Trains

This journey is a bit special. I’m off to visiting a friend near Hamburg, in the north of Germany. As I live in the south of Germany, this means an overall distance of around 700 km. The best train connection I could find with only one switchover has me sitting in an ICE for about 6.5 h, with a regional train to get to/from my final destination. The special thing about this journey is that I broke with one of my principles: Never have fewer than 20 minutes for switching trains. In this trip, it’s only 8 minutes. Which is probably going to be fine on the return journey. But on the journey there, it might get rather tricky, considering that that 8 minute switchover happens after a 6.5 h journey over about 700 km. ...

Getting there, 2026-06-12 The main feature of this one was the really, really early start. I had to get up before 6 AM to catch my train at 07:59. Contrary to my normal habits, I did have an appointment on the day of the train journey. So I decided to go for an early start to have a Deutsche Bahn safety margin. I got the chance to try something new from the Deutsche Bahn restaurant for breakfast: The antipasti plate. Can’t recommend. It comes in a plastic holder, not on a proper plate. Two pieces of “too cheesy” cheese, a couple of pieces of salami, a few crackers, some soggy olives and a dip. None of it of any quality. First time in quite a while that I got disappointed by Deutsche Bahn’s food offering. ...

This one started with 16 minutes of delay right in the first train, before the journey even started. But I still had 13 minutes for my only switchover. So I will be cautiously optimistic. 😅 I ended up arriving only a few minutes late at my switchover station, and after that everything went perfectly fine. Nicely done, thanks Deutsche Bahn! Tally So let’s add this journey to our tally. Date Inconvenience Dest Lateness Overall Lateness Duration 2026-02-12 6 0m 5m 6h13m 2026-02-15 0 58m 58m 7h9m 2026-04-23 2 43m 43m 7h00m 2026-04-27 0 0m 8m 6h13m Totals 2 25m/101m 28m/114m 6h38m/26h35m No inconvenience on this journey at all.

It is Deutsche Bahn time again! 🎉 And yet again, I’m traveling from the south of Germany to Ostwestfalen, its most exciting part. And incidentally, also the part of the country where the most competent and ravishly good looking people are born. 😇 At the time of writing, the train is perfectly on time. So I’ve got that going for me. But not all is well in the land of white and red trains. Namely, when I went to ordering myself a nice lunch, the menu only showed drinks. Nothing to eat. The nice waiter assured me that food will be available again starting from Cologne. Which is 1) where I’m going to be switching trains today. And 2), that’s two hours from now. 😭 May the gods have mercy on my undying soul. And my grumbling stomach. ...

As promised, I will write a report on every train journey I take. This one is about the return journey for my family visit from last time. It started pretty uneventful. No last-minute changes, no cancellations or shortened trains. The first leg, to Dortmund main station, went very well. As usual on that route, it was an older ICE 2. I definitely prefer the seats on the newer ICE trains. The problems started with my train from Dortmund to my final destination. It started out with 20 minutes of delay, and finally left Dortmund with 35 minutes. The only explanation was “Governmental Measure”, which could mean anything. I was a bit sad when I boarded this train and saw that it didn’t have the ultra-modern interior I got to experience during my last train journey: ...