I guess I’m allowed to cross number 37 off of my bucket list. Well, technically, that is. The goal was to buy a Eurail pass, and that’s one of the things that I did for this last trip. Even though I didn’t actually get to use my pass (waste of money), I still purchased one.
As you know, my trip this year was cut short because of the havoc that COVID was reeking on Europe. The intended route was to fly down to Paris (after Scotland), take the train into Switzerland, southern Germany, and eventually all the way to Prague- but since things were closing, including borders, I decided that it was best to get my butt back to the states.
My experience having to deal with the Eurail people wasn’t all that great. You fill out your information online, and they have to mail you the pass. On this pass, you have to fill in the exact information of the train you want to take. This is leg by leg- I couldn’t just say I wanted to go from Paris to Geneva. If there was a connection leg, then I’d have to fill out each portion. It was really annoying-
My first complaint is that this should all be done online. I shouldn’t have to rely on my illegible penmanship. Surely this could all be done electronically. Perhaps we could be given some sort of pass/card to access the trains- the system they have set up now is obviously one that they’ve had in place since the 80s or early 90s.
On my next go-round, I’m not even going to bother with a pass, I’ll just book the trains individually. When I added up all the fares that I had to pay, I really wasn’t saving THAT much money by getting the pass. Maybe you had a better experience than I did?
DavTravels 