An exciting journey

The predictable cold front came through in the night, clearing the skies but lowering the temperature by a good 10 degrees. The storm flooded the rivers and brought trees down. We could see more of the lake, though, with Radolfzell's squatting stone man and waterbirds in the foreground.

Where we sat waiting at Singen station

When we reached the platform from which our train was supposed to leave, we found a notice telling us that the train had been cancelled due to a fallen tree on the line between Radolfzell and Singen. So what to do? Our connection to Köln depended on us catching that particular train. I hurried to the DB Reisezentrum where the lady at the desk told me that the replacement bus wasn't leaving for another hour, so our best option was to take a taxi to Singen ("or call for one") and try to rebook at Singen station. Only two taxis were lining up at the station. The driver of the smaller one refused to take us because he had other jobs to do. The driver of the minivan, a woman, kindly allowed us to share a ride with five other stranded passengers --- three schoolgirls and a friendly Swiss couple on their way home to Bern. We chatted to the Bernese couple as we rode along the sunny road and shared the cost of the ride with them. Singen wasn't too far. At Singen station we lined up at the office and got our tickets modified. The new itinerary required changing trains at Offenburg and Mannheim, instead of Offenburg only, and had us reaching Köln an hour later than planned, so that was fine.

Castle on a hill near Singen

Flooded fields

After sitting on the cold platform at Singen for nearly an hour we were glad to board the Schwarzwaldbahn train, a double decker which gave us great views from its upper deck. I don't remember ever having had such an exciting ride. The first part under blue sky took us past a series of little castles on steep, isolated hills and through pretty little towns, with free range chickens or pregnant goats in people's gardens. Then we started to notice the flooded fields and realised that they were part of the Danube that has overflowed its banks everywhere on these upper stretches. The floods were extensive. Herons stood at the edge of the fast flowing water, searching in vain for food. I began to feel alarmed that the rail track would go underwater, so close were the floods. Even on the top deck of the train, we'd be in trouble then. We managed to get through to Donaueschingen station with mere inches to spare, and then the clouds descended and a blizzard began. Beyond that stop, around Villingen, the snow fell so heavily we could scarcely see anything but whiteness through the windows. Then the storm eased off and the views were marvellous, white branches of fir trees, sloping white fields dotted with half-timbered Schwarzwälder barns and farmhouses. The young Danube was still rushing torrentially downhill; then we entered a series of tunnels and went round some long curves in the line (at over 2200 ft above sea level, according to Chris' flight app. which tracks our position as if we were in a plane!) and we were on the other side of the watershed, heading downhill, and following the River Riss instead, likewise flooding the fields. At an intermediate station we were at a standstill for about 20 minutes, anxiously checking our watches to see if we'd be able to make our connection at Offenburg.

Blizzard at Villingen

No problem, we caught the Berlin (!) train at Offenburg (Train No. 16) which we had to leave at Mannheim. With the disruption on the line we'd taken as well as considerable disruption at Stuttgart, something to do with the fire brigade, and floods near Trier, this was a very crowded train, but we not only found seats, we were able to buy sandwiches from the Bord-Restaurant too. At Mannheim we had to change to the train bound for Dortmund that would bring us to Köln (Train No. 17). Mannheim station has some significance for me. On the spot, when I was 16, with a family I'd never met before, with whom I was going to spend 3 months in order to learn German, I caught the train from Mannheim to Wiesloch-Waldorf, having travelled from London by myself. I met my host family for the first time very early in the morning beside the cross of the Bahnhofsmission on Mannheim's Platform 1. It was snowy then, too (in January 1968); they pulled my luggage to their house on a sledge.

The ride to Köln took us past the Frankfurt international airport, planes and control tower in sight through the window. The approach to Köln's Hauptbahnhof took us across the Rhine bridge with a view of the barges, the Kranhäuser and the TÜV tower. (Chris has worked with the people who work there from time to time.) Unfortunately it was raining again, so after we'd checked into our room at the Ibis Köln am Dom hotel, on the station premises, and had ventured outside for a short walk, we got wet again. We didn't have much time to spare because my friend Anne-Ute, a regular guest of the CFUW's Diplomatic Hospitality group and former member of my Deutschsprachige Konversationsgruppe during her three years in Ottawa, had invited us to her house for supper, and had promised to pick us up. And so she did, ganz pünktlich, with her daughter Janina in the car as well. We had a wonderful welcome at their house, meeting Anne-Ute's husband Reinhold as well. He came from nearby Düsseldorf; Anne-Ute was actually born at this comfortable house. It's a pity that it was so wintry while we were here, because her garden is lovely too, as we could see even in the dark. We were served a lovingly prepared supper with flutes of blue-tinted champagne to start with, and talked to Janina about the thesis she wrote in Konstanz (she'd lived near Singen, see above) to do with the analysis of micro-organisms in the Bodensee. She confirmed that the lake is getting cleaner and healthier, these days! At the end of the evening, instead of driving us straight back to the hotel, the two women took us on a tour of the city and its landmarks, Anne-Ute driving and Janina giving us an impromptu and very competent and interesting description of what we were seeing: the trade hall at Deutz, the medieval gate towers in the former city walls, the 1960s' opera house, etc. The best views were of the floodlit cathedral as we crossed the bridges back and forth over the Rhine.

Reinhold had strongly recommended that we see inside the Kölner Dom before leaving in the morning, and this is what we did, wondering, when we saw it, whether the nave was even higher than the one at Ulm. We found the "starke Christoph im Dom zu Köln am Rhein" that's mentioned in Heine's poem set at the end of Schumann's Dichterliebe song cycle, that my "Christoph" sings at home, but not the picture of Mary "auf gold'nem Leder bemalt" that's mentioned in another of those poems / songs. We are now sitting on Train No. 18, an international IC express that's rumbling through Belgium between Liege and Brussels, although I began writing this post during yesterday's train rides.