I posted my trip home, however I thought I'd post about my trip to the Black Forest. I've also posted the price of everything, to show the bargains that are to be had!

First things first, travelling by train in Europe is amazingly easy.

As well as ordering tickets on Eurostar's website, you can get some amazing bargains from Deutsche Bahn, who have an allocation of seats on Eurostar services.

Look for LONDON SPEZIAL on their website, or go here.

Standard and First Class fares are offered. Note that First Class actually entitles you to Standard Premier (same seats as first class, different food.) Standard Premier is excellent as the carriages are mid-way in the train - perfect for the Brussels short cut. i)

So, we settled for the first class fare, and due to our dithering, it went from �109 to �129, but considering that was all the way to the border with Switzerland, a good deal!
Standard class was �10 less per person, so a no-brainer really to upgrade.

No lounge access at St. Pancras, so settled for the next best thing: breakfast in The St. Pancras Grand.

And of course, a 2-4-1 bargain - �25 for two including a glass of Champagne is better value than any lounge!

St. Pancras station was looking as gorgeous as ever, and this was the location where I first met a new group of friends (V-Flyers) - almost five years ago... so always holds a soft spot for me.



Security and boarding was quick and easy, and we settled in to our seats. That looked like these:



EuroStar is looking tired. There's no other word for it.

At 10.58hrs, breakfast was served. Included in the train fare.



The Brussels short cut.
The excellent website Seat 61 offers advice for people connecting onto German ICE trains at Brussels - don't follow the crowds to the exit, look for the escalators adjacent to Carriage 11 entitled "Correspondences" - that way you avoid queues and can get straight to the correct platform.

As it's a through ticket, your ticket is still valid should any connecting service be late.

So, on to the gleaming white Deutsche Bahn train.



Travelling at 286kph (although on some routes even higher speeds can be achieved) gives you an appetite, and in First Class, an at seat dining service is provided. The food was good.

This was about �10.00

Served on crockery, with cutlery. Drinks in glasses. How civilised!



I had a wander around the train and found the quiet coach... which overlooked the drivers cab.



On our second train, it was time for coffee and cake!



However, it wasn't all plain sail... training - for some reason, our train made an unscheduled stop at a place called Duren, where a train coming in the opposite direction also stopped on the adjacent plaform. Both sides of passengers were decanted and moved on to the other train.

Our second train was diverted due to 'an issue' which meant we missed our regional connecting train. We had a forty minute wait, however, this train arrived well ahead of it's planned departure so we had somewhere nice to sit.



We had arranged a taxi to meet us for the last hop to the hotel, and, advised of the delay, was waiting for us at Hinterzarten station.

We had booked an aparthotel, so I had a massive room with a kitchen (it was never used!) and included breakfast every day. Price for five nights - �350.00

Always like the train reports, keep it coming! Eurostar - very tired indeed, and years until they are replaced/refurb'ed.

Good read. Thanks for posting, The deals on the DB site are very good, and well worth forking out for 1st class.

look forward to more reports on train travels!

Thanks for the report! Its a trip i plan on taking soon myself (in the opposite direction as I live in Germany )

Question: how long was the total transit time? I am surprised that you went through Brussels and Germany, as I entertained the notion of doing Strasbourg-Paris via TGV (2 hours or so) then Paris-London via TGV (? 4 hours?). I had a bad experience in May going from Brussels to Frankfurt, glad to hear it was likely an anomaly.

On the London Spezial ticket all the pricing is routed via Brussels. I get the impression that DB and SNCF aren't friends!
We left London at 10.58hrs and arrived in Hinterzarten at 2143. (One hour late)

The scheduled connection was

ST. PANCRAS depart: 1058
BRUSSELS arrive: 1405
BRUSSELS depart: 1425
SIEGBURG arrive: 1634
SIEGBURG depart: 1711
FREIBURG arrive: 1959
FREIBURG depart: 2010
HINTERZARTEN arrive: 2043

There were some delays and diversion enroute which were handled very well. So we actually arrived in Freiburg at 2030 and waited for 2110 train.

Wonderful report and pictures!

SCNF and DB are indeed not on friendly terms anymore, which is a shame but might just benefit the customer in some cases.

Interesting also that you switched trains at Siegburg/Bonn on the HSR track Cologne - Frankfurt and didn't use the "Rhine scenic route" trough Bonn, Koblenz and Mainz towards the southern Rhine environs. Pre-arranged by the DB computer matrix, no doubt.

Hope do do a similar trip of a few days in the reverse direction when I get back to Europe. Maybe Cologne - Brussels - London and a visit to my beloved Bloomsbury of Uni days.

Not using the route via Koblenz and Bingen is normally due to the parameter "fastest route" used in the search, because the rhine route is normally serviced by slower IC trains, which have to proceed in between some freight and local trains, and the SFS Cologne - Frankfurt is only used by fast ICE trains.

The route via Paris, and with a TGV (or ICE) to Mannheim or Basel, is not valid with the "London spezial", with this ticket you are only allowed to travel with the Eurostar from Bruxelles to St. Pancras.

Did you have a reason to transfer in Siegburg and not in Cologne? If you used ICE 201 that might be an answer, because this train (from D�sseldorf to Basel) is going via Cologne-Deutz and not Cologne main station.
I am asking, because I have never seen anyone change trains there, only in Cologne or Frankfurt. The ICE from Bruxelles should have gone to Frankfurt as well.

I just booked as offered by DB. Perhaps the change at Siegburg is offered as it is very easy - as our train departed the connecting ICE arrived on same platform.

It will be the same in Frankfurt Airport (Track 4 and 5 are going southbound).

The train station in Siegburg has not much to offer in terms of food and wifi. And it can be very cold and windy during winter with not many shelters to cover yourself. And listening to the announcements is very hard, when non stopping trains are going through (which DB is able to time very precisely, I do not know how!) ...

I was a member of a fitness club in the large building next to the station for a couple of years, so I got local knowledge about that ...

Hey! I just rode on the trains from Basel SBB to Zurich Airport. It's easy for me, but no train change at all. I am really enjoying a nice train’s ride.

these pictures remind my childhood dream of taking long distance trains travelling across borders :-:

Do it! It is easy and fun (apart from the scary bit where you get woken up by a tannoy announcing that you'll soon be arriving in a station that isn't on your route and is in a city you should have left two hours ago).

Maybe I should write up Stockholm-Prague by train?

Very much enjoying the report OP, I do like DB and I'm glad you found the London Spezial. I also agree about the Eurostars needing a refurb, they're definitely a shadow of their former selves.