The initial idea? noting back in late January or early February that a Steam Train festival was on in Dresden, Germany mid-April that would be worth attending. After I got my job and learned of possible leave dates, it grew - a way to incorporate a whole bunch of other things I've always wanted to see (even long before I decided to do my OE), such as the transport museums (Technikmuseums) of Sinsheim and Speyer. Along the way, other things got incorporated in - a visit to the Zeppelin Museum at Friedrichshafen, visits to a few other major German cities, and then the discovery of one of the attending steam trains running a 4-day Tour Train piqued my interest more - it seemed reasonable in price but surely it was cheaper not to do that and attend separately. This is where it started becoming complicated - after some of my "paper studies" of costs, there wasn't much price difference between going on the tour train or going separately - mainly because accommodation in Dresden was pricey that weekend, particularly the Saturday and Sunday nights. Even just going to Dresden and nothing else still cost quite a bit; doing all the other stuff and not Dresden was a lesser price, but didn't seem worth it by itself when Dresden was there, tempting me. Finally, after a discussion with Rachel and Jeremy while catching up one evening, Rachel said "You should just do it" and words to the effect that we're here to travel and if its something you want to do, do it - adding that it was much the thinking why they decided to bite the bullet and attend the LA Web Fest.
I finalised the planning, had costed it out, and decided to commit - a 10 day trip, with 6 days of leave from work. I would fly into Frankfurt, visit Speyer, Sinsheim, Stuttgart, Freidrichshafen, board the tour train to Dresden and attend the train festival that way (which included an excursion which would visit the Czech Republic), end up back in Stuttgart, and fly back to the UK. The tour train sounded exciting, especially since parts would be double headed and there would be photostops - so I put in for the leave and prepared for the hit to my bank account. There was a problem though - work didn't want me to take one of the applied days off, as it would actually be a busy day. Fair enough - but without that day, the trip was still possible but more expensive. Too expensive, really - so I decided to leave it a bit to think it over. Later the following week I booked and went on a weekend trip to Belgium, partly out of frustration over the Germany trip and knowing that in doing so, I was giving up on Germany. Which was fine as Belgium and my planned trip for the late May bank holiday (discovered, and booked during the course of research for the Germany trip) seemed like adequate replacements. But it turns out I couldn't leave it alone, and a few weeks later I was looking to at least do the Train Festival weekend but again, pricey to do just as a weekend. I was really stuck on the idea of doing all the other stuff at the same time, so re-did all the costings while being more ruthless with it all, cutting out any unnecessary frills - but the original idea, with or without the tour train still came out as too expensive. The main issue was flying out of Dresden or flying out of Nuremberg on the Sunday was still quite costly. It was now that I had a breakthrough - could I catch an overnight train on the Saturday night to somewhere else and fly out of there? I noticed one of the overnight trains from Dresden went to Basel, in Switzerland and I knew of Basel from previous trip idea investigations - right by the border of Germany and France, and handily close to Mulhouse where the French National Train museum was. Sure enough, the cost of the overnight train and flying out of Basel with a side trip to Mulhouse on the Sunday was much less than half the cost of a night's accommodation in Dresden and flights out of another German city. Hmm, what if I now fly into a neighbouring country and travel up into Germany that way? I noted Friedrichshaven was close to the Swiss border, an hour or two's travel from Zurich - flights to Zurich were cheap, and doing it this way I cut the trip down by two days but still fit in the essentials. Shift the order and dates around of the places I visit, and tally up the total - just a shade under half the cost of the initial plans. Flying into and out of Switzerland plus the re-arrangement of accommodation dates were what brought it down most. I get to see everything from the initial idea, visit extra things on my list, other countries in the process and the price is within reach. Literally months after initially looking at it, finally there it was in front of me on my computer screen was my trip in a way that worked and at a price I could afford. Just like that. So I booked it.
So, how did it go? Well, read below if you want to find out but be warned - its a bit of a novel.
Day 1 - The March to Stuttgart
Day 2 - Speyer and the Technikmuseum
The IC train was much the same inside as an ICE, but wasn't a high speed train - I did notice however that we had been going through a bunch of tunnels along a rather straight track and seemed to be going a bit faster than normal. As we crossed a large viaduct at speed over a valley where I spotted another train track passing under us by a small village, I twigged we must be on one of the dedicated high speed rail corridors where the ICE trains get up to 280-300km/h. Getting the speedo app on my phone out, I discovered we were doing a steady 200km/h - I didn't expect to go that fast on this train! Before long the train left the high speed line and arrived into Bruschal, where I had a tight connection - about 2 minutes - to get on my next train, an "S" local service which was already at the adjacent platform. I jumped on, and very shortly afterwards it headed off. I did notice after a while that the train didn't say Speyer as a destination, but Gemersheim - and the stop list didn't show Speyer on it. The arrival at Gemersheim was timed for before I was meant to arrive at Speyer, and I was almost certain that I'd hopped on the right train - the German Train (DB) app on my phone which had all my ticket info on it had listed the platform and everything, so it must be right - else I've caught the wrong train. I wasn't too concerned (I was actually surprised at how calm I was). Sure enough, we get to Gemersheim, the train stops and most people hop off but not all and we're there for 5 minutes. Then the destination sign resets, and says Bruschal - where I'd just come from, so that's fine if I'm on the wrong train, I'll just end up back where I started. But when the train did leave, it carried on in the direction we had been heading and I realised it must do a loop circuit and Speyer was in the 2nd half of the loop. Sure enough, at the appointed time the train pulled into Speyer and I hopped off.
Day 3 - Trams, Trains and another Technikmuseum
Day 4 - Nuremberg, DB Museum and on to Dresden
Day 5 - Steam Festival Begins, Wandering around Dresden
Day 6 - The Day of TRavelling by Trains
Day 7 - Day of Many Border Crossings
And with that, my 7 day adventure was over!
Summing Up
The Bad Parts:
- Lugging bags and stuff around - got annoying and heavy, I don't think I brought anything that was unnecessary but I guess I hoped/expected that the museums would have storage lockers or cloak rooms to shed my main bag and jacket in particular, which they did not. My jacket was both a blessing and a curse - its awesome and kept me warm when it was cold, but in hot weather its too hot to wear, and too heavy to carry. For August, I will need another, much thinner jacket which I currently do not have.
- Zeppelin Museum - this was my mistake, and sure it makes sense not to have it open every day during the "off season". During the off season the lake ferry doesn't run either, but had just started running in the last week or two as the beginning of the summer season so I was caught in the transitory period. Would have been cool to visit, but I'm not so fussed enough about it to make a point of going there again just to do it.
- Steam Train trip to Decin - missing out on this really annoyed me at first, as parallel running on main lines is very rare, and the chance to go to the Czech Republic as well. However given that one of the locos was in light steam behind an electric for the parallel running, and the train was packed did temper my annoyance - as did the trip I took to Nossen. I still could have gone to the Czech Republic if I'd wanted - but decided not to, there will be other chances.
- The multitude of train changes, and missed connections - Without the DB app I would have been sunk well and truly, the system is far too complicated to figure out by yourself. Changing a train once every hour roughly can be a bit grating, especially on a 4hr+ trip - I think getting from Sinsheim to Nuremberg was the worst though, 5 train changes in total, missing a connection and not knowing if I might get there in the end.
- The Night Train to Basel - not having the compartment I'd booked for the whole trip wasn't that fun, but particularly the guy's bag getting stolen was the least fun part. All I could think about is how easy it might have been for someone to quietly whip out my bag from under my bunk, and take off with it while I was in my sleepy not-quite-comprehending state - I wouldn't have lost anything valuable, but it still would have been extremely inconvenient. I'm a little bit wary of booking a couchette again (if there is to be a next time), but having a compartment to myself would be too costly...
- Fleeting Visits to Cities - this applies to Stuttgart mostly but to a degree Nuremberg, I feel like I could well have spent extra time in these places if I'd been able to but just not possible. Frankfurt, I would have liked to have visited there properly (rather than just pass through in the middle of the night) but actually I have no idea what there is to see there!
The Good Parts:
I should qualify this part - the whole trip was good, but these bits really stood out for me:
- Seeing lots of scenery - One good side effect of all the travelling is I saw lots, all manner of different types of scenery and feel like I got a good feel for the parts of the different countries I was in or saw. It reinforced my perception that a lot of Germany looks the same, either reasonably flat rolling pastureland or wooded areas - except around Dresden, which was different and could be spectacular in snow.
- Doing the things I've always wanted to do - such as Technikmuseum's Speyer and Sinsheim, seeing the exhibits there and in the process, seeing some really cool places such as Speyer that I would never have had a reason to go to otherwise, but feel much better for having seen.
- The Cab ride and the Steam Excursion to Nossen - the Kreigslok has always been the quintessential German steam locomotive for me, so to have a cab ride in one (my first German loco cabride too) was a highlight. The excursion to Nossen was the "consolation prize" for not being able to do the Decin trip - but it was simply excellent, much better than I thought it would be and I think on the whole I enjoyed it more than I would have enjoyed the Decin trip. I mean, the ability to take photos from a carriage unimpeded and also a First Class compartment to myself, that's pretty good going!
- Zeppelin over Friedrichshaven - might not seem much, but to actually see a Zeppelin over the home town of where such craft were born really seemed something to me, particularly on the nice sunny day it was.
Things to Remember for Next Time:
Because, lets face it, I'll be going back to Germany. Even before I arrived in the UK, it was fairly obvious to me that of all the countries in Europe, Germany was going to be the one visited most often and repeatedly - for a few reasons, some of them being some of the places I've been to during this trip just been. Munich and Berlin in particular, I think I will visit for a weekend and there might be other places yet. So what do I need for next time?
- Near the end of the trip, I had a dream that I was using my camera in a sightseeing plane and it fell out into a river (in Tawa!) and later I went in the river later on to find the remains of the camera - not because it would be fixable, I knew it would be smashed to smithereens but on the chance the SD card with all my photos was still intact. In real life, I have got into a bit of a bad habit lately of using my camera without the strap around my neck, even in situations where there might have been a bit of a drop - and on previous trips, I've taken my iPad to back up my photos on to so that if something does happen, I've still got some of the photos from the trip. I didn't bring it this trip, but in future I must - I can't think of anything worse than losing all my photos! The dream was a cautious reminder...
- Actually learn some German - seeing how useful it was to know some Spanish (although not really enough to make sentences out of) in the Canaries, and after my previous trip I wanted to learn some German so that I could get by a bit easier. I made a very last minute, but very poor effort in the week before the trip but did learn a few new words which did help a tad. But I can't keep going to the country and going to the middle of nowhere there, expecting others to know English and bail me out when I'm the one who should be learning some of their language. Plus, they speak German in Switzerland and Austria at least, both places I want to go visit, so it will help. I know enough words now that I might as well learn how to string them together in sentences, right?
The Things I Learned About Myself:
Because strangely enough, unlike the other trips so far, I kind of noticed a few things about myself during the course of the trip:
- Particularly when I had the train from Bruschal to Speyer that didn't say it was going to Speyer, and the missed connection trip to Nuremberg I was surprised by how calm I was about the whole situation. Something's happened, because I would have used to panic in such situations to the extent where I probably would have jumped off the Bruschal-Speyer train to try and figure out what was going on, or used screeds of expensive cell data trying to establish I was on the right train (I refused to spend money doing that); and for the Nuremberg train, I would have been desperate for some kind of reassurance that I was entitled to hop on the alternative connection given what happened, rather than "just do it and deal with it" plus I would have wanted to play it safe - the Ohringen gamble was not something I would have done about 2 years ago or even more recent. I seemed to be confident in my decisions in a foreign land where I couldn't speak the language, and game enough to risk compounding a mistake. It all worked out, but it might not have - but I didn't seem to mind either way too much.
- As I got further into the trip, I started second-guessing a lot of my notes and plans - it was like I was beginning to distrust the person who had set up all the itinerary and plans for me, and wasn't sure they had got it right. I planned this trip, I know I planned this trip but it felt like someone else had done it. How certain was I Freital Hainsburg was the right station to get off at for the Weisseritztalbahn - there's lots of stations that start with Freital, had one just been picked at random or just seemed like it was the most likely? Why had particular trains been picked, surely there was a faster IC or ICE train to get between Nuremberg and Dresden? Did the suburban trains from Basel to Mulhouse even run on a Sunday, had that been checked? I've never had that before and I wonder why it was - maybe because of a few mistakes earlier on, such as the Zeppelin Museum? Usually I pride myself on the meticulousness of my planning - the only glaring thing I can think of where something hasn't been planned right was August last year when I booked the overnight bus to Auckland on the wrong date. As it was, all the above questions proved unnecessary as it turns out I hadn't put a foot wrong in my planning with them - but quite how the Zeppelin museum fell through the net, I'm not sure. Maybe I'm losing my touch?
A little bit of a postscript - I was sitting in the lounge awaiting boarding at the Basel-Mulhouse-Freiburg airport, thinking about how I never got to see really anything of Basel apart from the Train Station and the ride to the airport but it didn't matter so much, when I look at Facebook and saw Mum had sent a message - for the week away in June, Mum had zeroed in on Basel as the place to go to! You couldn't help but laugh. So looks like I'll be back but there is a lot of potential for day trips on that trip - Zurich is within easy reach, Strasbourg in France is too. Hell even Romanshorn on the shores of Lake Constance looks to be about a 2 hour train ride away, if I really wanted I could probably visit Friedrichshafen in a day (not sure I'm that keen perhaps). So there might just be a bit of an epilogue to some of this story yet, tied up in a brand new adventure. Swiss cheese, Swiss chocolate, just casually popping off to France today, Germany tomorrow, home in time for dinner in Switzerland each night... could be quite a laugh!