Germany by Rail - a day by day blog

[Malton Seadog]

Hi all,

I hope you'll forgive some blatant plugging, but I thought this may be of interest to you. I wondered whether I should post it in Trip Reports, but that seemed UK based.

http://themusicologist.co.uk/germany-by-rail-day-1-hamburg-to-wurzburg/

Germany by Rail – Day 1: Hamburg to Würzburg

In May 2013, my dad and I spent a week travelling around Germany. We flew from Manchester to Hamburg on a Tuesday afternoon, which would be the only time we would set foot on an aeroplane for the next week or so.
The rest of the trip was to be done entirely by train. We would be relying on Deutsche Bahn (DB) to take us where we needed to go. This is the story of how we coped.

We arrived in Hamburg on a cloudy but warm afternoon. Our flight landed at around 17:30. Our destination that night was to be the Bavarian city of Würzburg, fully 300 miles to the south. To get there, we would be boarding a CityNightLine train at Hamburg Altona station bound for Vienna.

Our train was scheduled to depart at 20:20, so we had ample time to get from the airport to Altona station using Hamburg’s S-Bahn system. As it turns out, there was a direct train, so we arrived at our departure station at about 18:30, leaving us almost two hours to wait for our train.

Despite saying that the train was a sleeper bound for Vienna, it has a standard coach hooked on to the back (which became the front for our journey)....

The rest will be updated at least daily, so keep checking back to find out where we went and how the rail journeys were!

 

[gordonthemoron]

personally, I'd have done the Hamburg-Munich sleeper, or else continued on your train to Regensburg and then got an ALEX train to Munich

 

[Malton Seadog]

It was funds to be honest, and my own fault.

Just three weeks prior to going, I realised that DB's own German Rail Pass wasn't valid to European citizens, so we had to book set trains with short notice.

Hamburg to Munich on the sleeper was in excess of €200. The Hamburg-Wuerzburg seat in the 'cheap' coach cost us just €57 in total. The next day, as you will be able to read very shortly, we got a Bayern Ticket to Mittenwald.

Inconvenient, but cheap given our circumstances.

 

[gordonthemoron]

fair enough, I think the seated coach goes as far as Nuremburg but you'd have been even later into a hotel

 

[Malton Seadog]

I did consider it to be honest, but there was some sort of event/convention in Nuremberg, and the thought of checking in to a hotel at 4am didn't inspire me!

The second part is online now by the way.

http://themusicologist.co.uk/germany-by-rail-day-2-wurzburg-to-mittenwald/

 

[gordonthemoron]

You're right, Inglostadt is largely unexciting, even in the old town which is quite a hike from the station (it's closer to Ingolstadt Nord)

 

[Malton Seadog]

Parts 3 and 4 now online for those interested:

http://themusicologist.co.uk/germany-by-rail-day-3-mittenwald/

http://themusicologist.co.uk/germany-by-rail-day-4-mittenwald-to-offenburg/

 

[gordonthemoron]

Have they finished rebuilding Pasing Station? Also, have they finished 4 tracking Munich-Augsburg?

 

[Malton Seadog]

Pasing has been under construction for years hasn't it? I seem to recall passing through it in 2011 and it was being knocked to pieces then, too. It's still a bit of a mess - or was in May anyway.

As for the 4-track construction - I recall the train slowing several times to pass workmen on the line, so presume there's still ongoing work.

 

[Squaddie]

It was funds to be honest, and my own fault.

Just three weeks prior to going, I realised that DB's own German Rail Pass wasn't valid to European citizens, so we had to book set trains with short notice.

I realise that it's all academic now, but why didn't you purchase an Inter-Rail one country pass for Germany? Would that have cost more than all the one-way tickets?

 

[D365]

Pasing has been under construction for years hasn't it? I seem to recall passing through it in 2011 and it was being knocked to pieces then, too. It's still a bit of a mess - or was in May anyway.

I was there earlier this month, I think the S-Bahn platforms are near enough finished (and all the better with the Stamstrecke possessions taking place again). The main work site is the facade around the 'Pasing Arcaden' shopping centre where the site is being prepared to finally extend the 19 tram to the station direct in a loop.

"Passing through Pasing", ha!

As for the 4-track construction - I recall the train slowing several times to pass workmen on the line, so presume there's still ongoing work.

Not sure about that as I haven't used that branch in a while; there's works going on everywhere, it seems! Seems to me that the 4-tracking works have gone on for a while?

 

[gordonthemoron]

The 4 tracking has been going on since at least 2008

 

[ModernRailways]

Just finished reading your blog posts! An absolutely great read, and thanks for sharing!

You certainly got plenty done! The Miniature Wonderland seems like a great place to end your trip! Looks absolutely stunning and I can't even imagine how many hours it must have taken to build. And that's just going of your pictures!

Shame about the Karwendelbahn gondola being closed, but looks like it may have been for the best! You've managed to get some absolutely great photo's of the surrounding scenery, with my favourite having to be 'Looking north towards Krün and Wallgau'!