bretzelitos

Getting up early in Munich is not so bad at all – especially if it includes a real Bavarian breakfast. Rindermett, Leberkas – additionally some cereals. This sounds good for the start. I took my ICE train to Frankfurt at 0941 – great service, fast travel and interesting people in my compartment to talk to. There were three US female student of law that had a summer course in Innsbruck, Austria and who were returning to Houston, Texas from Frankfurt Airport that day. First, I was a bit turned down by their eating customs as they brought three bags of Fast Food to the train. Nevertheless, we had a good conversation about a lot of topics, including stuff they learn today and about Enneagram as well as the importance of adjusting yourself to reach targets. Next to them, one more girl boarded the train – a professional of fashion arts, photography and running fashion shops in big cities. We had quite a nice conversation, very enjoyable indeed. Between Ingolstadt and Nuremberg, we were going 280 kmh or 175 mph – you actually did not really feel it. But it was impressive how quickly we overtook all the cars on A9. Service and people we absolutely splendid, no worries at all.

I left them in Frankfurt Central Station to board the ICE train to Amsterdam Central Station.

However, this train had quite a bad maintenance record as it seems. In First Class, no seat reservations were visible and also no coach numbers were displayed. Later, in Duisburg, a PA was done that wagon 33 in Second Class needs to be evacuated as the air conditioning system failed. It took approximately 20 minutes to remove all passengers, put them either out or give them advice what to do next. Additionally, there we loads of passengers without seat reservation in Second Class. The “chef de cabine” spoke to all of us the famous words when crossing the Dutch border: “Wir bitten um ihre Aufmerksamkeit”. Oh oh… not again? But yes indeed… He declared the train to stop circulating in Arnhem as it was irresponsible to continue with so many issues, a passenger charge above and even closed carriages.

So I took two Dutch Intercity trains to follow the path my train was not able to continue. Arnhem to Utrecht and Utrecht to Amsterdam CS.

In Amsterdam, I took a tour through Red Light district and had some Argentinian steak prior to return to the hotel to enjoy some beers and write this blog. I realized as well why the hotel rooms were so expensive – Gay Pride is in town and will give a good boost for the LGBT community. I reckon it shouldn’t be done here in Amsterdam as gay life is very much accepted here – it should be very much held in some other areas, inside and outside of Europe.

So have a look at my photos!