Had a last stopover in #Flensburg. Does anyone know if their harbour railroad is ever used for anything these days? edit: see comments, thanks!
Now going home on a Danish IC3. And then a bus to wind it all down.
Thanks for the fun comments :-)
#crossborderdorkiday — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #crossborderdorkiday, aggregated by home.social.
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I had a nice walk from Hamburg-Harburg to Hamburg-Altona. It's such a good town :)
My route was about 18 km but 14 km is the shortest and still nice (via the Alter Elbe pedestrian tunnel a decent route with many kms of parkland around Wilhelmsburg can be done in three hrs).
Btw. As I received some "meh" news earlier I didn't feel like posting much, let alone be interactive. I did just see the almost two dozen questions (!) via comments and DM. I'll look tomorrow or so :-)
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That's a wrap. If you are traveling and these go on your route: take one!
A's to Q's:
Table is excellent. So are the hooks. They should find pre-holed trashbags for the hooks though
Keycard: with all this custom fancyness the cards are stock white cards that someone scribbled a number on with a random marker. :-)
Etiquette: I notice most keep their sliding door closed. I opened mine as I got up. Views are nice on both sides. There's a friendly mood in the train.
11/
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Storage: each passenger gets two luggage lockers. They have electronic locks controlled alongside the sliding door.
One is a dedicated shoe locker. The other large enough for a large rucksack or one of those impractical plastic boxes on wheels.
It works well. Even though they could've had the choice to keep it inside each cabin and thus have them wider.
10/
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Safety: I was curious about this aspect. There cabin has multiple passive and active issue detection sensors.
You get a little hammer and an emergency alarm button.
Then there's the exits. Obviously the sliding door into the corridor is one. The other one is the window. It's small but connected via a removable insert to the cabin on the other side of the little wall. In an emergency they become one large hole.
I think it's all well thought through.
9/
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There's one absolutely annoying thing: the main lights on/off button on the control panel stays on all the time.
It's bright enough to light up the otherwise really well darkened cabin.
I put a bandaid over it. Honestly consider bringing some tape as it will annoy you as well.
Good coffee btw.
7/
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So on the actual sleeping: this is by far the quietest train I've travelled on.
Definitely a massive upgrade to the old CityNightLine equipment (is that still used anywhere?) which was really loud. Especially near compressors etc. At times I've had the urge to check whether we were moving at all.
The train does sway a bit like a ship when moving over switches.
Airco: quiet and good. Little nozzles to aim at your eye plus basic holes you can't accidentally block.
6/
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Breakfast arrived!
It's nothing spectacular but I like that something is included. A drink and some bread is a nice way to start the day. There's no cheese.
Btw. This ticket is cheaper than many simple hotels. And most hotels have don't transport you through Germany.
Guy below me just dunked his tea all over his bed.
5/
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Back to the toilets. Rather important on a long night train. And they are GREAT.
They are nothing like what is normally cramped into a train, creating misery for anyone a bit taller. Or like the TGV Duplex a situation where some people just don't fit.. Instead they're like.. a toilet inside a house.
It's a small big thing but important to me :-)
Still don't understand the choice to have them gendered though. And no, that's not a man in a kilt.
4/
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I see some comments about the room being claustrophobic. Photos might not do the space justice here. It's a bright, fairly heigh, and nicely curved space.
The side of your head is in the area with the window and the sliding door one can open when sharing two Mini Cabins.
The bed is about 190 cm long. There's a soft wall cover on the head-end and you can sleep a bit sideways. I had no issues. Most of the night I slept on my side.
I think it's cozy.
3/
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Ok. So it has an RGB light system. Honestly fun. The other functions on the control panel are indicators to see whether the washing basin and your dedicated toilet are in use.
Yes. Dedicated toilet as for reasons I don't understand the two toilets in each carriage are gender labelled. Bizarre. Maybe I should ask OBB if there's separate holding tanks as well.
The room with the sink is not gendered because everyone brushes their teeth the same way or something.
2/
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Ok. #OBB #NightJet #MiniCabin #review
I'm just reporting my thoughts. Will probably take a couple of posts.
First of all: I liked it a lot. It's modern, very quiet. Gadgety. I picked a top cabin for a better view.
The experience is not unlike a forest shelter or small tent but with nicer materials, a breakfast brought to you, and a RGB light system. Glamping on rails?
That said: I'm a bit over 190cm and it's fine, but not overly spacious. Height is good though.
1/
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Good morning from.. *checks* Fulda, the middle of Germany.
You'd think we'd be a bit further along. Ah well. I'm happy to spend the one hour delay looking out of the window :-)
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Uhm. NightJet replacement Flirt? I'll claim a double seat.
edit: Ah, it buggered off into the night.
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It's an almost full moon tonight! Nice view from the platform at München Ost.
Note the see-through NightJet that clearly arrived right on time :-)
(30 min delay, I'm gonne sleep on it)
edit: 37 min delay now. I need to pee (not bad enough to pay for it, and peeing for free is not an easy thing in #Munich )
edit2: yeah well, turns out there's a bit of grass near the end of the platform. Related: no toilet needs anymore..
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Oh. 3/2: I received some well meaning messages from locals with tips & explanations. Let me assure you: it's me, not you. That's all.
I'd love to come back and spend a full day at the Deutsches Museum, to be followed by another full day in the English Garden park.
What I didn't end up loving is that hard to define and very individual "vibe" of a city. And unfortunately for a visit of less than ten hours that bit is all I had time for :-)
❤️ and stuff.
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Maybe #Munich being so rich (seeing the wealth disparity of a homeless human outside the shop selling 35.000 euro sofas is bizarre) isn't helping. It surely doesn't help my happy tourist vibe.
A large % of cars here are new & expensive (and hardly ever electric). And the parking facilities show people clearly use them to reach into the city.
I'm now looking forward to Hamburg tomorrow. It's not that it lacks these issues but somehow I *feel* they're less extreme.
2/2
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I'm not really finding my way with Munich.
On the way here I looked up some places to visit. Otherwise my preferred way of exploring by walking around failed me. Unfortunately Munich really is a car infested city.
For reasons I don't understand even the old centre is not free of it. Leaving pedestrian areas as little nunataks where you can happily BE but not happily cross between.
In such a big rich city I expected better. It's a shame as there's amazing potential.
1/2
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Wuppertal has their amazing flying train system.
Munich has.. a trailer box for people, tied to a city bus and yeeted around town?
Now. Who am I to judge: maybe this truly is the best fit for Munich and the future of global transportation.
That said: wtf. Vecbus?
edit: at primary school they'd chunk us all in a trailer behind a tractor and we'd visit a farm of some parent and sit on a cow. Boom💥 yearly school trip done 👍. This reminds me of that.
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They have store-brand #scientology in Munich. I didn't know that was still a thing.
Edit: the "original" was a bit further on the route and at first pretended to not understand or have heard of the store-brand. Eventually they did: "bad people, I don't trust them and think their practisre dangerous but you are of course a free person."
Store-brand or original, in the end all harmful shit from the same source.
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Arrived in Munich hbf. It's been some years since I was here and I had forgotten how utterly devoid of inspiration and charisma this station is.
Like, I see how it's actually really practical. But I can also visualise* how if the entire-train-transport-thingy turns out to be a sham this can be remodelled into an Amazon fulfilment centre within a week.
*Considering I don't do internal imagery that means a lot ;-)
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I..
...helped make a 4yr old cry.
There's two kids doing almost the same route as me. Their mom got them each a fun free DB toy.
The 9yr got the ICE. The 4yr old a... bus.
As the 9yr old wants to speak english we discussed the various types of trains. Steam-trains, ICE, night-train etc.
"but why does bahn have a bus?"
"so if the trains don't work people can still travel"
This was relayed to the 4yr old as: you got the stupid toy. Trains are better.
Instant tears.😭
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Anyway. Moooooooving on. Before Frankfurt the #ICE4 I'm on hit 265 (top speed) and then booped up to 268 (topper speed?) km/hr.
I didn't know they went above the officially listed speed. Fun :-)
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Ooops & well, that worked out great :-)
I got a bit distracted time-wise during an impromptu tour* of one of the workshops / train storage areas at the end of the line
*super nice btw, guy had no reason to do so.
If it had not been for #DB delaying my already delayed train a bit more I would've missed it.
Wuppertal was fun. And the rollercoaster really showed me how local transport can be truly good. Will go there again one day with @juliette & hobbit. Now on to Munich🍻
#CrossBorderDorkiday -
Good morning! Soon after departing Kolding DB informed me a connection could not be made and I can take "any train".
So I'm trying my best before leaving for Munchen.
I chatted with some -at first reluctant, then engaged- locals. One bonus mentioned about this over busses is how it's separated from other traffic, bright ☀️ above the world.
Guy bringing his kid to daycare said in winter it replaces one cup of morning coffee ☕️
No short distance bus or metro can do that.
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Near the end of the line in Vohwinkel. Here the trains fly over a city street. With the evening lights it gives an awesome effect as if you're hovering over #MiniaturWunderland :-)
Once there you get a nice view into the maintenance yard as well.
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One thing that clearly makes a positive difference in how successful the #Schwebebahn integrates in the city is how accessible and friendly the stations are.
None of them are exactly the same but they all have in common that there's a low-stress pedestrian feel to both the platforms and the immediate surroundings.
It reminds me a bit of many of the platforms within the #Chicago "L" elevated train system. That one has more of an aggressive police & rat presence though.
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The Jehovah Witnesses never saw it coming...
edit: oh.. I just checked the video. The Jehovah Witnesses definitely saw it coming. Apologies for the #fakenews
One more video. There's a lot of advertising space at the bottom of this train.
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Oh no! I stumbled upon* a model railroad shop.
(and now own a fully non-operational 1:87 scale Schwebebahn EMU).
And some more photos. As requested :-)
edit: * ok.. https://mastodon.online/@Pepijn/117157419502855322
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Somehow the worlds smallest ICE is parked in there.
Edit: Turns out https://nordbahntrasse.de/ is a big thing.
Edit 2: yes I'm a shit tourist. I usually just walk around in ever larger circles until I hit a museum, old train or some interesting person.
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Wuppertal is kinda surprising in how interesting it is. Admittedly I knew only one thing about it before coming here and not even checked Wikipedia while in the train.
Besides the excellent rollercoaster, ICE connection and fancy bus-station the town is a typical car-first German town. Non-car-first places here are "dedicated specials" (see photos).
Also as a Dutch person living in Denmark I had -again- forgotten that cities can have vertical distance as well..