photograph courtesy of Two-Zero’s Diary

Throughout France today, 2008 was ushered in with a countrywide smoking ban in restaurants, cafes, and discos that smokers have been anticipating for months. In early 2007, a similar law banned smoking in public spaces and work places, but this is the biggie — no more smoking at the table, over an espresso, or on the dance floor.

Although the law was to go into effect at midnight December 31, officials decided not to enforce the law until Wednesday, as the removal of ashtrays at midnight on New Years Eve could disrupt the party. We can respect that.

Reports in the Associated Press and AFP indicate that smokers in Paris today have mostly been following the law,  stepping outside cafes to have a quick smoke.

Meanwhile, in Germany, eight states, including Berlin, also have non-smoking laws going into effect, banning smoking in public places. The measure, however, seems more flexible – as fines won’t be imposed for the time being (until the public “gets used to the law”) and restaurants are still able to have separate smoking rooms.  

We’re watching snow fall right now. That we’re thinking about winter should come as no surprise.

So where might we escape to for an atmospheric yet affordable snowy getaway? Here are two ideas.

1. Košice, Slovakia. Connected to Dublin, London Luton, Prague, and Vienna by SkyEurope, Slovakia’s second biggest city sits in the east of the country. Like Bratislava, Košice boasts an atmospheric old town that becomes a breathlessly gorgeous winter fantasy under dust of snow. Hotel Recommendation: Hotel K2 at Štúrová 32 (tel. +421 55 625 59 48) is cheap and central.

2. Berlin, Germany. The best value western European capital (sorry, Lisbon) sports oodles of good air and train connections, more sights than you can shake a stick at, and a slate of decent hotels. Check out Die Fabrik, at Schlesische Strasse 18 in Kreuzberg, for a cheap bed in hip surroundings.

It’s a sunny Friday here in NYC, but in France and Germany, commuter moods are clouded with continued rail strikes. Here’s the latest:

France

The rail strike entered its third day on Friday. The BBC reports a slight increase in the number of trains and metros running across the country, and a significant decrease in the number of workers participating in the strike.

Only 200 of 700 TGV trains across the country are running.

In Paris, the Metro is running with delays, although two lines are not running at all. One third of the city’s buses are not running.

Rail workers voted to continue the strike over the weekend, although support seems to be thinning.

Germany

On Friday, the second day of passenger rail strikes has affected millions of commuters’ journeys. 3,000 workers have walked out since the strike began.

The BBC reports that suburban and inter-city transportation is hit the hardest, with most intra-city transportation systems running smoothly.

The strike is set to end at 1 AM Saturday morning. The union, however, is threatening to strike again over Christmas and New Years holidays if conditions aren’t met.

We wish our friends and fellow Cheapos in France and Germany good luck with their commutes. See you on Monday!

It seems like half the world is “striking out” the last few days. Broadway stagehands and TV comedy writers have walked out, and now French and German rail employees are taking to the picket lines.

Here’s the latest on the European rail strikes:

France Rail Strike

Day Two of strikes, affecting national trains, regional trains, and metro. Strikes expected to continue into tomorrow (Friday).

The French government announced Thursday that the rail unions are willing to negotiate.

150 national TGV trains (out of 700) ran on Thursday, which is better than the 90 that ran Wednesday.

6 out of 16 Paris Metro lines were out of service on Thursday. (There seems to be a little light at the end of the metro tunnel.)

German Rail Strike

On Thursday, passenger train drivers joined a larger rail strike begun Wednesday for higher wages and better working conditions in Germany.

Deutsche Bahn (German National Railways) calls the strike the biggest in its history.

“Heavily reduced” services have meant that the number of trains running is cut in half in most places, leaving travelers and commuters in a bind.

Service delays in Berlin (20-40 minutes) on commuter lines.

Service expected to resume Saturday morning.

To be continued tomorrow… (hopefully with happier news on the transportation front!)

Even the most seasoned European traveller can be caught unawares by rail schedules changes. Most European rail companies introduce major timetable changes over the second weekend in December, and this year there are some big alterations in the offing.

There is no more civilised way of making a big hop across Europe than on a night train, and the new schedules see a whole raft of new night train services. Take Amsterdam for example. The Dutch city has always featured on Europe’s night train schedules, but for 2008 Amsterdam secures new daily services to Copenhagen, Dresden, Milan, Minsk, Moscow, Prague, and Warsaw.

For the first time for many years Switzerland and Bavaria will benefit from direct overnight trains to Poland and points east, with new direct night sleeper services from Basel SBB and Munich to Warsaw and Moscow. Fixed fares apply for travel on most European night train routes, often with little advantage for railpass holders. A one-way journey in a shared sleeper costs from €69. For those on a budget, couchettes are priced from €49 and a one-way overnight in a reclining seat begins at €29.

The changes are of course not limited to night train services. New for 2008 are a daily direct train from both Vienna and Prague to Stralsund on Germany’s Baltic coast, a very handy new daytime train from Kraków to Budapest (less than nine hours on a beautiful route through the mountains that straddle the Polish-Slovakian border), a new fast direct daytime service from Paris to Munich (just over six hours) to supplement the long-standing Paris-Munich night train, a new direct Berlin to Copenhagen link (where the entire train gets shipped on a ferry between Denmark and Germany), and a new direct once daily train from Geneva Airport to Venice.

Rail travel in Europe can challenge even the most competent travel planner. Web sites like those of the Deutsche Bahn can help. But there is really no substitute for the Thomas Cook European Rail Timetable, a gem of a book updated each month. For many savvy European travellers, it is required bedtime reading.

This is the fifth in a series of fortnightly blog posts by the editors of hidden europe.

Apologies to Lil’ Chris for the steal. We’re sleepy. It’s the end of a long week, after all.

On our radar screens…

1. Following leads in the German media (like this one we came across in the Rheinische Post) Airscoop tells us that Ryanair might just be interested in buying some Air Berlin shares—just under 11% of the German LCC’s shares, as matter of fact.

2. The Saxony Tourist Board tells us that one-fourth of the domestic “culture” tourism market ends up in the federal state home to Dresden, Leipzig, and Chemnitz.

3. We spied some very good weekly vacation home rates on Dutch travel bargain chain D-Reizen’s site. Look under “vakantiewoningen” (in Dutch).

Over & out, Cheapos.

Photo courtesy of Tourismus-Marketing GmbH Baden-Württemberg

The Donauradweg, a 190 km stretch of the Euroveloroute 6 (which runs from the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea) is one of Germany’s most popular and allegedly most beautiful bike paths. And now the Baden-Württemberg Tourism and Marketing Group has installed a unique bicycle tracking system, which registers how many cyclists are using the path, 24 hours a day.

The data—which includes not only the number of bicycles, but also the portion of the path in use and the direction of the cyclist—is collected on computers and evaluated to improve management and investment decisions. In the system’s first 11 days, data from 3560 cyclists was recorded.

To celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Leipzig airport, TUIfly is selling off 8000 tickets for travel between Leipzig-Halle and Klagenfurt, Milan Orio al Serio, Munich, Naples, Rijeka, Salzburg, and Venice for just €8 per one-way ticket. Rather shockingly, these special fares include taxes and other charges.

These tickets went on sale within the last hour. We just checked and most dates are still wide open, though we don’t imagine that they’ll be around for long.

Technically, the sale will continue through midnight in Germany on Sunday, April 29.

Photo by jver64

Ryanair announced today seven new routes in and out of Bremen, bringing the number of destinations to be served from Bremen to 18. The new destinations include Alghero, Bratislava, Malta, Milan Bergamo, Paris Beauvais, Stockholm Skavsta, and Trapani.

Bremen-Skavsta will kick off on June 5. All other routes will launch at the end of September.

Unlike Ryanair’s two most recent new route expansions, this one will not also involve the suspension of any existing routes.

And um, Bremen is quite pretty. See above for proof.

Photo by nemo585

Last week we all lost a literary great, Kurt Vonnegut: war hero, anthropologist, and writer of such greats as Breakfast of Champions and Cat’s Cradle. He’s left us a legacy of quotable writing, humor, and thought provoking literary scenes. And so this week we are rereading Slaughterhouse-Five in tribute to Vonnegut.

The semi-autobiographical novel recounts Vonnegut’s own days as a prisoner of war in World War II, when he witnessed the massive bombing of Dresden that burned and debilitated the entire city. The bombing killed—according to some estimates—up to 135,000 people in a matter of hours. In true Vonnegut fashion, the novel is a work of stylistic genius, brilliant comedic relief, and thought-provoking richness.

We’ll say no more. We will, however, note that several years ago, on a trip to the (now beautifully restored) Dresden, we took a bus out to Schlachthofring, the circle of slaughterhouses in which Vonnegut was imprisoned during his time in Dresden. Though our guidebook listed this desolate place as an attraction, we found nothing but abandoned buildings, with not even so much as a plaque. Moral of the story: go to Dresden for the beauty of the city, and then read the book for all the rest.

Thank you, Mr. Vonnegut, for making everything a little more beautiful.