Der Deutsche Bahn
Czech trains are old. The bathroom is literally a toilet seat with a foot pedal that opens a hole revealing the train tracks whizzing by below. The compartments are ala 60 years ago. There is something quaint, nostalgic and exotic about them in a Siberian Railway sort of way, but more as a point of interest and not as a comfy mode of transport.
Jetzt der Deutsche Bahn, and now the German Train...fast, comfy, they serve you coffee and stuff. Lots of room, clean, elegant. A proper bathroom that gets cleaned often. No Czech Police harassing you.
We totally loved the ICE train from Passau to Nurnburg and then its little sister, the regional train from Nurnburg to Karlsruhe. We spent 5 hours at a 4 seat bay with a table, just playing games, reading, drawing and chatting. The ICE train even had a full restaurant. I told Roxie that next time we are on the train (which will be this spring or early summer, I'm sure) we will eat in the restaurant. We didn't eat in it this trip because I had packed us PB&Js and I didn't want to waste them.
One of the best things about the train was our new friend who we have named "Rasta Sauce". We first saw him in the lobby of the Passau train station, a bean pole of an African rapper-looking dude with knotty cornrows and clothing emblazoned with Bob Marley's face. Literally. Each piece had a screen print of Bob Marley, t-shirt, jeans, jacket. His pants were slung so low that his bum was fully hanging out in his electric blue Calvin Kleins. His head phones were slung around his neck thus sharing his music with all of us. He kept saying "Mother F#@$%#" as loudly as possible. A few minutes later we are standing on platform 9 awaiting our train. There is "Rasta Sauce" dancing. Fully dancing on the platform to the amusement of all of us. He is totally in his own world. Oh, and singing...really loudly.
WE are now comfortably seated in our seats, things arranged neatly on our table. The gentleman across from us is busily working. He has papers and highlighters strewn on his table and he looks focused and serious. In walks "Rasta Sauce". There are dozens of empty seats in this car alone. He chooses the seat sharing a table with "Serious Businessman". He could have sat anywhere, but much to our delight, he is now sitting across from us highly irritating "Serious Businessman". "Rasta Sauce" takes his headphones off his head and puts them around his neck filling our car with pounding reggae. "Serious Businessman" puts in his ipod headphones. "Rasta Sauce" orders coffee and strews the wrappers from the cream and sugar all over the table. "Serious Businessman" gathers his papers over to one corner to save them from damage. "Rasta Sauce" starts singing. "Serious Businessman" turns up the volume on his ipod. "Rasta Sauce" lays down across the two seats and flails his arms all about in an effort to get comfortable. "Serious Businessman" tries to ignore him and continues highlighting. "Rasta Sauce" receives a phone call and talks LOUDLY in an African language of unknown origin. "Serious Businessman" looks miserable. Only two hours, sir, and then you can leave the train...
It was awesome!
Jetzt der Deutsche Bahn, and now the German Train...fast, comfy, they serve you coffee and stuff. Lots of room, clean, elegant. A proper bathroom that gets cleaned often. No Czech Police harassing you.
We totally loved the ICE train from Passau to Nurnburg and then its little sister, the regional train from Nurnburg to Karlsruhe. We spent 5 hours at a 4 seat bay with a table, just playing games, reading, drawing and chatting. The ICE train even had a full restaurant. I told Roxie that next time we are on the train (which will be this spring or early summer, I'm sure) we will eat in the restaurant. We didn't eat in it this trip because I had packed us PB&Js and I didn't want to waste them.
One of the best things about the train was our new friend who we have named "Rasta Sauce". We first saw him in the lobby of the Passau train station, a bean pole of an African rapper-looking dude with knotty cornrows and clothing emblazoned with Bob Marley's face. Literally. Each piece had a screen print of Bob Marley, t-shirt, jeans, jacket. His pants were slung so low that his bum was fully hanging out in his electric blue Calvin Kleins. His head phones were slung around his neck thus sharing his music with all of us. He kept saying "Mother F#@$%#" as loudly as possible. A few minutes later we are standing on platform 9 awaiting our train. There is "Rasta Sauce" dancing. Fully dancing on the platform to the amusement of all of us. He is totally in his own world. Oh, and singing...really loudly.
WE are now comfortably seated in our seats, things arranged neatly on our table. The gentleman across from us is busily working. He has papers and highlighters strewn on his table and he looks focused and serious. In walks "Rasta Sauce". There are dozens of empty seats in this car alone. He chooses the seat sharing a table with "Serious Businessman". He could have sat anywhere, but much to our delight, he is now sitting across from us highly irritating "Serious Businessman". "Rasta Sauce" takes his headphones off his head and puts them around his neck filling our car with pounding reggae. "Serious Businessman" puts in his ipod headphones. "Rasta Sauce" orders coffee and strews the wrappers from the cream and sugar all over the table. "Serious Businessman" gathers his papers over to one corner to save them from damage. "Rasta Sauce" starts singing. "Serious Businessman" turns up the volume on his ipod. "Rasta Sauce" lays down across the two seats and flails his arms all about in an effort to get comfortable. "Serious Businessman" tries to ignore him and continues highlighting. "Rasta Sauce" receives a phone call and talks LOUDLY in an African language of unknown origin. "Serious Businessman" looks miserable. Only two hours, sir, and then you can leave the train...
It was awesome!
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ReplyDeleteLove the train too.
ReplyDeleteSo fun to hear about the trains -- especially since Mike has been begging me for years to accompany him on the Siberian railway. It's been on his bucket list to cross Mongolia and go all the way from 'wherever' the trip begins back to St. Petersburg.
ReplyDeleteYour description of the Czech train has been in my imagination when talking about the Siberian train. I'm not any closer to wanting to go . . .
Susie