Hello from Kassel Germany
Drafted started Wednesday afternoon – June 8, 2016 (fifteenth post of this travelogue)
Uploaded: Saturday afternoon – June 11, 2016
Well, actually I am cheating a bit. We are on the train from Berlin to Kassel (about 2 ½ hours). This is the second leg of our trip today. The first leg was this morning from Prague to Berlin (about 4 ½ hours). We specifically scheduled a long layover in Berlin to make sure we would get on this train. We are a bit gun shy about the trains after our experience in France. Besides that, the typical schedule calls for transfers of less than 15 minutes. With our gimpy knees, that would be cutting it too close. In addition, some of these stations are complicated with gates everywhere in the station. Indeed, in Berlin, there are three levels of train tracks and the station is more like a three story mall rather than a train station (see photo).
Inside of Berlin Train Station
In Spain, France, and Czech Republic, the train systems seem less organized when compared to Germany. In Germany, every train has a specific track permanently assigned and the trains all have printed schedules for that train and are placed on about half the seats. It is much more comfortable to know in advance where your train will be. The trains also seem to be more prompt in Germany
On this train, we have a compartment (see photo can you tell that Pat is getting tired? {grin}). I guess I prefer the non-compartment seating, but Pat likes the compartments. Unfortunately, you don’t get to choose.
Train Compartment
While we had time, I got our seat reservations for our trip from Kassel to Paris. That will be on the June 12 – Pat’s birthday. I again scheduled a longer train connection in Mannheim.
We had considered staying a night or two in Berlin, but we were there for an ISO meeting several years ago. That stay and the meeting are a bit of a blur, as I had contracted shingles and was pretty sick. I felt bad before we left Denver and even had the Gates clinic do an EKG because of the chest pain. We ended up driving to Houston (business after the ISO trip) and then flew out. On the plane I was in pretty bad pain, but they had upgraded us to business class, so at least I could stretch out. The shingles did not reveal themselves until we had reached Germany. But I degree, and the real story is that we are getting a bit worn down on touring big cities so we decided to spend an extra day in Kassel.
The weather continues to be pretty decent. We have seen a couple of short showers and the temperatures are moderate (mid-high 70s). The same can’t be said for other parts of Europe. For Example, Paris has had some major flooding.
I have been so impressed with Google Maps (both on the phone and on the computer). On the phone it saved my butt a couple of times when I got lost in the maze of streets in Nimes. I have been using the amazing detail of these maps to check out tram stops in Prague and Kassel. We will be renting a car in Kassel and the Enterprise lot is on a tram from where we are staying overnight. When we return the car, I can take the tram back to the apartment (looks like I will be within a block).
We have paid quite a bit in taxi fares and have had to put in an extra effort to schedule the taxis via the internet. Our host in Prague pointed out that we should use the Uber app on our phone. We did that for the trip from the apartment to the train station in Prague and it worked great.
That is all for this post.