We have made it to Nurnberg. We will stay here for a few nights and explore. Unfortunately it is raining very hard and quite windy. It will be good to get to our hotel.
Well, we now have a plan for the rest of the time we have. We are going to take the train today to Nurnberg (via Koblenz and Frankfurt) and stay in Nurnberg for a few days. We visited Nurnberg on a previous trip and need more time there. Then we will take the train to Passau (via Landshut), ride the Daube R to Vienna (about 330 km) and then pick up our original route to Italy. This seems like a great solution to our interrupted plans when we had to leave Poland. We will still ride as originally planned, but withour the Czech Repulic section.
The Hostel was quiet - you couldn't hear a thing from other rooms and we faced on to a quiet lane. We had opened the huge window and were sitting enjoying the view and our morning coffee when to our surprise, Georg rode up on his Brompton bike on his way to work down the road. He had printed out the train ticket for us which he had purchased online to get us to Nurnberg this morning. They were concerned that we would have trouble getting it printed at the Hostel. Wow. After check out, we rode to Georg's office to rescue our coffee mugs, which we had mistkakenly packed to stay behind, and Georg offered to ride with us to the Bahnhof as construction is ongoing and makes access a bit confusing.
Not only did Georg ride with us, he helped Barry to carry Seavo up to the first train platform of the day. This access is unusual as this station has escalators, which really help. (Georg is the neon yellow helmet behind Barry)
We are on the first train of the day, Bonn to Koblenz. The train was running very late which meant we had to get on extremely fast. We got the bike on in record time, there were no other bikes on this rainy morning and very few passengers. But as I was carrying the trailer on, the conductor started yelling at me and I stopped for a second to find out what was wrong...that was the beginning of our problems. When he came to validate our ticket, the conductor prceeded to continue yelling, clearly taking out the stress of his day on us: telling us that he should throw us off the train because of our big bike, threatening to fine us 60 euros for not purchasing the bike fare of 5.50 euros and generally just yelling at us for some time. We tried to explain that as visitors we had not meant to be a problem, but that in our past train journeys, we had always bought the bike ticket on the train. In our travels, we have seen many locals do the same thing. Impossible, he said. And furthermore, as visitors he told us that it is our job to be better informed . Once again he said that he would fine us the 60 euros and that if there had been any other bikes on the train, that he would have thrown us off. "We were lucky that it was a rainy day" Anyway, we let him rant on and he finally calmed down,, and we miraculously were able to buy our bike ticket from him for 5.50 euros. First of all, in our experience on the trains, we want to be clear that the rough treatment we received that morning is very unusual. The conductors on the trains have always been professional and polite. We respect the conductor's position and authority to determine who gets on the train and we have had situations before where we have had to wait for another, less busy, train that can accomomdate us. We are aware that our big bike is a daunting sight and we do what we can to make it better by removing all panniers and removing the wheels on the trailer - all which hopefully make it look less imposing....and we are always prepared when we arrange train connections, that we should be prepared to ride if denied access. However, this circumstance was unusual as the train car was empty and we didn't delay the departure of the train. We could see that he needed to vent but it was not a good start to the day. Before he was done, we had been lectured about the many rules of Deutsche Bahn and we politely listened.
On the train to Koblenz - as you can see, the train is very quiet. Bad things happen in 3's, as the superstition goes: First - Barry got us coffee and a bun at the Bakery in the train station and he forgot to use the tongs - the lady at the bakery yelled at him. Second - the conductor had a go at us and we were very concerned about the 60 euro fine..and Third - right after this picture, the bike fell over (and it is ok!!) So, we thought, fair enough, our bad luck is now over for the day. Let's move on.
The train from Koblenz to Frankfurt was quiet busy and we met lovely people. This family are originally from Pakistan and have made their home in Germany about a year ago. We had a wonderful time getting to know them and hear about their lives. We wish them well.
The route from Koblenz to Frankfurt follows a very pretty part of the Rhine River and then the Main R. We have ridden this route before and it was nice to see it again. It rained the whole way and we were happy to be on a train.
The train is very busy as we get closer to Frankfurt. This young man is one of the few Canadians we have met. His wife is German and they live in Ottawa, Canada and are here for 6 months.
Train #3, Wurzburg to Nurnberg. As the day has progressed, the trains have continued to get busier. This train car at one point had so many bikes that you couldn't walk through and the vestibule was full too. It was lucky that we were on first and that the conductor was relaxed and kind to us.
We have made it to Nurnberg. We will stay here for a few nights and explore. Unfortunately it is raining very hard and quite windy. It will be good to get to our hotel.
