soitgoes

It is the Fernbahnhof (long-distance train station), as opposed to the Regionalbahnhof. You should just follow the signs to long distance trains and will sort of go through the regional train area on your way to the very modern and pleasant (for an airport) long-distance train station area.

Pretty much. Tonight they announced that there wouldn't be strikes tomorrow, but Tuesday is still possible. Right now, IC trains aren't being affected. That could change.

You can buy a Deutsche Telekom card at newspaper kiosks (there are several in the train station area). A lot of the payphones (probably all of them in the airport) accept credit cards, though I have no idea how much that costs. You might also consider signing up for an international calling card like the one from onesuite.com (reachable from German payphones via a toll-free number for a surcharge). I've never used any internet cafes in FRA, but I think there are some options. There are also WiFi hotspots.

Analise

onesuite looks great for calls back to the US! The rates for calls within Germany seem high so I'd like to compare them with Deutsche Telekom's calling card rate. Do you have the link for rates on the calling cards? I went to DT but could not find it. Thanks.

Analise

Just signed up for onesuite.

Non-NonRev

Glad to hear that you got the discounted price!

The last couple of times, I carried printouts of the online ticket in both A4 and US "letter" format, just in case. On board the train, I presneted the letter-size printout to the conductor, who used his handheld device to scan and read the "barcode" image. The whole process took less than a minute.

Have a safe trip!

soitgoes

The rates are on their website, but it's not easy to find. I was curious,too, so thanks for asking!
http://mwl.telekom.de/produkte/pdf/o...nie_tarife.pdf
€1 set-up charge for credit card use (no setup charge if using their calling card)
local calls €0.23/min
domestic long distance calls €0.34/min
German mobile phones €0.80/min
most of Europe €0.67/min
US, Canada €1.00/min

I think you are almost always better off with Onesuite.

Analise

Thank you for finding these rates! Onesuite is less expensive per minute for calls from a German payphone to a German landline (~$0.42/minute) and from Germany payphone to mobile phone (~$0.62/minute). From a German landline to the US the cost is $.089/minute. By far, Onesuite (especially calling back to the US) is much cheaper than Deutche Telekom is especially with the horrible exchange rate added to the mix.

I will bring both of my "letter" and A4 copies. ^

Thank you very much. Thank you to everybody here. FT is such a wonderful resource and it is people like you who make travelling a little less stressful. Again, thank you.

Analise

The train trip was a complete success. Thank you everybody. They assigned me to a seat facing backwards which is something I won't do so I chose a seat facing forwards and it was no big deal. The views of the mountains along the Rhine was outstanding. What a great way to see some of the country.

USAFAN

Interesting ... you are lucky. There are actually two train lines from FRA to Cologne. The fast one is Right of the Rhine, next to the Autobahn. The other one is Left of the Rhine, right next to the river .... with a nice scenery.

Have a nice time in Hagen ..

Analise

I have a feeling I'll be taking that autobahn route on the way back to FRA as the timeframe is one hour shorter. Now it all makes sense!