Subject: Karlsruhe Hbf - Hamburg Hbf (or : joy of nighttrains) Date: 04/27/1998 Author: Simon Laub Karlsruhe Hbf - Hamburg Hbf. (or : The Joy of travelling with nighttrains). ----------------------------------------------------- I hear that Karlruhe is a very nice city. Situated near Schwarzwald, where Fremdenverkehrsverband Schwarzwald promises a thousand different enjoyable ways for you to relax and basicly have a good time. I also hear, that Karlsruhe, with its 268.00 inhabitants, is well worth a visit. Seeing the castle in itself should be quite a treat. But I know nothing of Karlsruhe. Except the railway station that is. Early April this year : I had to go from this southern part of Germany up to Hamburg. Sensible people would have taken a plane or the ICE Intercity at 14.50 arriving at Hamburg at 19.22 (Some 4 hours and 32 minuttes). Karlsruhe Hbf 14.50 Heidelberg Hbf 15.15 Frankfurt (M) arr. 15.53 Frankfurt (M) dep. 15.57 Kassel Wilhelmshoehe 17.19 Goettingen 17.38 Hannover Hbf 18.10 Hamburg Hbf 19.22 Those who really enjoy traintravelling might wanna take a nighttrain. They would certainly then make reservations for a liegenwagen or better. But then again, there is the tiny minority who are nuts enough to think that making reservations is a waste of time, and sitting up a whole night isn't that bad. After all it is only one night and one can sleep the following day if needed. Belonging to this last group, that night in Karlsruhe, I was not intimated by the timetable for nighttrain nb. 1598 for Hamburg : Karlsruhe Hbf 22.32 Heidelberg Hbf 23.10 Frankfurt (M) arr. 0.08 Frankfurt (M) dep. 0.20 Kassel Wilhelmshoehe 2.26 Goettingen 3.18 Hannover Hbf 4.35 Hamburg Hbf 6.47 Giving an estimated travel time of 8 hours and 15 minuttes. It started of all right. My compartment was only half full. A girl was already fast a sleep crumpled down in her seat, While an elderly woman was reading a very exciting novel. Not paying any attention to anything. 3 empty seats for feet And biscuits. Not bad at all. Heidelberg Hbf. 23.10. I looked out as all former students do at Heidelberg. Remembering The good old days : "Being young without a care in the world". Then I somehow remembered the Studentenkarzer (student prison)! And then I praised myself for having escaped University. Not bad at all being in a nighttrain after all. I put my feet up and pretended to be fast a sleep. Perhaps I really slept. But Only to Frankfurt. Frankfurt 0.08. Lots of commotion. Bags being pushed up and down. And the train filling up with people. Enter the compartment : M. app. 30 years old male and a Lufthansa steward. I and M app. 25 year old female Lufthansa stewardess's. Not tired at all and eager to talk about the world situation. I looked out at the Messeturm (some 256 meters high, containing more offices than you would care to think about. Especially such a night as this). M : "dann waren ich mit Matti und den Lotti in Rio. Es war echt geil". The girls looks at M approving. He is a quite a guy. M : "dann waren ich mit Chumi und Hansi in Singapore. Es war Echt geil". The girls looks at M approving. Quite a guy this M. M : "In Mexico haben wir mit den Hansi scubadiving gegangen. Es war echt geil". After an hour of this the rest of the compartment is both amazed of how much of the world, that can be labelled as being "echt geil" and desperate to make it stop. The elderly woman makes some not so discrete moves to indicate sleeping time. M. ignores her and continues the "echt geil" trip around the World. I thought about joining in by telling about my recent trip to Norway, another of those places where everything is just echt geil. Every single bit of it. M must have read my mind for he continues : "dann waren ich mit den Otto in Oslo, es war echt geil." It goes on. And on. And outside small stations rushes by in the dead of night. At 2.20 I began to feel a little tired. Maybe I was actually sleeping. Kassel Wilhelmshoehe 2.26. The Lufthansa boys and girls leave us. We stretch out and begin to make preparations for some efficient sleeping. At 2.30 we are fast a sleep. Goettingen 3.18. Enters three members of a rockband. Lead singer apparently from the US with jewish forefathers. One places a guitar in my face and another steps (hard) on my leg. The lead singer starts to talk about the next gig in Hannover. Then he starts making jokes about being jewish in Germany. Not quite "echt geil" we are to believe. The older women begins to read again. The band rehearses a song. But then realizes that it is improper to sing while others are trying to sleep (me and the girl). Hannover Hbf 4.35. Free, free at last. The band leaves. A DB controller wants to see our tickets. We pretend that we sleep. But he looks straight through our prank and turns all lights on. Fahrschein, Fahrschein bitte. The lights are turned off again. And we go back to sleep. The old woman starts knitting. I am fast a sleep. App. 5.30 . Enters another old woman. She informs us that the toilets are a mess. And that there are no conducters on the train. That figures, I think, if we want the conductors, we shall just pretend to be fast a sleep, then they will be there immediately. The new old woman is going to Hamburg to help her daughter out in a cafeteria. Or something like that. We don't really care. But apparently it can compete we the novel, so the other old talks with her. Hamburg Hbf 6.47 And there it is : Hamburg. Home. We take our shoes on again. And off we go. To other trains, to other cities, to other countries. Never to see each other again. I didnt even get to say auf Wiedersehen to the old novel reading woman. April 26 th 1998. - Simon Laub