By Rail

From the UK, the starting point is currently the Eurostar, although there is talk of Germany’s high-speed ICEs running through the Channel Tunnel all the way to London.

Meantime, however, onward international high speed trains plug into the Eurostar network at Brussels, particularly with the Thalys and the ICE to Cologne, and thence into the domestic German network.

Journey time between London and Cologne is 4 hours 11 minutes, and to Frankfurt 5 hours 36 minutes. An alternative route to Frankfurt is via Paris, but it does necessitate a short walk between Gare du Nord and Gare de L’Est to connect between trains.  There are also direct and excellent CityNightLine sleeper services from Paris Gare de L’Est to Berlin and to Munich, allowing a late afternoon departure from London and a morning arrival in destination.

Pan-European connections and prices, with ticket sales, are at trainline.com. For more detail you can consult the very user-friendly Deutsche Bahn website at bahn.com/uk, which is worth watching for special deals and is a great resource for rail travel elsewhere in Europe.  Or go to eurostar.com for through-ticketing from London via Brussels to Cologne.

RailEurope (raileurope.co.uk), who are actually the UK representative of French railways, will handle bookings for all high speed networks. Agency Railbookers (railbookers.com) packages train travel with hotels, see our Tour Operators page for more details.

Mark Smith, rail enthusiast turned author and pundit, runs an excellent website detailing worldwide rail services at seat61.com, so-called after his favourite seat on the Eurostar. His invaluable Germany page has various routes, timetables and cost-saving tips, and has click-through booking forms.