Mark's Travels

10 years of travel blogging from 35+ countries around the world

Dodging fares on the train 6th November 2002 in Bremen, Germany


I had to travel down to Hannover yesterday on business. I went and bought my ticket at the station in Bremen and when they asked when I was returning I said I wasn"t sure, meaning that it would be the same day but I don"t know what time. So they took the liberty of selling me a one way ticket which is about %25 less in cost than a return ticket.

During the ticket check on my return trip the ticket inspector began to flip out and looking at me like I robbed someone. I calmly and innocently said in a strong north western american accent "Sorry, I don"t speak German, could you please repeat that in English?". The ticket inspector looked at me like she had just inadvertantly insulted someone of power (not that I have any) and said "It"s OK" and moved on. I later looked at the ticket with the help of my notes from german school and realised that there was no return fare on it. So if you want to come to Germany and ride on the nice high speed "I C E" trains, simply buy a cheap ticket for "R E" or "I R", hop on the "I C E" and when the inspector comes around, don"t speak any german, hopefully the inspector will be unable to speak English and will ignore everything.


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