Kruidvat Train Travel

So I've been here now 25 months and still have not been to many of the Dutch cities that I must see before I depart for sunny lovely Jamaica. Dutch News Daily - where you can get news in English - had a report on the Most Hospitable City in the Netherlands 2010. http://www.dutchdailynews.com/den-bosch-2010/

These were Breda, Haarlem, Den Bosch, Maastricht and Nijmegen. I've only been to Nijmengen and have been wanting to visit beautiful Maastricht for quite some time now. But on a budget without funding, I always thought instead of spending 43 euros (or 26 euros with a discount card) I could visit a nearer city and spend the rest on a great cafe. But in this blog entry I want to tell you that you have TWO opportunities per year to visit anywhere in the Netherlands for a significantly smaller sum. ONLY 12.49.

One such time is always in late September or early October for ticket purchase at Kruidvat. That is now. So ticket sales end on Oct. 24 but you can travel up to Dec 5 then a break. Then a second period between Dec 11 and Feb 6. CLICK ON FLYER BELOW AND DON'T MISS IT.  Tickets also finish before the period for sales so go as early as you can.

The closest Kruidvat to the Weenapad can be found at.......

Taking the Train

So you've gotten up the gumption to go beyond the boundaries of Rotterdam and try out the nearby towns. Utrecht is beautiful, as is Den Haag as well as relatively near by. But Maastricht is a popular favourite that is not to be missed. Admittedly its about 3 hours away but worth the trip with a couple of your friends. But the question is how to get there.

FIRST I suggest going to http://www.ns.nl/ to plan your trip. There you can determine the time the train departs Rotterdam Central or arrives at your destination. If its a non-direct trip, meaning you have to change trains mid-trip. And you can determine the cost. The page can be viewed in English by an option top right of the first page.

Confession is good for the soul so I can boldly tell you that I was a tad bit intimidated by the idea of using the ticket machine (seen in photo above) simply because I thought it was all in Dutch and I simply couldn't be bothered to try to understand it so I would always go to the ticket office upstairs Central Station to buy my tickets. That costs a bit more, can't recall how much but its about one euro..I thought it was worth it. But truth is I wasted quite a few euros and not to mention time (lines upstairs are almost always long with tourists buying tickets) before I realised the process was mighty simple. Here's how it goes and we will do this 'pictorally'.

TO SEE BETTER YOU CAN CLICK THE PHOTOS TO EXPAND.

STEP 1. You're not gonna think me very smart when you realise that there was always an option to get "ENGLISH". In the bottom left corner. Not gonna tell you how long it took before some student shared this.

STEP 2.
Choose Day Return or Single depending on plans and type in name of City or select if it comes up automatically.

STEP 3. Follow the prompts and choose the Class Ticket, Full Fare or Discount, Date of use and how many tickets you need. Now is a good time to remind you that you can pay about 75 euros and apply for a one year discount card that give you 40% discount on trips taken outside peak hours.

STEP 4. The next option should be payment but if you are asked to choose between FYRA AND NS bear this in mind. NS is the normal train and Fyra is a extra fast train that you pay extra for. Payment is usually by coins or using your ATM card from Rabobank. Most of us assume the option is debit card but no, its Maestro. (See photo). You are then prompted to stick your card in, then to take it out, to put in your PIN and choose a receipt or not. THAT'S THAT!!