We had an early start and a bit of panic over our train tickets. We had the confirmation but couldn’t find the actual tickets. Arriving at the station an hour and a half early, gave Mirinda enough time to find them.
Note to self: when asking for milk in your coffee at Gare de l’Est, don’t expect to get milk in your coffee.
Train #13: Paris Gare de l’Est to Frankfurt Hbf
We almost came acropper when trying to board the train. It seems a passenger needs to pay a supplemental charge with TGV as well as a reservation fee with DB.
There was a very pleasant conversation at the ticket gate with the SNCF and DB managers. They let us pay them. We raced for our carriage which, of course, was the furthest from the gates.
After this tumultuous start, the rest of the journey was fast (over 300kph at one stage) and uneventful.
We arrived in Frankfurt, said goodbye to the wonderful train manager who helped us at Frankfurt and went in search of a locker. We had an hour to wander around and wanted to dump our luggage.
A lot of the lockers at Frankfurt station didn’t say how much they cost and only took coins. That’s not exactly true. They used to say how much but some genius put the prices by the coin slot and, successive fingering had worn the information away.
Then, after Mirinda went and asked someone, we discovered there are card operated, modern ones. We stowed and strode away.
Frankfurt didn’t surprise. It looked like every other German town when leaving the station.
While we found a really nice ice cream parlour which served an excellent tiramisu cone, the street from the station wasn’t particularly pleasant.
We weren’t there long though and were soon back in the station collecting our bags and buying pretzels* for the journey.
Train #14: Frankfurt Hbf to Rostock Hbf
The ICE train we were on was lovely. We had a funny little booth to ourselves for a lot of the trip. We also had the loveliest woman taking our drinks orders.
Actually, I have been well impressed with all the train staff we’ve encountered on our many trains. And the beer is always good.
Though, Mirinda was a bit concerned with the size of the bottle until I explained that it contained 500ml which is only slightly more than a pint.
Just outside of Hannover, the train stopped. And sat. We were a bit concerned about missing the ferry. We had a sizeable buffer but you never know.
The train guy announced that we had to wait for three trains to go by and then we’d start again. This is exactly what happened. I counted them. Three went by then we set off. Lovely and accurate.
It added around 15 minutes to our journey. The trip was long enough as it was without adding another bit on. But, owing to a favourable tail wind, we made the time up.
We arrived at Rostock Hbf dead on time and were in a cab to the ferry terminal about ten minutes later.
It was then just a matter of boarding and falling into our cabin. Though not before I sat in the empty lounge to write my blog post. Until the coach party of old timers suddenly appeared and I swiftly retreated to our cabin.
Sleep tonight and tomorrow, Sweden and nearly home.
* The pretzels were for me. Mirinda had something healthy which may have given her an upset tummy.
