Bremen to Cologne (Köln) by train
Another day spent travelling …
We hopped onto the intercity train, which was very smooth and fast. After a few hours there was an announcement that the train was terminating at Düsseldorf rather than Köln. A nearby passenger helped translate, telling us we were arriving at platform 15 and had to walk to platform 60 (!). After alighting she walked a few yards and said “here we are” so it transpired she had said platform 16 (it just sounded like 60).
A few minutes later another swish train pulled up and we completed our journey.
Annoyingly, the phone 5G (and 4G) networks failed to work at the *exact* time that we wanted to use Google Maps to find our hotel. We eventually worked it out by trial and error. This is the rather roomy hotel room:
The view from the window included the nearby cathedral:
Tomorrow we will explore Cologne. Then on the next day onwards to Strasbourg.
3 comments
last time i was in Strassbourg, I caught a train in the opposite direction. (for a flight to Norway of Frankfurt). After being evacuated from the waiting hall by 3 soldiers with guns, concerned about an apparently abandoned suitcase.
Kathy, next time I’m going to take an actual compass. We knew we had to walk West to find out our hotel. But Google Maps was not working because of no internet and my compass app just spun uselessly.
It was overcast, so we couldn’t see any shadows.
A real compass would have been just the ticket.
the other problem is that in the northern hemisphere it’s very easy to get disoriented, eg if the sun is out, north is in the ‘other’ direction! and you would need a northern hemisphere compass!