What's an ICE train?

Inter City Express. German/Bahn version of the French TGV. Not quite as fast, I don't think (may have to do with routes/roadbeds), but still very fast, comfy and the new ones are tres futuristique (you can stand in first class and look right into the driver's compartment which looks like the thing Sagan drove in Cosmos...)

The route up the banks of the Rhine around Trier is really nice and could be a logical route between Frankfurt and A-Dam/Amersfoort.