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Re: Advance travel info for IETF-78 Maastricht
2010-03-29 01:10:20
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Elliott" <chelliot(_at_)pobox(_dot_)com>
To: "Richard Barnes" <rbarnes(_at_)bbn(_dot_)com>
Cc: "IAOC" <iaoc(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>; "Iljitsch van Beijnum"
<iljitsch(_at_)muada(_dot_)com>; "IETF-Discussion Discussion"
<ietf(_at_)ietf(_dot_)org>
Sent: Monday, March 29, 2010 11:03 AM
Subject: Re: Advance travel info for IETF-78 Maastricht
Richard,
The site for the IETF in Dublin was easily an order of magnitude
farther from the city center than the MECC.
In Dublin, there are few places where we can have something to be eaten.
very inconvenient.
If IETF or the host can arrange some shuttle bus to the nearby restaurant, that
will be perfect.
or more bikes;
or someone opens the temporary restaurant for IETFers.
:)
Google Maps lists several restaurants in the 2-3km range walking.
That's doable even by an overweight out-of-shape American like me with
the normal 1.5 hours for lunch. Would do me good to spend more time
walking than eating. We could even advertise the meeting as a easy to
moderate workout week!
I like the idea of rental bikes, but I suspect they may sell out
faster than rooms in the attached hotel...
Enjoy!
Chris.
--
Chris Elliott
On Mar 28, 2010, at 9:55 PM, Richard Barnes <rbarnes(_at_)bbn(_dot_)com>
wrote:
[Added IAOC]
Iljitsch: Thanks very much for this information. I was not aware of
this:
The MECC conference center is 2 - 3 kilometers from the city
center, where the restaurants are.
IAOC: I had been getting used to the idea of Maastricht, with it
being historic, nice city center and all. Iljitsch's observation
makes me wonder if we learned nothing from Dublin, and are now
choosing IETF venues from here:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_points_of_the_World#Remoteness>
--Richard
P.S. "WTFIAOC" is worth 65 points in Scrabble. 69 points in the
Dutch edition!
Ground transport:
Maastricht is located in the far southeast of the Netherlands, 215
km (by road) from Amsterdam. The city is located on the Belgian
border and is also very close to Germany. There are some smaller
airports closer to Maastricht than the ones mentioned below, but
those don't serve many destinations and don't connect to the rail
network so more hassle and as much or more time to reach Maastricht
despite the shorter distance. Only consider these smaller airports
if you know what you're doing.
You can of course rent a car at one of the airports and drive to
Maastricht, and even commute between the MECC and your hotel by car
if the hotel is located outside the inner city, but you'll probably
need to get into the city for dinner anyway and being a few
thousand years old, Maastricht's city center isn't really built for
cars.
The most convenient airport to use would be Schiphol (Amsterdam)
airport. From there, it takes about 2 hours, 35 minutes with one
change to get to Maastricht by train with a connection every 30
minutes. A second class one way ticket is 27.50 euros. The last
train from Schiphol to Maastricht is at 22:16. The first train to
Schiphol arrives at nine.
A good alternative is Brussels, from where Maastricht is about two
hours with one or two changes and one connection per hour with
regular national and international trains. The last connection to
Maastricht is at around 21:39. The first train to Brussels airport
arrives at nine on weekdays, ten on weekends. There are also a few
high speed train connections which save you 30 minutes.
If you're arriving in Europe through Frankfurt or Paris, it may not
make too much sense to first connect to Amsterdam or Brussels and
then sit in a train for a few more hours. You may as well take the
train directly from these airports to Maastricht. However, consider
that missing train/plane connections is your problem, while plane/
plane connections are the airline's problem. (Financially, at least.)
From Frankfurt, there is one connection per hour (weekdays) or one
every two hours (weekends) that takes 4 hours, 46 minutes with
regular national and international trains. The last connection to
Maastricht without high speed trains leaves at around 18:22. The
first connection to FRA without high speed trains arrives at 13:36.
From Frankfurt it is (of course) faster to take a high speed train,
and from Paris it's the only option. The downside of high speed
trains is that you can't just hop on like on a regular train, you
need to book or reserve a seat on a specific train. Also, they run
less often so if you miss one, you're in big trouble. Also check
prices before you book (usually available 90 days before the travel
date), international trains in general and especially high speed
trains can be quite expensive.
From Frankfurt, there is an ICE connection several times a day that
takes between 3 hours and 3 hours 41 minutes with 2 or 3 changes.
The last connection to Maastricht is at 21:09. The first connection
to FRA arrives at 10:16, 11:51 on sundays.
From Paris, there is a thalys connection every two hours or so in
the weekend and a bit more often during weekdays. The journey takes
between 3 hours, 15 minutes and 4 hours, 10 minutes, with one or
two changes. The last connection to Maastricht is at 20:04 on
weekdays and 18:49 on weekends. On weekdays, the first train to CDG
arrives at 10:44, on the weekends 11:36.
You can also get from Heathrow to Maastricht in 5 to 6 hours with 2
or 3 changes, but as the last connection from Heathrow is around
five and from Maastricht the first one arrives at around noon (two
hours later on weekends), this seriously limits your flight options.
The best place to investigate rail connections is http://
www.bahn.de/ You may also want to check the website of NS, the
Dutch railways: http://www.ns.nl/ (but only for Dutch trips, their
international planner is incomplete and will often only show longer
and more expensive options) and http://www.maastrichtbrusselexpress.nl/
I have no recommendations on where to book train tickets.
From Schiphol, the recommended way to get to Maastricht is with a
change in Utrecht. Don't go through Amsterdam, it takes longer and
it's not covered by a regular ticket. From London, Paris and
Brussels airport you have to change in Brussels South/Zuid/Midi or
Brussels North/Noord/Nord. (The latter is faster if it's an
option.) You may have to change again in Liège. From Frankfurt, yo
u may either change trains in Liège (Belgium) or in Aachen. From A
achen, you have to go across the border to the Netherlands in Heer
len and then on to Maastricht.
Note that because the big cities are so close together, the Dutch
rail network has a lot of commuters so it's best to avoid peak
times, and/or consider traveling first class. However, by late july
the students that fill up the trains, especially during the friday
afternoon peak, have their summer break. Don't bother buying
tickets for the Schiphol - Maastricht train in advance, it's a
hassle and the price is the same on the day of travel anyway.
However, for international train tickets it's generally cheaper to
book early and it's important to get those reservations in for the
high speed trains.
The sun sets around 21:30 the week of IETF-78, so even if you're
attending the last session on friday and fly on saturday morning
you can catch a train to Amsterdam or (my recommendation) Rotterdam
and do some late afternoon / early evening sight seeing (from the
outside at least - most attractions will be closed by then) and
stay there overnight to avoid the need to get up insanely early to
catch the train to the airport for a morning flight. (That train
that gets you to Schiphol at 8:59 leaves Maastricht at 6:26.) The
train from Amsterdam central station to Schiphol takes 15 minutes,
from Rotterdam there are a few connections that take 25 minutes.
I'll have more information about travel within Maastricht itself
and some other details a few weeks before the meeting.
Some names in Dutch:
Parijs - Paris
Londen - London
Brussel - Brussels/Bruxelles
Luik - Liège
Aken - Aachen
Keulen - Cologne/Köln
Nederland - the Netherlands
Duitsland - Germany
België - Belgium
Frankrijk - France
Engeland - England
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