Day 14: Nürnberg – Karlsruhe

by bretzelitos

Early out today… breakfast at 0800 as our train left Nürnberg around 0930 for a tour through through Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg towards Karlsruhe.

After a very nice last ever breakfast in this MARITIM hotel, we joined Nürnberg Central station where our train was put in service today – perfectly on time. We had one of the new concept trains called INTERCITY 2. It is a double-decker train, approved up to 160 kmh (=100 mph) with five carriages only. The connection ran from Nürnberg via Crailsheim, Aalen, Stuttgart, Pforzheim to Karlsruhe on regional tracks that were planned and constructed as such in late 19th century or shortly thereafter. Only shortly, between Stuttgart and Vaihingen, we joined fast track infrastructure.

Unfortunately, we had some delay developping on our ride as the train conductor reported some problems with one of the IC2 carriages. That lead to a 40 minutes stop in Schorndorf. Luckily, Deutsche Bahn was able to fix it eventually and we were able to continue our ride without further issues.

After arriving at Karlsruhe Central Station, we took a taxi to our hotel KAISERHOF which is situated close to the core city center. We took some refreshments and went out for lunch right away – on a terrace in warm and sunny 29 degrees Centigrade. We continued our visit at the ‘Badisches Landesmuseum’ located in the castle of Karlsruhe. For four Euros entrance fee, we did not miss the opportunity to climb the staircase towards a gallery on top of the castle tower where we were able to take some nice panoramic pictures of the surroundings. In the background, we were able to see the hills of the Pfälzer Wald, Odenwald, Black Forest and Vosges – latter ones already in France – as Karlsruhe lies in the Rhine rift valley. Finally, we took a short stroll through the ‘Schlosspark’ before taking some rest in our hotel room.

To close the day, we went to a tapas bar close by – called BESITOS – where we had authentic Spanish food, wine and cocktails to celebrate the last evening abroad on this year’s trip.