End of the line

Deventor is a charming place to learn about Dutch train tickets, Dutch train routes and Dutch banks. First, you can't use a German Postbank card (without a chip) to pay for a train ticket, nor a North American Visa. But the Postbank card does work in the Dutch Postbanke machine to get cash... but then you can't pay for the ticket with cash either... unless you have it all in coins! Thank goodness for the vegetarian snack place or I would have dropped dead!

Fortunately a friendly Dutch fellow used his bank card to pay for me and I just managed to jump on board a fast train, connecting at Arnhem to Leiden. The Dutch conductor had a bit of fun with me about my bike - its 6€ to take on board... if you pay at the ticket machine, but 31€ if you pay on board! But I can pay at a ticket counter in Arnhem. It would be nice if they would announce Arnhem. After the milk run from Oldenzaal, it was a surprise to find myself at the end of the line in Nemigen just a few minutes (and 2 stops) after leaving Deventor. Missed connection meant a detour through Utrecht to Leiden, and a lovely conversation in broken Dutch with an old couple from Leiden. Thankfully my German phone works and Chris met me at the station on time and took me to the local pub where I learned how to lose at Go.

I LOVE Leiden!

Bremen to Leiden in 20 easy steps:
Stay tuned - more on ESTEC, Basel and Colmar tomorrow!