Categories: germany, postcards
Date: 30 October 2007 22:13:00
At Hannover, I joined the Hamburg-Munich train which called at Göttingen, Kassel, Fulda, Würzburg and Nuremberg. This particular train was a joy. It was so German with a little area dedicated to hanging coats and hats - as if it were in someone's entrance hall. There were audio channels to listen to (headphones on request from the conductor), and the bin was separated into different compartments for different types of waste (for efficient recycling). There was an information sheet detailing arrival and departure times and - joy of all joys - connecting train times from each station....I commend the idea to the House! I learned that a smoking ban had come into effect on the trains as of 1 September - and that the ban applied to all Deutsche Bahn's 5,700 stations and stops on its network. The platforms were spotlessly clean and tidy. The glass doors between compartments sparkled as they glided to and fro effortlessly (no requirement to fight with recalcitrant mechanisms while holding a scalding hot cup of coffee), the announcements were clear and intelligible; no crackly PA with background noise, here. Ach nein, mein Lieber! One announcement was particularly apologetic about the lack of buffet facilities and it was made in such beautifully phrased German that it was worth the inconvenience. A waiter came through the compartments carrying a tray (in one hand) of cups of coffee - how very civilised! The announcements were also made in English - until we reached Würzburg. The powers that be had obviously decided that once foreigners were this deep into Germany, they had had sufficient time to master the language.
Along the way, I had seen a pink sunrise at 6.45, then observed how the trees looked as if their topmost branches were on fire as the sun seemed to rest on them. A bit further south, everything was obscured by fog which then lifted to show that there was frost on the north-facing hilly fields. By the time we reached Fulda, there were a few onion-topped churches in evidence and then from Würzburg there were miles and miles of vineyards. Outside Nuremberg, the trees were just beginning to turn into their autumn colours - appropriately as I arrived on 23 September, the first day of autumn. As we approached Nuremberg, I looked out for a specific factory in Fürth for whose products I do quite a lot of translations, but it was clearly not situated near the railway line. (Did you know that the first railway in Germany was opened between Fürth and Nuremberg in February 1834 - eight and half years after the first passenger railway in Britain in September 1825? A fact I once translated and for some reason have remembered.)
By 9.30, I had arrived at my destination, named by Hitler as “die deutscheste aller deustchen Städten” [the most German of German cities], famous for its toymaking, Lebkuchen (gingerbread), sausages, dark 20th century history and its Christkindlmarkt.