Not sure if Boris speaks German, but he might be interested in drawing the attention of citizens of the Bundesrepublik to the rather cheap offer of rail travel to and from London, which of course is nice and affordable to visit for the lucky Euro-salaried traveller.
Anyway, what drew my attention was what the Germans (who have a great fondness for old-fashioned British icons) think their fellow countrymen might like about London these days:
Es gibt zu jeder Zeit mehr als 1000 Gründe, nach London zu reisen: Klassiker wie Westminster Abbey oder St. Paul’s Cathedral, urige Pubs und ausgefallene Szenekneipen, eine schier unendliche Restaurantvielfalt, kaum enden wollende Shoppingmeilen und und und …
In den letzten Jahren hat sich zudem viel verändert: Durch die Eröffnung der Tate Gallery of Modern Art spielt die Themsemetropole in der Kunstszene wieder in der gleichen Liga wie New York und Paris, Architekturfreunde finden in der City eine Vielzahl postmoderner Bauten und die Olympiade im Jahre 2012 wirft bereits ihre Schatten voraus.
To save you learning the language, those attractions include classics like Westminster Abbey, St. Pauls, pubs (not your All Bar Ones, from context), restaurants and shopping but also recent additions like the Tate Modern, new post-modern buildings in the City (Lloyds and the Gherkin presumably top of the list) and the Olympics, although whether the average German tourist is expected to schlep out to Stratford to look at muddy building sites is an interesting question.
Hang on. No Routemasters, taxis and red phone boxes? Ghastly post-modern architecture? The problem with iconic images is that they just don’t stay where you put them, eh?
[It's also been suggested that you can do the trip in reverse and use the tickets for cheap trips to Germany. Not sure if this would work]
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Well, €49 seems a good deal to me. I wonder how it seems to the good burgers accustomed to those €27 Länder-Tickets -for up to five adults a time (it’s €19 for a single traveller).
That means, for instance, we land at Munich, divvy up and buy a Bayern-Ticket from the machine (it’s another €2 at the booth), take the S-Bahn into town, have a quick swish round on the trams and U-bahn, before we catch the Regional Express up to Ulm (which is in Baden-Württemberg) or down to Salzberg. And it’ll amount to less than a fiver each (even at the present depressed sterling rate). Makes the Stansted Express look a steal.
Yes, it’s off-peak (which means 9am to 3am). No, you can’t generally use those gorgeous ICE-expresses. Compare that to any everyday fare available across the UK.
DB also advertise singles on the overnight train to Berlin (Eurostar out of St Pancras at 19.12, change at Brussels) for £75.
Public transport in Germany (and across Europe) is a joy. We, of course, benefit from the wit and wisdom of the Adam Smith Institute, as implemented in John Major’s privatisation.
Ahem: in the previous post the euro-symbol is coming out in a strange way [€].
I don’t know why you lot tolerate technology below the Apple standard of excellence.
Works the same way for elected Mayors.
Myself and some friends once did Berlin to Prague on one of those tickets (or a forerunner) – obviously it technically wasn’t valid from the German border to Prague, but back in 1996 it was only a few Marks difference.
We also did Hamburg to Bad Harzburg for a day’s skiing, thanks to other weird foreign stuff like affordable bus/rail connections in rural areas. Ah, memories.
“the Regional Express up to Ulm”
I learnt German on school exchanges near Ulm, actually. Well, sort of German. We got there by train from the Harwich-Hook ferry, usually punctuated by a young, annoying version of myself rushing about Cologne station looking for the train, being the only child on the trip with a working knowledge of both German and railways.
My Mum recently did the overnight train to Hamburg, which has now been withdrawn. It wasn’t quite as relaxing as expected, due partly to the Eurostar being extremely late and giving her a three minute connection at Brussels, then sleep deprivation she described as ‘a lot of shunting in Duisberg’. I suspect she’ll be back on the plane next time.
“I don’t know why you lot tolerate technology below the Apple standard of excellence. ”
I don’t, I’m typing this on my Macbook Pro
Lloyds (TSB) is the bank. Lloyd’s is the insurance lot.