do I need photo Id to ride on Amtrak?

So I thought I had my license in my wallet but it isn't there. I'm from Florida but in Illinois right now and supposed to go to Indiana on thursday. I have my social security card and birth certificate with me. Can I use those? Never rode on Amtrak before.

When you travel from Amsterdam to Germany you will need to buy a ticket from Amsterdam to the border with Germany even when you can start your pass in Amsterdam.
Better book your train ticket early, I believe it is three months before traveling, and just buy the ticket to the first stop in Germany.
Often those tickets are cheaper than tickets for just to the border.

It looks like you only do a few train rides in Germany, as you do not have a lot of time and with your plans as worked out as they are you can buy your tickets well in advance, again for cheap prices.
It looks like a German rail pass will not work at all for you, as your only real rail trips are those from Amsterdam to Freiburg and from Freiburg to Austria.
Border crossing rail journeys are not free with one country rail passes, with a few exceptions which do NOT include Amsterdam.

If you really want to have a rail pass you can look into Eurail passes, which have a series of passes for all of the countries involved and a series of passes for just the countries you need, in which case you would need Netherlands, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
When you travel with a rail pass you will still have to pay for seat reservations and for some trains you need to have one or pay a surcharge to travel without.

In cities in Europe it is never better to rent a car, as parking is expensive, driving hard and local transport cheap.
You can buy city passes in most cities that include museums and bus and underground travel, and tram/street car where those run.
Only rent a car if you want to visit a place that is hard to reach by train, and non on your list is that hard, or when you really want to experience driving in Europe.
It is cheaper to travel by train, as petrol and rentals are not cheap.

Learn more about rail travel on the site of the man in seat sixty-one: http://www.seat61.com/Railpass-and-Eurai... I link to the page about rail passes, also check out the country pages, links in the bar on the left.

depends on the distance (longer distance usually means more expensive cost), quality (higher class of travel means higher expense) and type of train, purpose (just to get somewhere is cheaper than to go for a scenic ride of enjoyment), location (middle of city is cheaper than a long scenic view across countryside), laws (purchase may be cheaper with swipe on card), business running train (business could put extra expense on cost depending on its circumstances which could be for historic reasons for example), country (prices may be higher or lower depending on the currency state with influence from the GDP) and other stuff..... but to make it realistic, a couple of bucks to travel underground from one spot in the city to another close by... to get 100miles away on a scenic tour could be $50 ... well atleast at Australian standards....