On Robert's request, we set out early today. As in, really, really early. We get up at 4:00, and shortly after 5:00 we are already on the road. At this time, even the perpetual traffic jam is still asleep.
The route we take to the station is pretty straightforward: Just walking down the road, and then take a left along the railroad.
However, the walk is made a little bit more adventurous by the fact that it's raining quite insistently...
...and also the fact that part of our walk there leads across an unlit field. That's not so much of a problem for me with my fox eyes, but it still feels just a little bit creepy.
One way or another, we eventually arrive at the station, reasonably drenched, but also quite awake despite the early hour. At this time, we are pretty much the only people here.
By the time we arrive at the station, it's a little before quarter-to-six. As such, we still have about 45 minutes till our train arrives, and are early enough to witness the earliest departures of the day. I insisted on coming this early because we were already awake and all, and it looked like we would be able to catch a gap in the rainfall this way. In retrospective, however, it would have been better for us to wait another half hour or so before departing for the station, oh well...
At least the main hall of the Trier Central Station is already open, and thus we can wait there where it's dry and reasonably warm in the presence of those few other passengers who turn up to catch an early train. A schematic mural of the Mosel valley adorns one of the walls of the station's main hall.
Eventually, our train arrives, still in the dark of night. It is a pretty modern train, which leads me to assume it's not owned by the DB.
Today should feature our longest ride in terms of time and distance, though the time-part should mostly be to some delays along the route. Our route takes us first through the entire Saarland and to Neustadt ("New City"), then into Baden-Württemberg ("Bathing Host Mountain") at Karlsruhe ("Carl's Rest"), onward to Stuttgart ("Mare Garden"), and then entering Bavaria after Ulm ("Elm"). From there, we continue nonstop to Munich.
So, altogether we are passing through two-and-two-half of Germany's states on this ride. On the first leg we should pass through the entire Saarland as we ride...
Into the Sunrise
Ride Duration: 2:25hApproximate Distance: 188km
Average Speed: 78km/h
The first leg of our ride today should be the longest in terms of both time and distance. It takes us up first the Mosel and then the Saar into the Saarland, past Mettlach ("Ground Pork Laugh") into the Saarland, and all the way to Saarbrücken ("Saar Bridges"), which is where we leave the Saar behind. From there, the railway line continues into more mountainous terrain, and we re-enter Rheinland-Pfalz shortly before Hauptstuhl ("Main Chair"), and soon after pass through Kaiserslautern ("Emperor's Purge"). The final stretch takes us through the Pfälzerwald ("Palatinate Forest") where we follow the Speyerbach ("Spire Stream") pretty much all the way to Neustadt.
Owing to the early hour, the train is spectacularly unoccupied, with the two of us having an entire car for ourselves. It should eventually get fuller, but still nowhere near as full as any of the other trains we should ride today.
Now, one definite drawback of embarking this early is that we don't really get to see much of the landscape for the first part of the ride. And while the Radian should not grace us with his shining presence a single time today, his rays still filter through and eventually lighten up the landscape, allowing us to witness the fields and forests and many towns along the Saar. Among others, we also pass two coal power plants: The defunct Kraftwerk Ensdorf and the still functional Kraftwerk Fenne. Then, after Kaiserslautern, the surroundings immediately become significantly more rural as we plunge straight into the Pfälzerwald, and remain as such until we eventually reach Neustadt.
By the time we reach Neustadt, it's still only 9:00. The weather is as gloomy as it's gonna stay for the remainder of the day, and the temperatures have dropped considerably. Fortunately, we don't have to wait in the cold since our connecting train is already waiting for us.
Train-wise, Neustadt is little more than a crossover station, located at the westernmost end of the great valley carved by the river Rhine. There's two directions for the trains to go from here: Northeast towards Ludwigshafen ("Louie's Harbour") and Mannheim ("Man Home"), and southeast towards Karlsruhe. And since the latter is precisely where we need to go, we should pick this direction and as such proceed...
Up the Rhine Valley
Ride Duration: 0:45hApproximate Distance: 57km
Average Speed: 76km/h
For this segment, we should first travel south and upstream at a distance of roughly 20km parallel to the Rhine, passing places such as Maikammer-Kirrweiler ("May Chamber-Bonkers Hamlet") and Landau ("Country Meadow"), then abruptly turn east at the town of Winden ("Squirm"), shortly before running into France. Soon after, we cross the mighty Rhine, and after that we're pretty much already in Karlsruhe.
This ride takes us mostly past fields, vineyards and towns, with the occasional few hills and forests. The main attraction is, naturally, crossing the Rhine, which is about 250m wide at this point. Notably, our crossing of the Rhine also coincides with our crossing into Baden-Württemberg.
Now, Karlsruhe is one of those bigger stations, and we arrive at one of them outrigger platforms, namely platform 102, which is a good ways away from the main hall, from where our connecting train will depart.
However, that is not a problem for two reasons: First, we have about half an hour to change in this station, more than enough to get us to our target platform in time to see another train still standing at it...
...and second, because out train turns out to be about 20 minutes late, which would actually be not so bad if not for another three facts:
- We only have an approximate 25 minutes time to change at our next stop.
- It has actually gotten fucking cold all of a sudden.
- Worshippers of Öchött'Kjött, God of Vile Vapours and Lung Diseases, are shamelessly contaminating the air on the platform (also while not wearing masks, despite the second wave beginning right about now).
However, eventually, the train arrives, and after stubbornly standing in the station for some more time, proceeds to take us...
Straight to Stuttgart
Ride Duration: 1:12hApproximate Distance: 91km
Average Speed: 76km/h
This next leg leads us right into the heart of Baden-Württemberg. The exact route is kinda funky, since apparently there are no railroad tracks at all between Pforzheim ("Fart Home") and Stuttgart, despite there being a highway and a good number of major roads criss-crossing the terrain. Instead, we have to go past Mühlacker ("Mill Acre") and finally approach Stuttgart from the north, passing through Kornwestheim ("Corn West Home") as we do so. Incidentally, the first leg of our trip also takes us past the northernmost reaches of the Schwarzwald ("Black Forest").
This roundabout route might be one of the reasons why this train is relatively empty, but then again, it's not that there's a significantly faster way to cross the distance. Even express trains which cost at least four times as much are unable to cover this roundabout route in half the time, despite being able to cut off at least a small corner in the middle.
This ride takes us through a healthy mix of towns, fields and forests, the latter ones still being mostly green - probably as a result of the pretty warm temperatures this last month - but a number of them are already donning autumn colors. It's interesting how there's fewer autumn-colored trees around here than in the north, despite us not being that far further to the south that it should make a big difference in temperature.
For a moment it looks like we'll arrive in Stuttgart in time, but then... the train stops just outside Stuttgart, waiting while our time ticks away. Had the train just kept going at that point, we would have arrived with ten minutes to change. As it is, it waits for about five minutes - five minutes that seem excruciatingly long - and then continues. By the time we arrive in the station we have barely five minutes to change trains, which would not be that bad, except... Stuttgart is a dead-end station, and there are no tunnels between the platforms. So, as soon as the doors open, I race ahead, bearing all my heavy luggage on my back, down the whole platform, stopping briefly to get my bearings, and then continue racing over to the platform where I assume our connecting train is going to depart from. I arrive in time, ready to hold open the door for Robert who is not as much of a sprinter. A valiant effort, but as it turns out, an unnecessary one, because this train, too, departs belatedly, leaving me plenty of time to shoot pictures of Stuttgart station out the window.
Oh well, as long as we managed to catch the train, that's what matters. And a little sprint sure beats waiting in the cold while being exposed to vile vapours. Also, due to the train being mostly empty, we can easily grab some seats, so I can now sit back and recover my strength as we zoom...
Over to Ulm
Ride Duration: 1:03hApproximate Distance: 93km
Average Speed: 89km/h
We subsequently cross the remainder of Baden-Württemberg. Our route to Ulm takes us up the Neckar and then the Fils ("Felt") past Nassachmühle ("Wet Stream Mill") and Süßen ("Sweeten"), and we follow the Rohrach ("Pipe Stream") and other small tributaries all the way up to Urspring ("Ancient Jump"), where we finally cross the continental watershed. Up to this point, all the rivers flow into the Rhein, and thus the North Sea, but beyond this point, they flow into the Donau and thus eventually end up in the Black Sea after a journey of almost three thousand kilometres. The Lone ("Einsam") springing up in Urspring already belongs to the watershed of the Donau. After this, it's only a short way until we arrive in Ulm.
This time around, we ride on a double-decker train again. The train also is not very full, with maybe only 10% of all seats occupied.
The terrain we move through largely consists of towns and cities, with only few stretches of green until we leave both Neckar and Fils behind. After that, there's a stretch of densely forested valleys, followed by some fields, and finally, the outskirts of Ulm. Midway through the ride, it starts to rain again, which occasionally impedes the view out of the windows.
Before long, we reach Ulm, and thankfully, this time around we have enough time to change trains without having to run.
Incidentally, Ulm is located right at the border to Bavaria, with the city of Neu Ulm on the other side of the Donau already belonging to Bavaria. Apart from the administrative division, it is effectively one city, not unlike Görlitz and Zgorzelec, which were one city before the re-distribution of territory at the end of WW2 separated them (see Book IV ~ Chapter 4 ~ Görlitz Gaiety ~ Eastern Escapades). As it is, the station is not even a full kilometre away from the border.
Now, we have only one more long-distance connection remaining before we reach Munich, and close the circle after three weeks of travelling around Germany. Three weeks that have felt more like three months, and here we are, about to finish this journey with...
The Last Long Leg
Ride Duration: 1:58hApproximate Distance: 148km
Average Speed: 75km/h
This final leg should take us over into Bayern at the very beginning, , and then follow the Donau for a while. Eventually, however, the train turns southeast, past a place by the name of Dinkelscherben ("Spelt Shards") and eventually soon thereafter reach Augsburg ("Eye's Castle"), which I have marked down for as my target for the Wolf Petal. With that, we are now officially within cycling distance of Munich, though Robert would disagree. Vehemently. Now, one curious thing is that the train's last stop after Augsburg is the town of Mering ("Moring"), after which in continues nonstop to Pasing. I figure this might be because soon thereafter, we enter the municipal transit area of Munich, and people in that area might as well take the S-Bahn. It is at Althegnenberg ("Old Tend-a-Mount") that we finally cross over into territory that I have surrounded with my bike tours (see Interlude ~ Project Petal Part 4 ~ Lechtal Liveliness), and not much later we arrive in Munich.
Once again, the train is relatively empty, so we have no problem securing seats for ourselves. I suppose people riding this route like to take faster and more expensive trains.
The leg through Bavaria interestingly is our most rural leg today, taking us mostly through fields, farms and forest, also featuring a few solar farms along the way. Also, it's still rainy, so there's not much to be seen of the fabled Bavarian white-blue sky. We cross the river Lech in Augsburg, though we do not get to see much of it on account of the bridge there having a relatively high concrete railing.
Soon enough, we reach the outskirts of Munich, where the train makes one last stop at Pasing before the Munich Central Station. It is there that I say my farewells to Robert since there's a good bus connection home from there. After three weeks together it feels kinda sad saying goodbye, but at least this time around, it won't be ten months until we get to see one another again... or will it?
Anyway, all that's left for me now is...
Homing Home
Ride Duration: 0:31hApproximate Distance: 8km
Average Speed: 16km/h
I cover the last bit by bus, taking me from Pasing through Obermenzing to my home district of Untermenzing. Also, it is only at the Obermenzing station that my paths cross and my circle around Germany closes. Robert beats me to that as his circle already closes as he arrives at the Munich central station while I'm just getting into the bus in Pasing.
It's still raining by the time I get out in Pasing, but fortunately it's only raining lightly, and the bus stop is not far away from the train station.
The bus arrives shortly later, and with it, I board the final vehicle of Robert's and my great Germany voyage.
Just like the trains before, the bus is comfortably empty today...
...and about half an hour later I arrive at the bus stop near my house, where I notice with surprise that in the three weeks of my absence there has finally been some progress on the eternal construction site near the Norma which graced my neighbourhood for months. Before I departed (and actually, I think since the beginning of the year or longer), this has been just bare brick work, with no progress being made whatsoever, but now the building is at the very least fully plastered.
From the bus stop, it's only 3 STEPs back to the fox loft, where the signs of autumn are clearly visible on the footpath.
Now, one thing I did not do before my departure is ask anyone to take care of my mail, so when I open my mailbox I promptly get crushed by a tremendous flood of three letters, two of which are replies from the friend we've been sending postcards to. By the way, as it turns out, even the un-stamped postcard from Trier did manage to reach him. And the last bit of mail is just spam.
So, now, after a reasonably long vacation around Germany together with Robert, I've arrived back home, and although it was only three weeks, it somehow felt longer than at the very least my six weeks in Brazil (see Book III ~ Chapter 2 ~ Brasilian Bolero and Chapter 3 ~ Crash & Burn) on account of all the different places we've been to in that time.
Now, life should change, at least a little bit, in that next time, and so should the Fox Loft. Among other things, the amount of inhabitants should soon triple, but that is another story that I am going to tell in the next chapter of the Travelling Fox Blog, so stay tuned!
