European travel

[IckyThump]

ok guys and gals here is the problem

my girlfriend is going to Orsingen-Nenzingen(very very small town) in Germany. it is just a few KM over the border north of Zurich.

i wanna know how i can go visit her but have no idea how to book trains online for europe. ive been trying but it not easy if you dont know train station names etc.

flying over i dont mind where i land as long as i can get a train to the place. i know that there is a track running through Orsingen-Nenzingen but cant find a station name. as i said i dont mind where i fly to Germany,Holland,Switzerland it doesnt matter as i love to travel anyway so the more obscure the better as far as im concerend. its an adventure :D

anyway my question is does anyone on here no anything about booking european trips and how it can be made easy. as i stated ive been trying but alot of websites dont give you a map to choose your destination or a guide on what towns you can get to from a particular station

[ACustomer]

The Irish Rail website has some info on European Travel: they say they can do bookings. There is also an excellent website (www.seat61.com) which you may find useful.

If you fly into somewhere not too far away (Munich, Zurich, Memmingen) then in all likelihood you will be using regional or local trains so booking is probably neither necessary nor feasible. If your journey is all within Germany, then DB hava an excellent website.

As for Orsingen-Nenzingen, never heard of it, and it might be served by bus from some nearby town.

[Colm Moore]

bahn.com is your friend. Slightly fussy, but it does work.

http://wikitravel.org/en/Baden-W%C3%BCrttemberg

Ryanair serve Memmingen and Karlsruhe-Baden from Dublin. Lufthansa serve Friedrichshafen. Aer Lingus and SWISS serve Zurich (others require connecting flights). Aer Lingus serve Stuttgart (others require connecting flights). Strasbourg appears not to have direct services. After that, its longer ground trips. http://www.dub.aero/gns/flight-information/destinations-airlines.aspx

Note that Orsingen-Nenzingen is in the district of Konstanz in Baden-Württemberg. There may be other locations with similar names. I think you want Orsingen-NE.

my girlfriend is going to Orsingen-Nenzingen(very very small town) in Germany. it is just a few KM over the border north of Zurich. Total distance is 85km! :) http://maps.google.ie/maps?q=Orsingen-Nenzingen+to+Zurich&saddr=Orsingen-Nenzingen&daddr=Zurich&hl=en&ll=47.831365,9.013252&spn=0.174932,0.308647&sll=47.842658,8.964844&sspn=5.596712,9.876709&geocode=FbEH2gIdtriIAClp4LK0WGSaRzEgn9ZNumsfCg%3BF crJ0gIdLkyCACkZor5JlwuQRzED3B_n8Y1u5g&t=m&z=12


The nearest stations appear to be Stockach (4 km from Orsingen-Nenzingen) then Stahringen, "Radolphzell am Bodensee" and Singen. From Zurich, bahn.com suggests prices of €21-25 single + €4 reservation fee for next week and a journey time of 2-2.5 hours. Tickets are posted - "Tickets per Mail Delivery is generally within 2-3 days, Plus a postage charge of 3,50 EUR." 3-4 changes are required for this trip. Rail cards and age may affect pricing.

"Print out your online ticket" and "Phone ticket, also sent as MMS" (requires registration) are "not available for this connection."

The town's website: http://translate.google.ie/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.orsingen-nenzingen.de%2F

[IckyThump]

wow Colm that was alot of work you put in:) hope i didnt put you out too much. thanks so much that is huge help. im going to go through it with the girlfriend as she'll need to know how to get there herself. thanks