I’ll never get to use the Nürnberg—Erfurt high speed line. I am perfectly positioned in Nürnberg today … and the line is closed for engineering works.

Current plan: take the screaming monkey to Hof. I’m sure I’ll regret this.

@partim new Nürnberg, Thüringen, Express ?

@Openhuman If you accept a change in Hof. Though, I’ll probably go to Zwickau next.

@partim eine Frage war eher, ob das der ursprüngliche Plan war

Der Franken Thüringen, Express fährt ja glaube ich auch über die VDE acht zum Mindest irgendwann mal .

@Openhuman Ah, sorry. ICE war der Plan. Die fahren aber heute auch über Würzburg.

To Chemnitz-Siegmar? I guess I am not going to Chemnitz, then, and jump off in Zwickau instead.

The amount of “That doesn’t work either” is reminiscent of Southern Italy this fall.

@Openhuman Danke!

Going over a famous viaduct – such as just now the Göltzschtalbrücke, the world’s largest brick viaduct –, tends to be a bit disappointing. All you get to see is a river valley and a bit of railing.

@partim which is why you go under it and take your time to wander around. Then it's properly impressive. Although the views from the train are still nice.

@namenlos There even used to be narrow gauge railway to get you there!

I really do need to spend a couple days here. I’m also missing a bunch of existing lines in Vogtland and crossing into Czechia.

Zwickau has a splendid station building that almost hasn’t been messed with. It is an island station and the access tunnel forks in this big hall.

They also have the matching rolling stock, if you want to set your film in the late eighties.

But it’ll be this silver hamster that will take me onwards. Miles and miles to go, no time for exploring.

Leipzig central station’s entrance halls are big enough to put a merry-go-round into them and it’ll look a bit forlorn.

And yes, halls, plural. The station consists of two mirrored parts. It was build in the state railways era. One half was for the Saxon state railways, one half for the Prussians who had taken over the Saxon portions of their lines running into Leipzig.

Onwards with what is colloquially known as the “carpet RE.” These Intercity carriages were adopted from a large order of RE (that is: regional express – regional trains with limited stops) double decker carriages and got fancier interior including carpets.

@partim Looks like a bad case of cathedral envy 😂

@twobiscuits These things used to be called “cathedrals of transportation” …

It may be spelled Magdeburg but it is pronounce Machtebuhrch. Also, its mayor once invented the vacuum.*

* Sort of.

@partim I actually learned how to pronounce it properly.
Received shortly after visiting the vacuous museum earlier this year.

@Zyfdnug My dad grew up nearby, so I was properly indoctrinated whenever we visited relatives there.

All remaining Amsterdam ICEs of the day have the “exceptionally high demand” prognosis attached to them in both classes, apart from the one from Basel only from Duisburg. I’m starting to wonder if this isn’t actually true and merely an artefact of something else.

@partim as if NS would lie to you ​

@dysfun Technically still DB ;)

The lighting unit in this part of the ICE4 carriage is broken. Can we have that more often, please?

We’ll never know about those Amsterdam ICEs. Turns out the route via Enschede takes me home at the exact same time and I won’t have to listen to these noisy Dutch folk any longer because I can say good bye to this ICE4 in Hamm.

I take this as a statement on the quality of current German beer.

Drat! I managed to catch the train with all the uitjes returning home from the Christmas market. And the Enschede trains have finally lost their first class.

The Dortmund – Enschede trains do have first class, the Münster – Enschede trains don’t. What sort of logic is that?

It’s pouring! I guess we’re back in the Netherlands, then.

Back in the princedom of yellow and blue – and also of dirty windows, it turns out.