Leg one: London to Hamburg

The day had arrived, the 8th October 2019. On a crisp late summer morning I made my way to St. Pancras station to embark on my mini adventure to Stockholm, but for now I was only going as far as Hamburg.

London to Hamburg is a long enough journey on it's own to make by rail, but it's relatively straightforward, and only involves two simple connections. My first train was a Eurostar to Brussels, from there i had a connection to Cologne, and my final connection was the internal journey within Germany from Cologne to Hamburg.

In order to do the trip on a single ticket, I was restricted to the German ICE trains between Brussels and Cologne, as DB did not sell tickets on the competing Thalys services - this restricted the effective frequency to a two hourly service, and I chose a very leisurely 11:04 departure from London, which got me to Cologne at 16:15 local time.

At the time of writing, the DB 'Sparpeis Europa' tickets look like they might be discontinued soon, due to incompatibility with the Eurostar ticket booking system. This will make journeys like this a lot harder and more expensive, so I really do hope an alternative solution is found.

The final leg from Cologne to Hamburg offered more choice, the fastest but slightly more expensive option being another high speed ICE train, but there were also plenty of old school Inter-City (IC) trains to choose from. From my experience, these trains are perfectly comfortable, and have a nice 'Bordbistro' carriage where you can grab a drink or a bite to eat. The old fashioned loco hauled trains with traditional carriages also hold a nostalgic appeal, but I stumbled across a certain train that sounded even more interesting.

At 17:09, there was a Euro-City (EC) train from Colgne to Hamburg. It was listed as a DB train, but the original departure station was Zurich - it was a Swiss train! Operated by DB in Germany, so it would be a German loco with German train staff, but the rolling stock was Swiss, and most importantly it would have a Swiss dining car. The thought that may even have one of those fancy panorama cars tempted me to book first class, but I resisted and stuck with a 2nd class ticket - and as that train ended up not containing a panorama car, I'm happy with that decision.

Back in St. Pancras, I was about to board my first train, to Brussels - except there wasn't actually an 11:04 to Brussels, at least not on the departure boards. The train I had booked was one of the new direct trains to Amsterdam, a fact that really had no impact on my journey, but nonetheless gave me a small thrill.

The renovated St. Pancras station is a magnificent building, a great example of modern architecture, preserving a fantastic historic building and blending it with some great modern design. It's just a shame that the airport style security and immigration restrictions mean that so many passengers using the station don't get to enjoy it as much as they should. Instead of being able to wait for your train in the wide open areas, or in one of the neighboring bars and restaurants, as an international passenger you are forced to wait in a crowded underground lounge that feels more like the departure area for a low cost airline flight than a train station. Unfortunately this is a fact that is unlikely to change. It's just something we have to put up with.

Right on Schedule, at 14:05, Eurostar 9126 pulled into Brussels Midi station. I had a slightly tight 20 minute connection, which made the accompanying announcement even more welcome - passengers for the ICE connection to Cologne; your train is on the platform directly across from us. And sure enough, there it was. A shiny white ICE train ready and waiting for us. If you are familiar with the station, connections at Brussels are usually very straightforward anyway (look up the 'culoir sud'), but this was by far the easiest I have ever had. As much as I long for the day, if it ever arrives, where DB start running direct ICE trains to London, this is definitely the next best thing.

The German railways reputation for efficiency and service has suffered in recent years. From my personal experience, the announcement over the sation tannoys "Heute ca. 5 minuten spater" (approx. 5 mintes later today) - often much worse - has become an all too familiar sound, and my conversations with German passengers seems to back up this loss in reliability. But ICE 17 ran on time, and was soon speeding through the belgian countryside at 300 km/h.

One of my favorite design features of the ICE3 trains is that they included a small number of old fashioned 6 seat compartments, as well as open plan seating areas. In particular, as was the case in my carriage, they often reserve a few compartments for families with small children (called "Kleinkindabteil"). It's a fantastic idea, not only so that the families who use them can have a bit of private space, but so the rest of the passengers can enjoy a train carriage free of young children!

The golden ticket of the ICE seating plan has to be the 5 seat compartments, though. They are rare, and this picture is from a different journey, where I managed to reserve seats in one for myself and my mother - we had the whole compartment to ourselves, and it was right next to the 'Bordbistro' dining car! And yes, that door does just slide shut and shut you off from the rest of the world. It's great, the ticket inspectors even knock before they open it to check your tickets.

They are fantastic for groups, and worth trying to reserve if you can. But to be honest if you are traveling on your own, or even if there are just two of you, the open plan seating areas are often better, as access is easier and you do in a lot of ways have more room. It's a matter of preference, but I find it great that on these ultra modern trains you do still often have the choice of an old fashioned compartment.

Not everything was running smoothly on this train though, and I was denied one of my guilty pleasures of traveling on the ICE trains; popping to the 'Bordbistro' for a cold draught beer, served in a real glass. When i got to the Bordbistro carriage my heart sank slightly as I found all the shutters down. As i continued around into the seating area, however I found a member of staff manning a small display of drinks and basic snacks... No, they weren't closed, she explained, but apologetically informed me that they only had what I could see on the table in front of me. They did have beer though, and she seemed especially proud to tell me that it was even cold! So I was denied my guilty pleasure of sitting down in the bar with a glass of draught beer, but I was able to bring a cold bottle of German pilsner back to my seat. I don't think i can really complain too much.

There is surely no better way to arrive in Cologne than by train, the train entering Cologne via the impressive Hohenzollern bridge, and straight into the 'Hauptbahnhof', Cologne's central station. As soon as you walk out of the Hauptbahnhof, it's impossible not be be in awe of the imposing Kölner Dom, the huge Cathedral that sits right in front of the station. Coolgne is also one of my favorite cities in Germany. While not one of the German party cities, like Berlin or Hamburg, it nonetheless has a vibrant night life, with plenty of restaurants and bars, but hasn't lost any of it's traditional charm, with a traditional German 'Altstadt' at it's heart.

The Christmas markets are some of the best in the country and I would heartily recommend a december visit by train to do some Christmas shopping and enjoying some true German Christmas atmosphere. For transport enthusiasts like myself, it also has a very interesting 'Stadtbahn' network, a sort or hybrid tram-metro system, or 'premetro'. It's extremely efficient and comprehensive and buses are noticeably absent from the city centre streets.

That's right! Spotted while waiting for my train: a 'National express' train in Cologne... it's not just the UK that has private rail operators...

I couldn't stay long in Cologne though, just enough time to take in the 'Dom', before it was time to catch my final train of this leg, the EC8 to Hamburg. As if on cue, the "Heute ca. 5 minuten spaeter" announcement boomed out over the tannoy, but 5 minutes later a chain of Swiss rail carriages trundled into my platform, including the 'Speisewagen', but without a panorama coach.

The train was not busy, certainly a lot less than an ICE would have been, and I took a seat (seat 61!) in an unreserved 4 seat table section rather than my reserved seat. Occupancy thinned out even more along the journey, and by the end I was sharing the entire carriage with just one other passenger. Obviously the highlight was taking a break in the dining car, which provided the full nostalgic appeal of old fashioned rail travel. Table service, a good quality meal served on a real plate with real cutlery. It wasn't cheap but in my opinion it was worth it for the experience and atmosphere. I'm obviously not alone, as after ordering my dinner I looked across the dining car and waved hello to a German family just about to leave who had sat across from me on that very first train from London.

We made up for the 5 minute delay and arrived on time in Hamburg Hbf. But there was one last challenge - the seemingly simple task of getting to my Hotel. it should have been a short hop on the S-Bahn, but I couldn't find the right train. In fact I went to two different platforms looking for my train, and a little embarrassingly, considering i pride myself in being good at navigating public transport networks, ended up getting on a train going the wrong way. It was only by chance that I saw a small poster that explained my predicament; the section I was trying to use was closed for maintenance works. There was a replacement bus, or I could use an alternative route via the U-Bahn.

If I was a regular user of the HVV network I probably would have been aware of the closure, but signage and information was not very good, and most disappointingly, both citymapper and google maps were indicating that the line was still open, and were showing trains as running on them. It seemed that real time information was not being shared with third party apps in Hamburg which made their usability severely limited. As someone who still likes to use the network maps and plan my own journey (one of my favorite games in London is playing 'beat citymapper'), I could live with it, but I think a lot of people would find it frustrating. Part of me wants to say this might be an example of how Germany is failing to keep up with technology, but in other German towns and cities I've had the opposite experience. I found that google maps in particular informed me of even the most last minute and temporary delays and diversions in real time and very efficiently. Maybe it's a Hamburg thing.

About half an hour later than planned, anyway, I arrived at my hotel. A nice trendy little place I found that was housed in a repurposed office block. I had a cheeky night cap at the bar, but uncharacteristically got an early night and was in bed asleep shortly after checking in. I had a fairly early start in the morning....