WP's Rails

Train hopping

Wagon sign Trans-Europ-Express TEE Rheingold, 1985

Exit with the Tramper Monthly Season Ticket. Immediately after the school-leaving examination in May together with ex-classmate Martin a monthly tour started traveling all over Germany. That meant in those days only the old FRG - »West Germany« - the GDR, however, remained shelved. Some trips to the neighboring countries, however, were included yet. Three other fellows that too small. They traveled all over Western Europe with their Interrail-Ticket. But we had our fun as well. By the way the limitation to Germany allows a visit at home in Nuremberg to chance laundry. Thus there was no need to carry a lot of luggage along.

Extended seamlessly in July. This time at the cost of the government. I used the IC train (Inter City, a fast train between bigger cities) at the weekend to commute between my residence and the barracks. In those days each time more than 7 hours to go in one way. (So much for the topic close to home deployment.)

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Tramper Monthly Season Ticket

Tramper-Monats-Ticket 1985

Even if it may sound strange considering strict railroad schedules and confirmed tracks, it was just a small escape from the organized every day life: just entering any train at any station in order to ride in any direction. Nothing more nothing less. That was almost better than the visits of numerous big cities, monuments, places worth seeing ... We met many kind people, were just invited to have breakfast on a terrace we went by, get into museums with less money and even rode a certain distance on the TEE Rheingold for free. That was the most noble one, first class only. Because the ICE high-speed trains were not yet available in those days - but the legendary Class 103 instead.

In this month we gathered not less than about 21 278 km (13 224 miles)! And this with converted daily costs of living of less than 10.- D-Marks all inclusive ( about 30.- Atair-$, ~€ 5.-). This was only to manage, because we generally used the night trains between Northern and Southern Germany to sleep. Here the (obsolete) compartment coaches were proved to be a win. A compartment offered just sufficient space for two persons to lie down. So the train got to be our new home and it could happen that two figures in pyjamas and bathing-slippers, with their electric razor, towel (remember Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), shampoo and dentifrice in their arms made a pilgrimage through the train late in the night or early in the morning. So we didn't waste any time searching for bed and breakfast (the food was from the supermarket) or for the approach. We arrived fresh and very early in the morning and had the complete day for our disposal until we retired into a train for our well-deserved night rest again (nice phrase, isn't it?! ;-).

It wasn't bad to read in a newspaper at the Schliersee, a lake near the Alps that in the Hamburg shopping mall (more than 650 km = 400 miles as the crow flies away) during a public event free coffee was offered and therefore just travel to it. And then further on to Sylt or Puttgarden to take a bath in the sea. It was just fantastic! Often there was some kind of disco in the platform area of the wagon, when other passengers turned loud their walkmans or radios. Always when I hear the hit of that time Don't you (forget about me) of the Simple Minds I'll remember those four weeks - in the real meaning of the word - on the move.

(Still today I like to take the train. Because the only difference between passengers in a plane and sardines in a tin is that the later are at least already dead when they are packed in.)

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Tour diary

Exclusive the short rides; they are not registered in the compressed form explicitly.

Nuremberg and Germany

Phase 1 (about 4 580 km = 2 846 miles)

• 28.05.: Nuremberg - Hamburg - Westerland/Sylt (paddle in the North Sea, night camp in an orchard)

• 29.05.: Sylt - Hamburg (harbor sightseeing, Reeperbahn) - Munich

• 30.05.: Munich - Schliersee (indoor swimming pool, alp climbing) - Munich - Hörlkofen (dinner) - Munich - Hamburg

• 31.05.: Hamburg - Lübeck (sightseeing) - Puttgarden (bath in the Baltic Sea) - Hamburg - Bremen - Cologne - Ulm

• 01.06.: Ulm - Friedrichshafen - Lindau (on foot to Hörbranz/Austria and back; picnic and path in the Lake Constance) - Munich - Nuremberg

Phase 2 (about 6 180 km = 3 841 miles)

• 03.06.: Nuremberg - Munich - Cologne

• 04.06.: Cologne (sightseeing) - Bergisch Gladbach (sightseeing) - Cologne - Bonn/Bad Godesberg (walking tour, government quarter!) - Cologne (sightseeing II) - Andernach/Namedy (night camp on a meadow because the train was overcrowded. »Being woken by fresh milk...« - The morning showed the calm corner was a well-staffed cow pasture!)

• 05.06.: Namedy - Cologne - Wuppertal-Elberfeld (sightseeing, suspension monorail!) - Essen (sightseeing) - Dortmund (sightseeing) - Bochum (sightseeing) - Hamburg - Munich

• 06.06.: Munich - Bad Tölz (walking tour) - Holzkirchen- Bayrischzell (visiting grandparents on holiday) - Schliersee (bath in the lake) - Bayrischzell (dinner with the grandparents) - Munich (hitchhiking; very heavy thunderstorms!) - Hamburg (for free coffee during a advertising event)

• 07.06.: Hamburg - Kiel (sightseeing) - Kieler Förde - Neumünster - Flensburg (walking tour to Denmark and back) - Hamburg - Heidelberg

• 08.06.: Heidelberg (sightseeing inclusive Philosophenweg; visiting German Pharmacy Museum cost-effective as »students«) - Stuttgart (Wilhelma/Zoo) - Hamburg

• 09.06.: Hamburg (sightseeing Binnen- and Außenalster) - Cuxhaven (harbor sightseeing) - Bremen - Hanover - Nuremberg

Emergency Break!

Phase 3 (about 2 353 km = 1 462 miles)

• 11.06.: Nuremberg - Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg (Deutsches Dampflok Museum; Engl.: German Steam Loco Museum) - Pegnitz (walking tour in the Fränkische Schweiz) - Nuremberg

• 12.06.: Nuremberg - Munich - Hamburg

• 13.06.: Hamburg - Bremen (sightseeing) - Oldenburg (sightseeing) - Esens (North Sea coast) - Oldenburg - Bremen - Hamburg - Basel/Switzerland

• 14.06.: Basel (sightseeing incl. Swatch outdoor promotion event) - Freiburg (about 50 km (31 miles) onboard the TEE Rheingold; sightseeing) - Ulm (ride through the upper valley of the Danube) - Augsburg - Nuremberg

Phase 4 (about 4 835 km = 3 005 miles)

• 18.06.: Nuremberg - Regensburg - Kehlheim (walking tour Befreiungshalle (Engl.: Hall of Liberation) and Kloster Weltenburg (Engl.: Weltenburg Abbey)) - Regensburg - Passau (sightseeing, walking tour) - Hamburg

• 19.06.: Hamburg (sightseeing) - Hanover (sightseeing) - Wolfsburg (VW!, sightseeing) - Hanover - Hamburg - Munich

• 20.06.: Munich - Berchtesgaden (alp climbing) - Prien (paddle in the Chiemsee) - Munich - Dortmund

• 21.06.: Dortmund - Koblenz (walking tour to the Deutsche Eck (Engl.: German Corner); river Mosel flows in river Rhein) - Trier (sightseeing) - Saarbrücken - Völklingen (sightseeing) - Munich

• 22.06.: Munich - Garmisch-Partenkirchen (rainy day! Martin in Munich in a museum) - Kempten (through Austria) - Ulm - Donauwörth - Nuremberg

Arbed Saarstahl in Völklingen

Phase 5 (about 2 740 km = 1 703 miles)

• 23.06.: Nuremberg - Munich - Hamburg

• 24.06.: Hamburg - Westerland/Sylt (sightseeing) - Hamburg - Frankfurt

• 25.06.: Frankfurt (Martin stays for sightseeing) - Rhein-Main Airport (walking tour to the Runway West and further to Walldorf) - Mannheim - Saarbrücken - Völklingen (steelwork Arbed Saarstahl) - Saarbrücken - Mannheim - Frankfurt - Nuremberg