Hannover to Innsbruck

This post is written by Katie, about her travel in Europe after IROS 2015.

I obtained my bag from the train station luggage locker in Hannover and headed to the platform for my City Night Line train 25 minutes early. I was surprised to see the train already waiting at the platform.

I found the right car, boarded, and found my upper bunk in a 4-bed couchette. The cabin was dark and a couple was already trying to sleep on the two bunks across from me, so I put my duffel bag on the empty middle bunk and climbed up to the top bunk.

I settled in quickly, and was ready to sleep by the time the train left the Hannover station on time around 11:40pm. I did not put earplugs in, since I figured the conductor would come through and check tickets. No one ever did (perhaps since I was supposed to board in Hamburg instead of Hannover), so after fitfully sleeping for a while as the train stopped and started I finally put in earplugs. I awoke at 6:30am to an announcement over the load-speaker. I noticed I had an email notifying me the train was late, and that I might miss my connection. At that point the delay was estimated to be 10 minutes. When we reached Munich Hauptbahnhof the delay was estimated to be 5 minutes. But we sat at Munich Hauptbahnhof for so long that by the time we left Munich Hauptbahnhof our delay was 15 minutes.

4-bed couchette cabin (middle bunk unused)

Once at Munich Ost, I could see my Euro City train on track 8 and I was on track 12. The EC train was still on track 8 once I ran to it, but the doors were locked and it pulled away.  I was less than 30 seconds too late!

I headed to the DB office, which opened at 8am, since I was not sure what trains I was allowed to ride now that I had missed my connection. They stamped my ticket and gave me two options: one with a connection and one without. Since they both were scheduled to arrive within 16 minutes of each other, I decided on the direct to Innsbruck.

With almost two hours to spare I decided to put my luggage in a locker and ride the S-bahn back to the Munich Hauptbahnhof.  I wanted to visit Munich Hauptbahnhof to see what type of refugee presence was there for an article I am writing.

Munich Hauptbahnhof

 Munich Hauptbahnhof

35 minutes before my train to Innsbruck I headed back to Munich Ost, got my luggage from its locker, and went to the platform.

The EuroCity train arrived on time, and I found an open seating car. The scenery was pretty awesome. Southern Germany and Austria have such great mountains, valleys, and rivers.  This part of the world is certainly one of my favorites so far. 🙂

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