eastwestdivide
Established Member
Thanks to the posters in a previous thread (http://www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=113593), I had a plan.
Plan A was, starting on a Friday:
Yorkshire-London-Brussels (hotel overnight)
Brussels-Cologne-Frankfurt-Nuremberg (hotel overnight)
DB museum-Nuremberg-Munich-Garmisch for some walking and photting.
Using a 129 first-class DB ticket all the way from London.
However, a panic with the French ferry strikers throwing burning tyres onto the Channel Tunnel tracks led me to book Plan B, a last-minute cabin on Thursday night's Hull-Zeebrugge ferry, to pick up my hotel booking in Brussels the following day. Thanks to a lift to Hull, that all went very smoothly. It's an entertainment boat, with dancing and a live band playing (thankfully the opposite end to the cabins).
Departure about 1845, 45 mins to lock through to the Humber, and passing Spurn somewhat later.
Friday, breakfast alarm at 0630 (not as loud as the Harwich-Hook crossing thankfully). Breakfast OK if a bit cheap, with stale tiny croissants and soggy toast. Disembarkation in Zeebrugge about 0900, and coaches depart to Bruges about 0915, arriving quite close to Bruges station (Kanaaleiland) at 0945. There was a battleship grey "class 66" loco in Zeebrugge sidings. It would just about be walkable from the boat to Zeebrugge Strand station if you wanted to avoid the coach trip, but a very unpleasant walk through heavy lorry traffic and concrete wasteland, with a lack of proper footpaths even on some sections.
A bit hot in Bruges, so after elevenses, I was on the cool aircon 1132 IC to an even hotter Brussels. Checked in and made like a tourist for the rest of the day.
In the event, my Eurostar had run perfectly to time.
Saturday, forecast = scorchio, and they were putting on extra loco-hauled trains to the coast from Brussels. On board the 1025 ICE from Brussels to Cologne, sat in the 1st class section just behind the driver with a view down the tracks.
The aircon was kaput in one coach, and the Bordbistro was out of order, with just a trolley that never made it to my end of the train, and also I couldn't get the free wifi to work. Ho-hum, could be worse.
As timetabled, we were diverted, reversing at Aachen and again at Mönchengladbach, but more or less on time into Cologne.
However, a look at the departure boards showed my booked train (ICE down the scenic Rhine route to Frankfurt) was running 20 late for a 10 min connection at Frankfurt, so the nice info point people stamped my ticket and booked me onto a later service via the high-speed line, giving me time for some dinner underneath the platforms. Plan C
Away from Cologne a few mins late, on the 1455 ICE, via Cologne-Bonn Airport (was that a diversion?), and then later we ground to a halt in the middle of nowhere, some way N of Frankfurt Airport station. The announcements first said 5 mins, then 10, then "we may be here some time". Arrival at Frankfurt Airport at 1718, beside another ICE which had "Zug defekt - Train defectly" on the side destination panels. So that's what the problem was - a breakdown on the high speed line.
Rebooked onto a 1737 ICE for Nuremberg (Plan D), at the time showing as 5 late, but as departure time came and went, the boards eventually flipped over to another train, and after that, it came back as 60 late. At 1847, with no sign of the ICE appearing, I boarded IC2327 (due at 1802), destination Passau via Nuremberg, on the basis that I'd get there eventually. Must be Plan E by now. A 101-hauled push-pull IC set I think. This train already had 3 coaches out of use due to failed aircon, and they stopped us at Aschaffenburg to move people out of yet another coach whose aircon had failed en route. It was an unbearably hot day.
Arrival in Nuremberg: 2150, versus my original plan of 1837. Just as well I'd had a substantial meal in Cologne, and picked up supplies en route.
Sunday, back on plan A for a visit to the DB museum. Well worth a morning's visit. The main part is very much a sequential history of Germany's railways. Some captions are in English, but it helps to be able to read German, or else get a guided tour. They don't gloss over the bad bits of their history. Over the road and outside part of the museum, various bits of rolling stock, and the chance to stand in a signalbox (more like a greenhouse for tropical plants) alongside the mainline into Nuremberg Hbf and watch the trains go by.
Back to the hotel to pick up my bags, and into the station for the 1330 ICE to Munich Pasing. The boards showed it 10 late, then 15, due to weather disruption (very very hot again), and departure was eventually at 1401, 31 late for a 32 minute connection at Pasing. In fact we made up some time, and arrived at Pasing in time for me to get a sandwich and still catch the 1539 to Garmisch, which was pretty full, even in 1st. Comfortable 2x4-car articulated Talent units, class 442, splitting at Garmisch for Innsbruck and Reutte.
So, final arrival in Garmisch more or less on time after all that disruption.
Gasping for a beer and some food, I found a beer garden, where they managed to squeeze me in to share a table with a couple touring round on a BMW bike - he was from Doncaster, she was from Derbyshire! Small world.
So, I think I caught DB having a particularly bad day, although from all accounts, DB isn't as good as its UK reputation seems to be.
Plan A was, starting on a Friday:
Yorkshire-London-Brussels (hotel overnight)
Brussels-Cologne-Frankfurt-Nuremberg (hotel overnight)
DB museum-Nuremberg-Munich-Garmisch for some walking and photting.
Using a 129 first-class DB ticket all the way from London.
However, a panic with the French ferry strikers throwing burning tyres onto the Channel Tunnel tracks led me to book Plan B, a last-minute cabin on Thursday night's Hull-Zeebrugge ferry, to pick up my hotel booking in Brussels the following day. Thanks to a lift to Hull, that all went very smoothly. It's an entertainment boat, with dancing and a live band playing (thankfully the opposite end to the cabins).
Departure about 1845, 45 mins to lock through to the Humber, and passing Spurn somewhat later.
Friday, breakfast alarm at 0630 (not as loud as the Harwich-Hook crossing thankfully). Breakfast OK if a bit cheap, with stale tiny croissants and soggy toast. Disembarkation in Zeebrugge about 0900, and coaches depart to Bruges about 0915, arriving quite close to Bruges station (Kanaaleiland) at 0945. There was a battleship grey "class 66" loco in Zeebrugge sidings. It would just about be walkable from the boat to Zeebrugge Strand station if you wanted to avoid the coach trip, but a very unpleasant walk through heavy lorry traffic and concrete wasteland, with a lack of proper footpaths even on some sections.
A bit hot in Bruges, so after elevenses, I was on the cool aircon 1132 IC to an even hotter Brussels. Checked in and made like a tourist for the rest of the day.
In the event, my Eurostar had run perfectly to time.
Saturday, forecast = scorchio, and they were putting on extra loco-hauled trains to the coast from Brussels. On board the 1025 ICE from Brussels to Cologne, sat in the 1st class section just behind the driver with a view down the tracks.
The aircon was kaput in one coach, and the Bordbistro was out of order, with just a trolley that never made it to my end of the train, and also I couldn't get the free wifi to work. Ho-hum, could be worse.
As timetabled, we were diverted, reversing at Aachen and again at Mönchengladbach, but more or less on time into Cologne.
However, a look at the departure boards showed my booked train (ICE down the scenic Rhine route to Frankfurt) was running 20 late for a 10 min connection at Frankfurt, so the nice info point people stamped my ticket and booked me onto a later service via the high-speed line, giving me time for some dinner underneath the platforms. Plan C
Away from Cologne a few mins late, on the 1455 ICE, via Cologne-Bonn Airport (was that a diversion?), and then later we ground to a halt in the middle of nowhere, some way N of Frankfurt Airport station. The announcements first said 5 mins, then 10, then "we may be here some time". Arrival at Frankfurt Airport at 1718, beside another ICE which had "Zug defekt - Train defectly" on the side destination panels. So that's what the problem was - a breakdown on the high speed line.
Rebooked onto a 1737 ICE for Nuremberg (Plan D), at the time showing as 5 late, but as departure time came and went, the boards eventually flipped over to another train, and after that, it came back as 60 late. At 1847, with no sign of the ICE appearing, I boarded IC2327 (due at 1802), destination Passau via Nuremberg, on the basis that I'd get there eventually. Must be Plan E by now. A 101-hauled push-pull IC set I think. This train already had 3 coaches out of use due to failed aircon, and they stopped us at Aschaffenburg to move people out of yet another coach whose aircon had failed en route. It was an unbearably hot day.
Arrival in Nuremberg: 2150, versus my original plan of 1837. Just as well I'd had a substantial meal in Cologne, and picked up supplies en route.
Sunday, back on plan A for a visit to the DB museum. Well worth a morning's visit. The main part is very much a sequential history of Germany's railways. Some captions are in English, but it helps to be able to read German, or else get a guided tour. They don't gloss over the bad bits of their history. Over the road and outside part of the museum, various bits of rolling stock, and the chance to stand in a signalbox (more like a greenhouse for tropical plants) alongside the mainline into Nuremberg Hbf and watch the trains go by.
Back to the hotel to pick up my bags, and into the station for the 1330 ICE to Munich Pasing. The boards showed it 10 late, then 15, due to weather disruption (very very hot again), and departure was eventually at 1401, 31 late for a 32 minute connection at Pasing. In fact we made up some time, and arrived at Pasing in time for me to get a sandwich and still catch the 1539 to Garmisch, which was pretty full, even in 1st. Comfortable 2x4-car articulated Talent units, class 442, splitting at Garmisch for Innsbruck and Reutte.
So, final arrival in Garmisch more or less on time after all that disruption.
Gasping for a beer and some food, I found a beer garden, where they managed to squeeze me in to share a table with a couple touring round on a BMW bike - he was from Doncaster, she was from Derbyshire! Small world.
So, I think I caught DB having a particularly bad day, although from all accounts, DB isn't as good as its UK reputation seems to be.
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