Left London on Sunday 15th Of February and headed for Aachen via Brussels. Fairly seamless journey, Eurostar to Brussels and then Thalys TGV from Brussels to Aachen arriving just after 7pm. Stayed in the Hotel Benelux between the station and the old town. Had dinner in the Ratskeller which was excellent and visited a few bars around the Rathaus square. Come out from dinner to find everything coated in an inch or two of snow, looks fantastic!
Up earlyish on the Monday for the 0839 ICE to Cologne, just a short 40 minute hop, but its a lot better and quicker than catching one of the slower RE/RB stopping trains. 35 minute break in Cologne, just enough time for coffee and time to watch the busy station in action, always lots to see here...
Our train, another ICE, starts here so we are first on board so its easy to snag some decent seats. Its a bit cold, so the warm train soon has us all nodding off as we speed towards Hannover, all the Alt Bier we drunk last night has nothing to do with it. Wake as we arrive at Wuppertal, just in time to see one of the DangleBahn trains whizzing past, part pubic transport, part fairground ride! Well worth a trip if you are in that neck of the woods!
Arrival at Hannover is bang on time and we have time for a few beers before boarding our local train to Bad Harzburg in the Harz Mountains. It is loco hauled by a Class 218 loco, nippy little things, 2700hp for 80 tons and its one fitted with the older more noisy engines and the driver is not hanging about! Lots of fun!
Time for another beer in Bad Harzburg before catching the train to Wernigerode our base for the next 3 nights. Take a few minutes out to watch the activity in the loco depot and see the locos being prepared for the next days service. Always very atmospheric in the fading light...
Staying, as usual, in the Weisser Hirsch, on the square with the Rathaus opposite. A class establishment.
Wake up on the Tuesday to find a blanket of snow over the town! Excellent! Time for breakfast and wander down to Westentor station and purchase our 3 day ticket for 40 Euros. We will only get 2 days use but its still good value.
Spend the day riding the Brockenbahn twice and a trip to Eisfelder Tahmuhle at lunchtime. Snow has stopped now but the trees are covered and its looks fantastic. The weather at the Brocken Summit is poor the first time we went up, but there was some good views over Wernigerode in the afternoon. Get back to Wernigerode just before 7pm and we have dinner in the Ratskeller, as usual excellent food and good prices!
Pull back the curtains on the Wednesday and its a different story... Clear blue sky! Another great day on the Brocken, with fantastic light and snow and sun. We get off at Schierke on the return from Brocken and catch one of the lines oldest locos on an extra train due to the volume of passengers, we then walk down the hill to Elend on the Eisfelder line in time for lunch and catch the afternoon steam back to Drei Annen. We decide to go back to Schierke and spend some time in the station bar there before catching the last train back to Wernigerode.
Thursday is another clear sunny day and the countryside looks amazing with the snow and bright light. We are off to Munich, so we head on a local train to Halle, IC train to Naumberg and then ICE to Nuremburg. From there we catch an ICE substitute service to Munich, the wheels on the ICES are having a few "issues" at the moment(again..), but it allows Munich depot to use their "depot pet"
103245, a 10,000hp monster, once the prime motive power for DB Intercity trains and capable of 125mph. The short train today doesn't need that kind of power, but the acceleration is pin you back in your seat and it simply rockets away from the station stops!
We meet up with our friend in Munich and have a great evening out in the beer halls around town.
Friday we take in some culture, visiting 2 of the 3 sites of the fanastic Deutches Museum, today we do the transport part and the aircraft section just outside Munich and Saturday we do the main part in the centre of town.
Friday night we go for dinner at the Isarbrau brew pub which is located on one of the S Bahn stations just outside Munich and finish up in the Unionsbrau at Haidhausen. Both are quiet for a Friday evening, the recession has hit even the wealthy beer drinkers of Bavaria... The snow is still falling!
After our museum spin on Saturday we head back to the station and catch the Zurich bound Intercity train at 430pm, bound for Lindau on Lake Constance and then on to Friedrichshafen (home of the Zeppelin) for the night. It's carnival time in Germany
and both here and Cologne tomorrow are full of Germans in full on carnival mode, not for the faint hearted!
Sunday is going home day, so we head from Friedrichshafen to Ulm, onto Stuttgart then ICE to Cologne via the high speed line from Frankfurt to Cologne, we just miss out on reaching 300kph, the in coach speed display only got to 299kph......
Cologne is reached on time, but the usual haunts outside the station are packed because of the carnival, so we have beer and lunch in the station before boarding our Thalys at 314pm and back to London via Brussels and the Eurostar. We arrive at St Pancras at 720pm.
Oh well, back to work tomorrow.....
Photos here http://50031.fotopic.net/c1656111.html and here http://50031.fotopic.net/c1657907.html
Thanks for reading!
Up earlyish on the Monday for the 0839 ICE to Cologne, just a short 40 minute hop, but its a lot better and quicker than catching one of the slower RE/RB stopping trains. 35 minute break in Cologne, just enough time for coffee and time to watch the busy station in action, always lots to see here...
Our train, another ICE, starts here so we are first on board so its easy to snag some decent seats. Its a bit cold, so the warm train soon has us all nodding off as we speed towards Hannover, all the Alt Bier we drunk last night has nothing to do with it. Wake as we arrive at Wuppertal, just in time to see one of the DangleBahn trains whizzing past, part pubic transport, part fairground ride! Well worth a trip if you are in that neck of the woods!
Arrival at Hannover is bang on time and we have time for a few beers before boarding our local train to Bad Harzburg in the Harz Mountains. It is loco hauled by a Class 218 loco, nippy little things, 2700hp for 80 tons and its one fitted with the older more noisy engines and the driver is not hanging about! Lots of fun!
Time for another beer in Bad Harzburg before catching the train to Wernigerode our base for the next 3 nights. Take a few minutes out to watch the activity in the loco depot and see the locos being prepared for the next days service. Always very atmospheric in the fading light...
Staying, as usual, in the Weisser Hirsch, on the square with the Rathaus opposite. A class establishment.
Wake up on the Tuesday to find a blanket of snow over the town! Excellent! Time for breakfast and wander down to Westentor station and purchase our 3 day ticket for 40 Euros. We will only get 2 days use but its still good value.
Spend the day riding the Brockenbahn twice and a trip to Eisfelder Tahmuhle at lunchtime. Snow has stopped now but the trees are covered and its looks fantastic. The weather at the Brocken Summit is poor the first time we went up, but there was some good views over Wernigerode in the afternoon. Get back to Wernigerode just before 7pm and we have dinner in the Ratskeller, as usual excellent food and good prices!
Pull back the curtains on the Wednesday and its a different story... Clear blue sky! Another great day on the Brocken, with fantastic light and snow and sun. We get off at Schierke on the return from Brocken and catch one of the lines oldest locos on an extra train due to the volume of passengers, we then walk down the hill to Elend on the Eisfelder line in time for lunch and catch the afternoon steam back to Drei Annen. We decide to go back to Schierke and spend some time in the station bar there before catching the last train back to Wernigerode.
Thursday is another clear sunny day and the countryside looks amazing with the snow and bright light. We are off to Munich, so we head on a local train to Halle, IC train to Naumberg and then ICE to Nuremburg. From there we catch an ICE substitute service to Munich, the wheels on the ICES are having a few "issues" at the moment(again..), but it allows Munich depot to use their "depot pet"
103245, a 10,000hp monster, once the prime motive power for DB Intercity trains and capable of 125mph. The short train today doesn't need that kind of power, but the acceleration is pin you back in your seat and it simply rockets away from the station stops!
We meet up with our friend in Munich and have a great evening out in the beer halls around town.
Friday we take in some culture, visiting 2 of the 3 sites of the fanastic Deutches Museum, today we do the transport part and the aircraft section just outside Munich and Saturday we do the main part in the centre of town.
Friday night we go for dinner at the Isarbrau brew pub which is located on one of the S Bahn stations just outside Munich and finish up in the Unionsbrau at Haidhausen. Both are quiet for a Friday evening, the recession has hit even the wealthy beer drinkers of Bavaria... The snow is still falling!
After our museum spin on Saturday we head back to the station and catch the Zurich bound Intercity train at 430pm, bound for Lindau on Lake Constance and then on to Friedrichshafen (home of the Zeppelin) for the night. It's carnival time in Germany
and both here and Cologne tomorrow are full of Germans in full on carnival mode, not for the faint hearted!
Sunday is going home day, so we head from Friedrichshafen to Ulm, onto Stuttgart then ICE to Cologne via the high speed line from Frankfurt to Cologne, we just miss out on reaching 300kph, the in coach speed display only got to 299kph......
Cologne is reached on time, but the usual haunts outside the station are packed because of the carnival, so we have beer and lunch in the station before boarding our Thalys at 314pm and back to London via Brussels and the Eurostar. We arrive at St Pancras at 720pm.
Oh well, back to work tomorrow.....
Photos here http://50031.fotopic.net/c1656111.html and here http://50031.fotopic.net/c1657907.html
Thanks for reading!
