This link from Rick Steves includes a picture of the railpass and an explanation of the process — although the appearance of the pass may have changed a bit since this was written: http://www.ricksteve…. The issue date in the upper right is the initial validation “stamp”. The validation stamp in Europe goes in the box marked “void” in the picture and the agent validating the pass fills in the dates the pass is valid based on the date he/she stamps it. At least that’s how it worked last time I used a railpass. Just follow Rick’s warning and don’t write anything on the pass until it’s validated in Europe and you’ll be OK.

Dates are European format, so the November date is correct. You need to have your pass validated in Europe (thus officially start using it) within 6 months of the purchase date, so your May purchase date means a November “use by” date.

I just had my eurail pass activated in Madrid, it´s a very painless process, don´t be nervous about it. They stamp it and you´re free to go (provided you have a reservation )

So my next question is as follows:

For the first leg of our train journey, we are going from Prague to Munich. Normally I don’t believe this would be much of a problem, but we are heading into Munich during Oktoberfest.

According to EURail, I don’t believe the Czech Republic subscribes to it (Unless I stand corrected ). Would they be able to validate our pass or would we have to buy a City-to-City pass from Prague to Munich?

That said, would it be adviseable to get a reservation (either if the Czech Republic does or does not recognize the EURail pass) given that we’re heading into Munich during Oktoberfest?

Questions, questions I tell ya .

Thanks!

If your pass doesn’t cover Czech Republic (some Eurail passes do), you’ll need to buy a ticket to cover the Czech portion of your trip. You can buy that at the station in Prague. The ticket from Prague to the border would be significantly cheaper than the other options (special Prague pass, separate pass to cover Czech Republic or adding Czech Rep. as one of your countries on a select pass). The ticket will include the reservation if needed and you can buy a reservation for the German portion at the station in Prague, too. I’d do this as soon as possible after you arrive in Prague.

As for validating your pass, there are a couple of options. Technically, since you’re arriving in Germany (the first country where you’ll use your pass) on a train, you can have your pass validated by the conductor on the train when you cross into Germany. This is a rare exception to the “ you have to have your pass validated before you get on a train for the first time” rule. However, since Czech Republic is now at least partially a member of the Eurail group there is a Eurail Aid office in Prague.
address and hours pasted from eurail.com

One last question.

Our “official” journey begins in London, and then we take the Rail and Sail (Stena Line) into Amsterdam where we stay for a few days before flying to Prague.

I understand that EURail does work through the Netherlands, but our pass does not have the Netherlands on it (We’ll be flying to Prague shortly after our stay in Amsterdam). Would we be able to get it activated in Amsterdam?

You’ve all been fantastic here .

Which railpass do you have? Which countries does it cover? Do you have a reason you want to take the ferry instead of the train for this?

Technically, you will have to have the pass validated before you can use any of the “bonuses” such as the discount on the stenna line ferry. Further, your pass may NOT include that bonus since it doesn’t cover either the departure country or the arrival country for the ferry route. Depending on your pass, dates, what’s available for specials on ferry tickets that day, etc. it may not be “worth it” to validate the pass just to take advantage of the ferry discount. Also, I think this bonus is just a discount (???), not free travel, so they may not be that picky about the pass being validated.

You can have your pass validated at either of the two Eurail travel aid offices in London. Pasted from Eurail.com:

Which railpass do you have? Which countries does it cover?

We have the EURail 5 country select pass. It covers Austria, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland.

Do you have a reason you want to take the ferry instead of the train for this?

Namely because we wanted to take Europe by land, sea and and air. The train portion covers our Prague to Paris leg of the journey (Including Munich, Innsbruck, Venice and Grindelwald).

As for discounts or what have you, we’re not all that worried about that. We have purchased our Stena Line (London to Amsterdam), flight (Amsterdam to Prague) and Chunnel (Paris to London) already.

That is most excellent that we could get our pass validated in London. It just all depends on if and or when we can connect with friends of ours in Oxford. If we can’t, then I’ll make a point of validating it in London, if not, would we still be able to validate our passes in Amsterdam?

It appears you aren’t using your railpass for a discount on the stenna line, so you can wait until you get to Amsterdam to validate your pass. I find Piccadilly more a place you view from the number 15 bus than a place where you’re actually out walking around, so it might not be all that convenient to validate there. You can easily do it at either Centraale or Schipol (the airport) train station in Amsterdam. Centraale is pretty much the hub of all traffic into or out of Amsterdam, so you’re likely to be there at some time. It’s also very near many of the sights, the docks for the canal boat tours, the red light district, etc. so you will be within walking distance of it at some point. If your flight leaves from Schipol, you can validate the pass there.