Monday 24 June - Travel Mannheim to Dresden

We took an early train to Frankfurt where we had to change to the train to Dresden.  This would give me time to look around at Frankfurt.  Somehow the train managed to lose 25 minutes between Baden Baden and Karlsruhe before it even got to Mannheim and a change of platform was necessary there. This seems normal for DB and the train staff don't even bother to apologize. They just say how late the train will be. It must be pretty dispiriting working for DB at the moment.

Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof is enormous and it is difficult to photograph. 

One side

The other side - there is more to the right.

The front exterior is being renovated and is behind a screen. The trams leave from just in front of the station forecourt.

While I was looking around Mary was sitting in a corner with a coffee.  No this is not a piece of art but an electrician working in the circulating area.

DB can only be described as a complete f--- u-. There was more confusion in Frankfurt because the train before ours on the same platform was running late.  There was some indecision as to which train would use the booked platform and the details were not posted until shortly before our train arrived.  The announcer then said the train was reversed.  But it wasn't so we were waiting at the wrong end - we were in the second car so we had to run pretty near the whole length of the train. Every rail trip on DB is an adventure.

We left Frankfurt about five minutes late and made up a bit of time at intermediate stops but a serious delay because of permanent way work brought us into Dresden some 15 minutes late.  We reversed direction at Leipzig which is an extremely large station.

Standing at a red signal waiting for opposing trains to clear a single line section.

In front of the hotel at Dresden Hauptbahnhof.

InterCity Hotels provided a comprehensive local travel pass for the duration of our stay. It proved invaluable.

The Zwinger

There wasn't time to do much at Dresden, we took a tram to the Zwinger and then came back to the hotel.  Dresden seems full of large unattractive buildings and has very little traffic.  Dinner was at the Chinese buffet next to the hotel.
The hotel has an asparagus festival (spargelzeit)
Cream of asparagus soup
Warm asparagus with smoked salmon
Tagliatelle with asparagus, Hollandaise sauce and chicken
250g of asparagus with Hollandaise sauce or melted butter and new potatoes
Asparagus with cooked ham or Black Forest ham
Wiener schnitzel with asparagus, Hollandaise sauce
Roasted salmon filet with white and green asparagus, Hollandaise sauce or melted butter and new potatoes.
English hotels could take up the same theme with spam. 

Sunday 23 June - Freiburg

Freiburg is about an hour and a half south of Mannheim, close to the Swiss and French borders. We were met at the station by an English speaking guide who called up our vintage tram for a two hour tour of the city.

There is a bridge across the DB platforms where the trams stop.  Access to the main line platforms are direct by steps or escalator

Waiting for the tram

Our charter tram is maintained by the friends of the Freiburg Street Railway

Freiburg is one of the most ecologically advanced cities.  It has a population of 220,000 and has been growing at 1% a year. All flat roofs must have a green cover because this uses 80% of the rainfall and means less pressure on the waste water system. New houses and apartments are energy saving. Motor vehicles are discouraged while public transport is cheap and easy to use.
We rode several routes -the #5 out to Maria von Rudolph Platz, back along the #3 route into town then the #3 route to Vauban, across town on the #2 route to Hornusstrasse and back along the #5 route into town.

The power poles have ivy growing up them.

At Vauban

At the end of the run at Bertoldsbrunnen

We had lunch at a brew pub - cream of asparagus soup and turkey salad/turkey breast.
The town itself is interesting with many old but well preserved buildings.

Every half hour at Bertoldsbrunnen the trams come together and stop for several minutes to allow people to transfer.  Here we see eight trams (there are two on each line on the right.  It is like a well orchestrated ballet.

The metre gauge was chosen over standard gauge to allow the tramway to be constructed through these arches.

 

 The cathedral is enormous. It is built of a warm red stone, well maintained and with some good stained glass. 

The Kaufhaus 1520 with ground floor arcades and richly adorned gables.  The Kaufhaus (literally buying house) was used by local merchants for meetings, conferences and lively festivities.

Kaufhaus

Kaufhaus

It may be a cheap and environmentally sound place to live but I am not sure I would want to live there. It is too much of cookie cutter approach. Everything looks the same. We made our way to the station and took a train back to Mannheim where a girl at the front desk suggested a good restaurant on the other side of the railway tracks on the banks of the Rhine.  It turned out to be a very good restaurant with good staff.  Schnitzel and salad and chicken on salad.  We had a glass of the local Reisling which was excellent.

Saturday 22 June - Baden Baden and Karlsruhe

There is always something happening at the station - as seen from our bedroom window. Three high speed trains ready to depart.

A free day today with our first class Eurail passes. We first went to Baden Baden on an ICE  3.
There was not much by the station but a man in a shop told us to take the bus the 7 km into town
The driver sold us a family day pass and took us into town. The first stop was the tourist office to get a map. The office is in the Trinkhalle, a beautiful large 1839-42  building with a colonnade and Corinthian pillars where people used to take the waters. 

Trinkhalle

Trinkhalle

Late baroque Theatre built 1860-62 in the style of the Paris Opera.

Two fisted coffee drinker.  Lost in translation, Mary finished up with two lattes.

The whole area is well maintained and walking along by several museums was a pleasure. The stream had been reinforced along the length of its bed.
We went into the Altstadt which had lots of steps. The buildings were old, well maintained and beautiful. This is an attractive town.

Lunch was in a beer garden: liver dumplings and sauerkraut/boiled sausage and potato salad washed down with a light beer/white wine spritz.

Click here to see all pictures taken at Baden Baden
http://www.flickr.com/photos/colinchurcher/sets/72157634527385671/
Click below to see these pictures in slide show format:

The bus brought us quickly back to the station and we caught a late-running ICE to Karlsruhe which can only be described as a mess. Half of the city is under construction. In any case it has very few redeeming features. 

Marktplatz

Marktplatz

Marktplatz - with old style diamond pantograph.

Marktplatz is a flower and vegetable market and the trams, many diverted or bustituted, have to make their way between the construction fences.
The Schloss appeared to be an interesting venue on the map.  It is an enormous curved building in front of which there was a performance.  Maybe there are formal gardens round the back?

The Schlos Karlsruhe

Unfortunately no. Junk food and a Bob Dylan imitator who wasn't very good. The gardens are more like a forest. There is a miniature railway giving rides using a 1939 wood burning Henschel 0-4-0 steam locomotive.
We  came back to Mannheim on a TGV from Marseilles. So far the only train we have used in Germany that has been on time has been a French one.

This was action we didn't anticipate.  A tire fire in Ludwigshavn

We went into the centre of Mannheim this evening.  There are several wide pedestrian only streets with street cars running through them.  Very impressive.

Interesting street art

The streets are quiet because there are no motor vehicles

The smoke from the tire fire is still in the air

There was a large peaceful Turkish demonstration and the police were driving around advising everyone to stay indoors because of the smoke. Returning to the hotel took a little longer than anticipated because the door interlock failed on the tram.  The driver and the driver of the next tram fiddled with the doors and eventually everybody was turned out, the doors locked and the tram driven off empty.  In the meanwhile at least ten trams were backed up by the blockage.

Friday 21 June - Heidelberg

Ian - there'll be another one along in about ten minutes

There are many ways to get to Heidelburg from Mannheim but the #5 tram via Weinheim is by far the longest as it goes through two sides of a triangle. Then trams run in a ring in both directions. We took the first tram to Kafertal and changed to the through tram there. While waiting for the tram there was time to look at the car barns.  

Interesting work train at Kafertal

Most trams are single ended with doors on one side only. Those going to Heidelberg have to have doors on both sides and are double ended.
The route from Kafertal is under railway rules and this includes some single track through towns with little room and also some running on streets. There are even sections with grass growing between the rails.
There is a ridge of hills in the distance and a lot of farming, both grain, market gardening and small patches of vineyards and berry bushes.
We went right into Heidelberg to the hauptbahnhof and found a map at the Tourist Office. A quick tram ride back to the old town and we walked through to the main square and found the funicular. 

The funicular is in two parts. The lower section is with recent equipment and runs smoothly in tunnel most of the way. The upper section is much longer and uses very old wooden cabins that creak a great deal. This part is through thick mixed deciduous forest with very tall trees and embankments covered in foxgloves. The views from the top are good but somewhat restricted by the vegetation.

We found a small place for lunch, Wiener schnitzel, chicken salad and Heidelberg beer.

Crossing the river by the old bridge we climbed up to the Philosophers' Path. This was a very steep climb indeed
It seems the philosophers would climb up here to contemplate their problems. I would think the first question to cross their minds would be "Why do I have to climb all this way to think?" The hillside was covered in cherry trees and other vegetation. The views across the river and over the town were exceptional and worth the climb.

View from Philosophers' Walk

From Philosopher's Walk

We walked back over the main bridge to catch the tram back to Mannheim.

The footpath falls more gently down to the town and we walked back and caught the #5 tram the direct route back to Mannheim.
This evening we decided to explore the other (west) end of tram line #4 which runs into Ludwigshavn to Oggersheim, where the street rules end and on railway rules to Bad Durkheim.  The east end was not much to write home about so we didn't have high hopes for this section.  We were proven wrong. Even before Oggersheim there was a lot of open country and one small platform was partly encased with scottish thistle.  The first part after Oggersheim was thickly wooded then the country flattened out and there was intensive market gardening with all sorts of vegetables imaginable, cabbages, asparagus, lettuce, rhubarb etc.  There were also some fruit trees, especially cherries which seem to do well here.  The biggest surprise of all was when the fields changed to vast vineyards stretching as far as the eye could see. The tram was well full as it only runs every 30 minutes in this section.  Bad Durkheim was also an interesting place.  The tram makes a circle around the village square and the DB branch terminus station is close by, there was a diesel train waiting to leave.

Bad Durkheim

Bad Durkheim