However, it's still a big difference from departure boards in the UK, which show ALL of the intermediate stations, but don't show Train Numbers, as they're: a) not published in public timetables and b) duplicated all over the place (e.g. 2B20 on Saturday referred to no less than 12 different trains, with departure times between 08:37 and 21:07, all over the country).
To get at least mildly on-topic again, one concept you'll see in Germany an awful lot is the concept of hub cities. It's a good idea to know the larger waypoints on your route, no matter whether you're travelling by car or rail. Whilst some countries (like the US and the UK) are more adhering to the idea of directional location (i.e.
Interstate 6 West and
M1 (The North)), in the German system the waypoints, not the general directions are given. Observe the following motorway butterfly:
Let's say you're travelling from Bremen to Cologne, which is roughly in north-south direction, with a slight slant to the west. You'll notice that there are no signs pointing to Cologne. Yet the A1 sign does point to Osnabrück, which, as it is on top of the sign, is the most distant waypoint on the road. Therefore, going from Bremen to Cologne, you'd need to memorize that you get past Osnabrück, then Münster, then Dortmund.... you get the idea. Likewise, the next exit ahead past the current one will be Groß Ippener, but it won't tell you three interchanges ahead.
The railway system works likewise. Let's say you have a long-distance service calling at Munich, Ingolstadt, Nuremberg, Würzburg, Fulda, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Göttingen, Hanover, Hamburg-Harburg, Hamburg Hbf and terminating at Hamburg-Altona. Most likely, were you to depart at Munich, it'd read "Ingolstadt-Nuremberg-Kassel-Hanover-HH Altona" on the station indicator. Stations considered unimportant from your point of view will be omitted, so Göttingen isn't shown in Munich, but of course it'll be shown when the train is announced at Kassel.
Another good advice is to familiarise yourself with at least the basic combinations for
car number plates. They're used in many cases, and knowing at least the shorthands for the larger cities facilitates things a bit for the experienced travellers.
Erm...I'm rambling now aren't I? I'll get me coat...
Cheers,
Southie
There's many things to be said about the UK announcement boards. Most don't belong into this forum, but buy me a beer at EF and I'll ramble mindlessly.
