With 3 Pass days left after my trip to the Dolomites and Austria I was tempted to travel again. Even without heatwaves it needed to be Northern Europe, and North Germany was the obvious choice for me. I wanted to check out the Deutschlandticket, which includes all regional public transport including steam railways. My targets were the Harz lines (all bar Brocken are included) and Rügen (a ride behind a class 218 from Regensburg had been cancelled owing to DB digging.
I paid normal fares to and from the mainland, and visited good friends and family in London on the return.
Pass day 8 of 10 took me from Brussels to my hotel in Bad Harzburg, with a slight deviation owing to 2 sets of DB engineering works.
Memo to self 1: next time go Harwich-Hoek if you don't have a Home day. Don't know why I didn't consider it!
From there I used my D-ticket on the bus to access the Harz via Braunlage. After one successful trip (I splashed out on the Brocken, as it would be my first time in halfway decent weather) I tried to repeat the exercise with a different bus route. It was on the departure indicator at Braunlage, and in the DB info. I didn't think to check the Harz bus website where it says "Schooldays in Lower Saxony only." Instead there was a bus labelled for Bad Sachsa which memory (but not Hafas or G...maps) told me would allow me to get to the Harzquerbahn at Nordhausen (which I hadn't been on for 30 years).
So I got a scenic bus ride, a visit to the only part of the Nordhausen tram network that wasn't being ripped up, a ride on the tram/train to Ilfeld, and an "interesting" Rail Replacement Bus to Eisfelder Talmühle which dropped me at a lay-by with no obvious sign of the station - but I soon spotted the track and picked up the steam train to Wernigerode as planned.
Memo to self 2: the DB site is not always correct or complete within Germany, where buses are concerned.
I'd originally planned to do Bad H to my holiday flat in Baabe on Rügen in one long day but wisely changed plans and booked an overnight hotel on the excellent bus route from Rostock to Bad Doberan, terminus of the Molli narrow-gauge, which allowed me to fit in a bonus round trip.
(Note: EUR36 gets you a 7-day Dampfzuschlag for Molli AND Roland on Rügen, so that was a no-brainer.)
My route was via Magdeburg, Wittenberge and Schwerin, and it transpires that the Wittenberge-Schwerin section is part of a regional-only Berlin-Hamburg route, so even on a Thursday lunchtime my train was heaving.
Memo to self 3: there is a good reason for travelling 1st on some German RE trains. The D-ticket is 2nd class and route that is part of a major traffic flow is extremely busy, not just on weekend mornings as I was expecting from previous experience.
Going online in my hotel, I had discovered by chance that the Rügen line was running its Vintage Train, so determined to use it to reach my holiday flat at the small resort of Baabe the trad way. A bonus though - I arrived at Bergen (R) to discover that the normal branch railcar to Putbus had become a steam train, 3 DR coaches top-and-tailed by a class 86 and a 112 diesel. They were also using a "piglet taxi" railbus which I managed to ride later on (well, it was all paid for and it was a rainy day...).
After my week relaxing on Rügen (the local guest card included a couple of steamer rides, so I took them in between beach visits!) I had a day left on the DE-ticket and 2 Pass days to get back to Brussels, so I decided to revisit Borkum which has an impressive double-track railway connecting with its two ferry routes.
I took 2 days to get there: day 1 was a railway ramble including the Friday-only train from Waren in the Mecklenburg Lakes via Plau to Parchim, and finishing at Hamburg-Bergedorf. Next day (thankfully back in 1st) took me to Emden Aussenhafen for the busy ferry to Borkum (except that it was a replacement bus from Leer - looked chaotic but worked OK).
After exploring Borkum I left on my final Pass day for Eemshaven(NL), took the recently-opened branch to Groningen and then on via Amersfoort-Utrecht-Rotterdam and the HSL to Antwerp. Having time in hand I took a short pause there to admire the station and the city (despite the heat) before heading for Brussels (where check-in was less than speedy) and London.
Photos: Bad Harzburg's Art Deco station - Brocken in the sun - Vintage on Rügen x2 - Borkum Hbf (from my hotel room) - Eemshaven International Port
I paid normal fares to and from the mainland, and visited good friends and family in London on the return.
Pass day 8 of 10 took me from Brussels to my hotel in Bad Harzburg, with a slight deviation owing to 2 sets of DB engineering works.
Memo to self 1: next time go Harwich-Hoek if you don't have a Home day. Don't know why I didn't consider it!
From there I used my D-ticket on the bus to access the Harz via Braunlage. After one successful trip (I splashed out on the Brocken, as it would be my first time in halfway decent weather) I tried to repeat the exercise with a different bus route. It was on the departure indicator at Braunlage, and in the DB info. I didn't think to check the Harz bus website where it says "Schooldays in Lower Saxony only." Instead there was a bus labelled for Bad Sachsa which memory (but not Hafas or G...maps) told me would allow me to get to the Harzquerbahn at Nordhausen (which I hadn't been on for 30 years).
So I got a scenic bus ride, a visit to the only part of the Nordhausen tram network that wasn't being ripped up, a ride on the tram/train to Ilfeld, and an "interesting" Rail Replacement Bus to Eisfelder Talmühle which dropped me at a lay-by with no obvious sign of the station - but I soon spotted the track and picked up the steam train to Wernigerode as planned.
Memo to self 2: the DB site is not always correct or complete within Germany, where buses are concerned.
I'd originally planned to do Bad H to my holiday flat in Baabe on Rügen in one long day but wisely changed plans and booked an overnight hotel on the excellent bus route from Rostock to Bad Doberan, terminus of the Molli narrow-gauge, which allowed me to fit in a bonus round trip.
(Note: EUR36 gets you a 7-day Dampfzuschlag for Molli AND Roland on Rügen, so that was a no-brainer.)
My route was via Magdeburg, Wittenberge and Schwerin, and it transpires that the Wittenberge-Schwerin section is part of a regional-only Berlin-Hamburg route, so even on a Thursday lunchtime my train was heaving.
Memo to self 3: there is a good reason for travelling 1st on some German RE trains. The D-ticket is 2nd class and route that is part of a major traffic flow is extremely busy, not just on weekend mornings as I was expecting from previous experience.
Going online in my hotel, I had discovered by chance that the Rügen line was running its Vintage Train, so determined to use it to reach my holiday flat at the small resort of Baabe the trad way. A bonus though - I arrived at Bergen (R) to discover that the normal branch railcar to Putbus had become a steam train, 3 DR coaches top-and-tailed by a class 86 and a 112 diesel. They were also using a "piglet taxi" railbus which I managed to ride later on (well, it was all paid for and it was a rainy day...).
After my week relaxing on Rügen (the local guest card included a couple of steamer rides, so I took them in between beach visits!) I had a day left on the DE-ticket and 2 Pass days to get back to Brussels, so I decided to revisit Borkum which has an impressive double-track railway connecting with its two ferry routes.
I took 2 days to get there: day 1 was a railway ramble including the Friday-only train from Waren in the Mecklenburg Lakes via Plau to Parchim, and finishing at Hamburg-Bergedorf. Next day (thankfully back in 1st) took me to Emden Aussenhafen for the busy ferry to Borkum (except that it was a replacement bus from Leer - looked chaotic but worked OK).
After exploring Borkum I left on my final Pass day for Eemshaven(NL), took the recently-opened branch to Groningen and then on via Amersfoort-Utrecht-Rotterdam and the HSL to Antwerp. Having time in hand I took a short pause there to admire the station and the city (despite the heat) before heading for Brussels (where check-in was less than speedy) and London.
Photos: Bad Harzburg's Art Deco station - Brocken in the sun - Vintage on Rügen x2 - Borkum Hbf (from my hotel room) - Eemshaven International Port
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