When I lived in Germany I just purchased myself a DB card, which cost at the time about 200Eu and gave me so many discounts on train-rides it paid for itself in a month. I was very happy to see Germany by train - very comfortable, fast, efficient, clean trains with a beautiful country rolling by outside .. not so in England, where I have had the worst rides in my life on crappy, unmaintained, overcrowded trains run by rude conductors and full of unhappy people. Was really shocking, to be honest ..