Advantages: Super atmosphere, great entertainment value
Disadvantages: Too big of a track, therefore too few laps

...Hockenheim itself is a lovely little town, near Mannheim and Karlsruhe. I stayed in Karlsruhe for the weekend, getting the train in and out to Hockenheim (only about 45 mins away). Once you get off the train there are buses waiting to take fans to the circuit. It's a super atmosphere. Without a race ticket you can get right up to the outside of the walls of the track (in line with the start/finish straight). Some people try jumping fences by the forests and getting in for free....are you sure you can outrun a highly trained German shepherd dog?! The merchandise at the track is top quality. Also, thanks to the German digital tv channel if you can't afford touts prices for the race you can watch it just outside on 18 screens showing all the different perspectives. The German f1 fans are really friendly and easy... Read review

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Advantages: Does what you want
Disadvantages: If something goes wrong-it's not the best.

...I have flown with Ryanair on several occasions-I don't really know what how routes differ, but maybe they do due to staff or whatever. The routes I have flown are as follows: London Gatwick to Dublin, Dublin to Gatwick, London Stansted to Bydgoszcz (Poland), Stansted to Krakow, Gdansk to Frankfurt Hahn, Karlsruhe Baden-Baden to Stansted, Venice Treviso to Stansted, and an aborted attempt to fly to Riga (Latvia). All in all I have been very happy with what I have experienced with Ryanair. The first flight-to Dublin-was delayed 6 hours because the plane broke, and another had to fly in to replace it, but this was not a major cause for concern, maybe had I been in a hurry it would have been more annoying, but I felt that they kept us well informed of the situation. All other flights have gone without major delay or incidents. The aborted... Read review

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Advantages: CHEAP (1p), Punctual, Network of Routes
Disadvantages: Can be Unclean, "Point-to-Point"

...Gerona, Milan Bergamo and Rome Ciampino. Also this week Ryanair have launched extra routes from Luton as well as 3 new routes from Stansted (one to Latvia) as well as other European ones. Ryanair’s routes are (the ones with the * are the destinations I have flown to with Ryanair): > London Stansted to: DOMESTIC UK: Newquay, Blackpool, Prestwick (Glasgow), City Of Derry IRELAND: Dublin, Cork, Knock, Shannon, Kerry. FRANCE: St. Etienne, Tours, Nîmes, Limoges, Poitiers, Rodez, Carcassone, Dinard, La Rochelle, Biarritz, Pau (Pyrenees), Begerac, Perpignan, Montpellier, GERMANY: Niederhein (Düsseldorf), Lübeck (Hamburg), Baden-Baden (Karlsruhe), Hahn (Frankfurt), Erfurt (Weimar), Altenburg, Friedrichshafen, Berlin Schonefeld*, Altenburg (Leipzig). ITALY: Brescia (Verona), Bergamo (Milan), Bari, Pescara*, Brindisi*, Palermo (Sicily), Alghero... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Everything the critics said: meditative, mesmeric, haunting
Disadvantages: Not a passive read - you need to engage with it & you may not want to

...certainly influenced by my connection to it. There are descriptions of the rail journey from Norwich to London, which I do in part or in whole at least once a month. Discourses on the progress of Liverpool Street station ~ memories and modern interpretations which I support and don't in equal measure. Bala and other parts of Wales evoke memories of my childhood camping holidays. Descriptions of Prague again stir recollections of more recent meanderings in the backstreets there. The rail journey up the Rhine valley punctuated my year in Karlsruhe. The sense of place is evocative ~ the more so for me, because I know just how true it is. You may therefore wish to down-mark by one star for bias on my part ~ or you could take it from one who knows, and allow yourself to succumb. ~ ~ ~ Is this for you? Not if you're looking for action... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: a pretty small town with an elegant flair
Disadvantages: none

...Last year in February I had some free days and decided to spend one in Baden-Baden, a small but famous town in the southwest of Germany set in a wooded valley of the northern Black Forest, 70 km west of Stuttgart, 30 km south of Karlsruhe and 40 km northeast of Strasbourg in France. The name Baden-Baden, meaning the town of Baden in the state of Baden, was adopted to differentiate it from another spa town, Baden-bei-Wien (near Vienna), translated into English, not quite correctly but easy to remember,l the name of the town would be Spa-Spa. I had been there before, many years ago, in fact I didn´t know how many and why I had gone there! This time I had a clear plan, though, I wanted to see a new museum and the collection of contemporary art therein. Oddly, the only thing I remembered from my first visit was the train station, a rather... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Clean, cheap, fast and efficient
Disadvantages: Occasional delays (but nowhere near as bad as in Britain), some trains are getting old

...and temperamental heating, but you get what you pay for! However, the old trains are gradually being phased out and replaced by new double-decker efforts, which are excellent. They are equipped with better PA systems, electronic destination boards, working facilities and comfortable seats, but the only problem is that the bridges on some lines are too low to allow the double-deckers to pass underneath. This is the case on the line that runs from Heidelberg through Walldorf, so we’re stuck with the old trains for getting to and from work. The next step up is the IR train (Inter-Regio), and these ones stop less frequently, covering larger distances – typical routes for this level of train are Karlsruhe – Nuremberg, or Heidelberg – Norddeich Mole. The IR trains are faster and cleaner, and also provide a buffet car and roving snack... Read review

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Advantages: About time I told you who I am
Disadvantages: ...not sure I want you to know

..., as it transpired, spent based in Karlsruhe enjoying myself and doing no work in a way that used to be de riguer for students but has since gone out of fashion. From there I toured the country (on the un-remarked “Sixpack” tour ~ if you have not seen Sexy Lexy, you have not lived…ah but that’s another Op altogether)…I also did the, at the time obligatory, Interail trip. Not trying to cram all Europe into a month, I stuck to Italy (Rome, Ferrara, and Florence stand out), Switzerland (Zermatt, walking on the Matterhorn, fabulous train rides in springmelt snow, Luzern), and Austria (Graz because I loved it, and Vienna because I hated it). Of everywhere that month, Venice is where I most want to go back to. Life took over for a while, until I realised why I wasn’t totally happy and I took up travelling agai