The eight of us took an exciting train trip from Amsterdam to Basel on a high speed EuroRail train. The first segment of the trip to Frankfurt was in Coach Class, but the segment from Frankfurt to Basel we were able to go 1st Class! The trip took slightly over 7 hours to complete with the train speed ranging up to 186 MPH.
The trip was had some excitement starting with our failure to validate our Eurail Pass and getting lectured by the guy checking tickets. We had 20 minutes between trains in Frankfurt to validate the Passes for the next segment and get the luggage on the train. David and Larry gathered the Passports and had the Passes validated and almost missed getting back on the train! But, their excellent physical shape and ability to run pervailed with seconds to spare. We have named our travel group “The Invalids” as a result of this experience.
The second segment was also exciting as Vicki, Kathy L and Larry got off the train at the first Basel stop, which was 6 minutes from the Basel stop that was our destination. The rest of The Invalids watched us as the train departed! The three Left Behind Invalids were able to catch the next train in 20 minutes and rejoined the group at the Central Train station in Basel.
The evening was spent with dinner at a Swiss Restauarant a short distance from the Hotel (we stayed at the Metropol Hotel). We have decided to take a train to Lucerne on Saturday as the women determined that the shops would likely be closed in Lucerne on Sunday (the guys lost out!).