Originally Posted by
lsquare
One other questions. Once I get to Cologne and I want to go to Brugges, will I need to book two fares to go from Cologne to Brussels and then Brussels to Bruges or I can book one fare going from Cologne to Bruges? What's the cheapest way to do this? Will I be using Thalys or Belgium's train system? Sorry, this is all very confusing to me.
Travel from Brussels to Bruges will be on an IC train, operated by SNCB (the Belgian national rail company). It seems that bahn.de will sell you a combined ticket Cologne-Brussels-Bruges, if the Cologne-Brussels stretch is on an ICE, but not if it's on a Thalys. The price (€39) is the same as just for Cologne-Brussels. (I haven't checked either the Thalys or the SNCB websites).
If you want to spend some time in Brussels (up to 48hrs, I think) you can book this using the 'via' option under 'Advanced Search Options' on bahn.de.
Originally Posted by
lsquare
Man, I thought Bahn.de's website was bad. Thalys takes it to the next level. These European agenices need to work on their web design. It's just awful.
I actually quite like bahn.de, and find it works quite well for most purposes. I've never used the Thalys website. And AFAIK,
www.nationalrail.co.uk shows train times and prices, but doesn't actually sell tickets (instead, it just directs you to various operators' websites).