Train Travel: How I Planned a Four-Day Train Trip Through Germany’s Bavarian Towns for Just a €9 Fare

Teach vacation via Germany this summer time is receiving a enormous increase: Officials have launched a new  9-Euro-Ticket hop-on-hop off plan. Element of a governing administration approach to aid buyers with rising electrical power costs, the new fare is valid for travel for 1 month on all regional and regional trains, as properly as buses, in the course of the full of Germany. Nevertheless the limitless ticket excludes popular Intercity Convey trains, you can still journey significantly and extensive throughout the nation for a mere €9 right until the end of August, when the offer finishes for the yr.

Previously in July, I determined to e book a ticket to discover the charming medieval cities and foothills of the Bavarian Alps located alongside Germany’s Passionate Street. Here’s how I pulled off the four-day journey for just €9 in practice fare.

Day 1: Munich to Rothenburg ob der Tauber

Just just before 8 a.m. on a Tuesday, I set off from Munich in a close to-vacant carriage. I’ve packed light—my backpack matches comfortably overhead—following the wry advice on the train’s information screens to not “bring your double-bass” on-board during the 9-Euro-Ticket period. In a a lot more crowded carriage following altering at Treuchtlingen, I hear a several complaints about Ausflüglers, the German term for working day-trippers. But anyone on board is effectively-behaved. Distant church buildings with cupolas like onion bulbs and a freight train full of Audis whip by my window. 

By late early morning, I’m strolling the cobblestone streets of Rothenburg ob der Tauber, 124 miles northwest of Munich. Immediately after a local pastry—a Schneeball, a nougat-flavored dough ball—I climb the town hall tower and search down at the red roofs of fifty percent-timbered houses enclosed by 14^th-century partitions. I duck into the cool of St. James’ Church to gaze on Tilman Riemenschneider’s 500-yr-outdated wood carvings. After a switch about the partitions, I go for a pub dinner of Käsespätzle, a refreshing Bavarian pasta with cheese and crispy onions.

How to get there: From München Hbf (Munich Key Station), just take the RB16 heading to Nürnberg and get off at Treuchtlingen (1hr 57 minutes) adjust to the RB80 heading to Würzburg Hbf and get off at Steinach (1hr 6 mins) then modify to the RB82 to Rothenburg ob der Tauber (15 mins).

Day 2: Rothenburg ob der Tauber to Dinkelsbühl to Nördlingen

The following early morning, I’m on a bus to Dinkelsbühl, a few of hours’ travel to the south, trundling previous tumble-down barns and around-curated front lawns. The prime floor of Dinkelsbühl’s record museum is focused to the Munich School painters who “rediscovered” the city 200 decades after its in the vicinity of spoil in the Thirty Years’ War. Although now an proven quit on the Romantic Road, a local bookseller tells me that it’ll choose extra than the 9-Euro-Ticket to make up for the long decommissioned educate line the moment straight connecting Dinkelsbühl to Rothenburg and Nördlingen. The bus service they replaced it with is a very little patchy (I experienced to choose two buses to get right here), but I find them fast and reputable, if not as comfortable as the trains. 

I acquire an additional bus to Nördlingen, an hour to the south-east. At the time I get there, I make a twilight pilgrimage to Hexenfelsen, a dolomite block unearthed following the asteroid impression that, 14 million many years ago, fashioned the crater in which Nördlingen sits right now, and where a panel commemorates all those burnt at the stake listed here throughout the 16^th-century “witch craze.” I head again into city for a hearty plate of Maultaschen, which are ravioli-like parcels these individual ones are stuffed with fried veggies.