Great Western Coffee Shop

I want to travel on Thursday from Melksham to Nordhausen - and I can ask on Rail Europe.  Does all the working out for me - 10:02 from Melksham arrive at Nordhausen the next morning at 06:18 ready for a Good Friday (on the Hartz).   But wait a moment - my rail pass (*) does not apply to the whole journey and I'm being quoted 476.40 Euros. And that's with an 01:00 to 04:53 change of trains at Halle.  Not appetising or affordable.  But I can book, skill-less, myself.

Let' try it a bit different. I can do it for 529.40 Euros on the 08:02 and arrive at Nordhausen at 23:38. Again, my rail pass does not apply?

* - Rail Pass - 3 month Interrail Global 1st Class issued in the UK, with both home country day already used up.  The pass "only" cost me 721.00 Euros - a bargain compared to the options above.  I hold a UK senior railcard, and can leave home on the Wednesday Afternoon should I wish to do so.

So what if I employ the knowledge a travel agent would have?

Single, Melksham to Southampton - £19.70
Single, Southampton to Newhaven Town - £13.50
Single, Newhaven to Dieppe - £31.00; sleep on boat, 6 hours, recliner chair
on pass to Rouen and then to Paris
Metro fare, St Lazare to Est - 2.50 euros
on pass but resevation needed to Luxerbourg - 9.00 euros
on pass to Koblenz
on pass to Limburg
on pass to Giessen - arrive 19:38
Hotel - £58.00
on pass next morning to Nordhausen arrive 09:33
Steam train leaves, 10:33 ;-)

Total - £122.20 + 11.50 euros = about 164 euros. Including a good night in a hotel.

Somehow, I feel a sense of achievement ... starting with my £33.20 Melksham to Newhaven when the cheapest off peak single is £82.10 (£54.20 with a railcard) and continuing with my travel via Luxemburg at 9 euros which contrasts to the 34 euros "reservation fee" that was wanted for the Paris to Cologne direct train.

Enjoy the Harz.

Gute Reise!

Adding to my original post - I have split my booking via the following sites.

Interreail
- booked via https://www.interrail.eu/en

UK Rail tickets
- to be booked via https://www.gwr.com

Ferry tickets
- booked via https://www.dfds.com/en

Cross Paris metro ticket
- to be bought in person at St Lazare

Train seat reservation from Paris
- booked via https://www.raileurope.com

Hotel
- booked via https://www.booking.com/

To newcomers to this international rail travel world, the above may already read complex, but the research to decide which sites and which products are needed and where they are on those sites is phenomenal.

From past experience I would advise booking Interrail tickets at
https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/
assuming that you are booking from with the UK of course.
The passes on are exactly the same as those offered by the .eu site, including the special offers when available.
The only difference is that the pass numbers have different prefix to denote that they are issued in the UK.

The reason for using the myinterrail site is that they have UK based contact points, including by 'phone, for enquires and most importantly, if you have any difficulties with the pass (e.g. incorrect details shown).  See https://www.myinterrail.co.uk/help/contact-us/

The .eu website however does not provide any  'phone contact and relies on a chatbot, a "community forum" or webpage forms.  See https://www.interrail.eu/en/support#contact-us
These can all be excruciatingly slow to respond as I found on one occasion when an error on an issued pass was only corrected on the afternoon before I was due to travel, despite having raised the issue several weeks beforehand!

The UK based "myinterrail" will not deal with enquiries relating to "interrail.eu" issued passes and vice-versa.

Dave