The ICEs are still in their original red and white paint scheme, whereas the French have changed from their orange and grey to a blue and grey. The TGVs are also much shorter, as they have two decks instead of one. Our ICE had 14 carriages including a restaurant car and the two locomotives. We passed some trains on the way that had three 14-car sets, for a massive 42-car passenger train! Hence even the small regional stations are ridiculously long. I also noticed that the ICEs are a bit noisier than the TGVs.
The train arriving at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof
Our train arrived on time, and it took me a while to find somewhere to stow my suitcase - the designated luggage racks were full. I eventually asked a lady, in German, where I could stow my bag. To my surprise, the overhead racks were large enough to fit my suitcase in. It was a good thing I paid the extra €4.50 to reserve a seat, it also guaranteed me a table to work at. This train was also much busier than the TGV, and it also took a bit longer to travel the same distance, mainly because it had several more stops. We stopped at Hanau, Fulda, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Göttingen, Hildesheim and Braunschweig.
Before we arrived at Fulda, it was announced that there would be a second delay of 10 minutes. To say that one male passenger was upset would be an understatement. He smashed his fist against the seat in disappointment, then made a call to whoever was picking him up in Fulda, starting the conversation with "Diese scheisse Deutsche Bahn". Some passengers had to calm him down. He was upset at potentially missing the start of the soccer game. Really?
The scenery on this trip was also not as nice as the trip from Paris. There were many more tunnels, and more fences and the like blocking the view. When we did have a view, the trees and bushes were a lovely shade of green. Germany has also embraced clean energy much more than Joe Hockey and the rest of Australia - there were many instances of wind farms and solar farms right next to each other, including one absolutely enormous one just south of Berlin.
I was worried about transport to my accommodation in Mitte when the final station was announced as Berlin Ostbahnhof. I needn't have worried - the train also stopped at Spandau and Hauptbahnhof, the latter of which I was originally due to get off at.
The weather got progressively worse the closer we got to Berlin. It hadn't rained up until this point on my trip, but there was a light drizzle as we went past Braunschweig. The sun peeked out from the cloud a couple of times, but that was as good as it got until we reached Berlin, when blue sky started to break out. By the time I arrived in Berlin the clouds had all cleared and the sun was shining.
See everyone from Berlin tomorrow.
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