[manchego]

Also worth mentioning regarding Deutsche bahn ICEs, my understanding is that prices only increase over time. They never decrease like plane tickets do. And there's only a predetermined number of saver fares, so once those are gone, you have to buy the more expensive tickets (which are also more flexible, as opposed to the train-specific saver fares).

[the_third_wave]

All true and with that it makes sense to either book in time or forego on the more expensive connections when you book - just choose the "best price" option. It is when you hit your first delay which causes you to miss a connection when things become interesting since then you suddenly can use those ICE trains which were much more expensive to book. A reservation costs €5.90 (for the whole trip, no matter how many trains are covered) when done the same day so as soon as you miss your first connection you can reschedule your trip to one with fewer changes - including ICE and IC. Thus far there has been only one connection I could not take, this being the night sleeper between Hamburg and Göteborg (SJ EuroNight) since it is not bookable through DB and has special fared not covered by the "ICE Fahrkarte, Super Sparpreis EU" train-specific ticket I tend to buy (which becomes non train-specific after a schedule change or connection-missing delay).

Having said all this it is remarkable that ICE and to a lesser extent IC seem to be far less reliable than RE (regional) trains in Germany. I've spent large parts of several nights in the dank tunnels of German train stations with alcoholics coming by every few minutes to ask for money to start new lives (i.e. get a new can or bottle) waiting for ICE trains which are delayed up to 4.5 hours.