Train from Düsseldorf to Köln

I managed to find my way to the train station which has trains which leave for Cologne in Germany (hooray for European roaming). The train line has a stop at the airport to cater to people transferring from the airport to the train line. I originally thought that I would have needed to go to the Düsseldorf central station to go to Cologne but it seem that they have a direct train from the airport which makes it super convenient. I had a bit of difficulty figuring out the automated kiosk to purchase a ticket and I thought that I needed to go to the central station to get to the city of Cologne since I can’t see Cologne from the list of destinations in the application.

After managed to procure a ticket from the ticket counter manned by real people, I figured out what was wrong. It turned out that I was keying in my destination wrong. The reason why Cologne wasn’t showing up in the automated kiosk was that I was not spelling Cologne correctly, the proper spelling should have been Köln. Cologne is obviously the spelling used by English speakers like me and I didn’t know any better. From now on, I will be using the German spelling of Cologne just to keep everything consistent. I got to the train platform to wait for my train but it wasn’t obvious to me at that time which one I should be waiting for.

Turns out that the ticket is valid for any train as long as you get off at your destination. There was no specific train for me to take as long as it passes by Köln. As taught to me by a very helpful passenger, the train platform also has a large reference sheet to help passengers figure out what train would be suitable for them. There is also an electronic sign at the platform which tells you what train is coming as well as any major destinations it goes to. This would take me a little more time to finally understand since this is a new system to learn but I eventually got comfortable with it.

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