Legal stuff

All you need to know

This website (www.europebyrail.eu) is owned and managed by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries, who are the authors of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide, the 16th edition of which was published in October 2019 and reprinted with timetable updates and other amendments in January 2020 and again in February 2021. The new 17th edition of the guidebook will be published in mid-April 2022. Nicky and Susanne formed Gardner & Kries GbR in 2004. They trade as hidden europe, an editorial bureau which supplies texts and images with a focus on European culture and travel.

For legal purposes, hidden europe is the "publisher" of all texts and images which appear on this website. More on hidden europe and the magazine of the same name (which Susanne and Nicky edit) can be obtained here. hidden europe publications is the publisher of the 16th edition of Europe by Rail: The Definitive Guide, the book which is the focus of this website.

That does not mean that Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries hold all rights in texts and images on this website. More on that below.

1. Credit where credit is due

1.1 Prose

This website incorporates text, most of which was written by Nicky Gardner and/or Susanne Kries. They are the copyright holders of that text. The only exceptions are the Newslines which are not written by Nicky or Susanne, but published on this website courtesy of the European Rail Timetable team. Back issues of Newslines,  covering several years, are listed on the Newslines archive page.

1.2 Images

This website includes images, many of which have been taken by Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries. These pictures are either attributed to Nicky or Susanne or, more often, to hidden europe. Note also that all large banner and slider images are copyright protected and belong to the hidden europe archive. If you want to discuss terms for purchase of images, just contact Nicky and Susanne.

Some images on this website were supplied by agencies and in each case they have been attributed to the authors. An exception are two images on our homepage, which have not been visibly attributed to their respective photographers. These are the images of Sao Bento station in Porto, Portugal (© Saiko3p) and the Renfe train in Andalusia, Spain (© Arenaphotouk), both sourced from dreamstime.com.

1.3 Website

This website was created using ProcessWire, an open source CMF and CMS written in PHP. Our thanks goes to Ryan Cramer and the many dedicated programmers who have made this CMS such a great product.

The site was designed and developed by Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner and is hosted on a Linux server maintained by Uberspace, a German-based web-hosting company we can wholeheartedly recommend.

2. Privacy Issues

2.1 Data Protection

We are fully committed to protecting your personal information and will keep the information you entrust to us safely and securely. We shall never sell or share your personal information with third parties.

We also protect the database that stores this information by physical, electronic and procedural safeguards.

This website is owned and run by Gardner & Kries GbR, a small Berlin-based company which trades as hidden europe publications. You can read our full policies on privacy and data on our sister website at www.hiddeneurope.co.uk.

2.2 Use of cookies

This website uses cookies. A cookie is a text file which contains a small amount of information. It is downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you first visit this website. Subject to the proviso in the following two paragraphs, none of the cookies on this website are provided by third parties.

There are two cookies on this website that collect information from visitors to help us improve this website. They enable us to trace errors on this website and inform us about how this website is used. This information is anonymous and cannot be used to identify you personally. These cookies are set by the analytics software ‘Piwik’ and start with ‘_pk_id’ and ‘_pk_ses’. Piwik is self-hosted software. This means that all data collected stays with us. No analytics information is remitted to third parties (this is different from websites using certain other tools such as Google Analytics).

The only other cookie set by this website is called 'wire’ and is required by ProcessWire (the underlying CMS) for the system to operate properly. If you wish to delete individual cookies from your computer but are unsure how to do it, have a look at www.allaboutcookies.org.

3. External Links

This site includes many links to the websites of external organisations. These are provided as a service to you, but Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner have no responsibility for or influence over the content of such third-party sites. A link does not imply any endorsement of the content of such sites.

4. Disclaimer

Okay, now for the boring bit! But it’s important to you, and important for us. Much material on europebyrail.eu relates to travel to various parts of Europe. Sensible travellers check local circumstances before setting out and take advice from the relevant authorities. Similarly, public transport schedules can and do change. In short, while we try and make sure that everything in on this website is accurate, we cannot be held responsible if your plans go awry. If you think we’ve made a mistake somewhere, it’s always good to let us know, but we cannot accept any responsibility for loss or damage occasioned by material included, or anything we omitted to mention, on this website.

5. Disclosure

This website contains no advertising. Where individual businesses are commended, that is because Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries really believe that they are doing a great job. A plug cannot be secured by financial inducement!

6. Copyright

Of course, we are delighted if you like Europe by Rail so much that you want to download material from our website. But remember that, unless indicated to the contrary, the text and the photographs are copyright protected, and all rights for publication (whether by print, electronically or in any other medium), resale or onward distribution are reserved to hidden europe, Gardner & Kries GbR, Susanne Kries and Nicky Gardner. If you want to use anything from our site, then please contact us before downloading any text or images. We'll always be willing to see what we can do to help.

Nicky Gardner and Susanne Kries
Gardner & Kries GbR
Geraer Strasse 14-c
12209 Berlin Germany

tel +49 (0)30 755 16 128

Last updated: 27 April 2021