Day 1 - To Cologne, and a Day Linesiding
Day 2 - Noddy Trains, Koblenz and back home
We landed safely, and immigration was not much of a chore - though I had forgotten to take some landing cards with me to fill out on the plane so had to do it at the airport. Then it was the journey home - train to Liverpool Street, change to the Underground and catching one of the last trains for the night to home. Arrival at home was about 12:15am - straight to bed, as I had work the next morning!
Summary
Which does beg the question - will I go back? I'd like to - the Brohltalbahn/Vulkan Express would be pretty impressive when the steam loco is running the train, up the steep hilly line and of course getting to see Cologne and/or Koblenz more properly as cities would be nice. But in the grand scheme of things, I still have many many places to visit - so if I don't go back at least I've been there and done some stuff there. Will I go back to foam "modern scene" trains? By myself, I'd doubt it somehow but maybe in the company of others I'd consider it. It's perhaps worth noting that later this year, Eurostar will start running trains direct to Cologne from St Pancras opening up another, very easy means of getting there.
I said near the beginning it sucked to be a railfan in London and my opportunities to take photos of trains are quite limited. Being a railfan in Germany is far easier, no fenced off railway lines and much more variety. I very much enjoyed my time there, however I can't say I've come back super-inspired to go back to Germany (or travel elsewhere) with the specific intention of railfanning the modern scene or do the same in the UK. Steam is still my thing, and there is still many places in the UK steam train wise that I am yet to visit. Even so, there is still that element of "hands off" with the steam railways, where I'm used to (and really enjoy) the "hands on" element of knowing crews, knowing I could ride in the cab if I wanted and asked nicely or bend an ear to get the train to do what I want for a particular photo I have in mind. I seriously doubt I will get such opportunities anywhere while I am over in this part of the world. Definitely, I'm noticing my railway "enthusiasm" is more muted these days though by no means gone. I still keep up with the play of what's happening back in NZ, and it was a rather odd sensation watching my group Steam Inc run the double header excursion in the last month knowing had I been there, I would have been in the thick of that. October will be interesting, when Ab 608 "Passchendaele" tours the South Island, it's old home - a trip I dearly would have loved to do, but knowingly chose London instead.
As noted earlier, this was my 4th visit to Germany - the Harz in December; all over the South and East in April; and Basel/Freiburg in June. It will not be the last - the 5th and 6th trips are already planned and booked, one to somewhere I've been before and another to somewhere new. Neither of these are to Berlin, so that's an extra trip sometime; and somewhere in the north of the country, such as Hamburg or beyond is probably worth doing too. At such a point, I will have covered a very decent amount of Germany as a country!
The next adventure is rather close, and it's a biggie - my 2 week Europe trip with Dion. I don't know if I will post blog updates as we go along, do it in parts after I come back or do it in one big hit at the end - we shall see. It's tidier to do it at the end but I don't envy the huge amount of effort that would involve in a shorter space of time; plus I'm not sure I'll have lots of time to spare in the following weeks post trip. Will be interesting to see what I decide and how we get on!