbourg,,, from Germany to France.
And finally, after biking around Strasbourg for a couple hours, instead of arriving at 7 inn the evening, I arrived at 10 the next morning. The streets are really scrambled,,, one street can change names several times in a short distance. But I finally did arrive to Sabines's place.
I belong to a travel/peace organization with members in a lot of places so I have wonderful opportunities to stay with people.
Strasbourg is an impressive city. Both international and many hundreds of years old. Its a very popular place to visit. I had a one hour nap while Sabine went to a market. When she returned, we were out the rest of the day site seeing. An hour of sleep in the previous 30.
On to Freiberg and the Vauban Neighborhood. I rode my bike along a canal which parallels the Rhine River from Strasbourg to within about 15 miles of Freiberg. The canal was mostly easy to follow but I had to depend some on luck and intuition the final 15 miles.
