Train Spotting

First things first -
NOT A WORD OF SYMPATHY  PLEASE IT'S MY OWN FAULT.

Am posting this on Thursday morning at 8:00am. Have worked through the night to get the wretched tax return done as it has to be at the accountants this morning. It's not a classical tax accountant but a "club/society" structured tax advisors who one can find throughout Germany. Tend to charge less but they only do the "simple" people - no businesses or self-employed. Used them for the first time last year and they seemed to do a good job.So we are actually "members" rather than clients!

Another good cold night around -10°C (Tuesday-Wednesday). Set off with the car to find somewhere suitable to walk close by but failed. With the snow many of our usual walks are still snowbound, not even having been driven on by a tractor. In addition it's hard to find anywhere to park.

Ended up rather further away than planned but it looked like it could be a good walk, following the tractor tracks. Off we set and after 2 minutes realised Flash didn't want to come. He was lying under the car. Lots of cajouling and he made a halfhearted attempt to follow. This continued for well over 30 mins. Eventually gave up and headed back towards the car and his step got very fast.

We had been near the single track railway line from Munich to Zürich and the one Angie uses to commute to Munich. It's woefully out of date and frankly an embarrasment for Bavaria. Still using diesel & single line on such an important line. The Swiss have been offering for years to pay for it's upgrade (yes including a big chunk of the German costs). At long last plans are now in place for electrification but still single line!

I don't quite understand how Germany can export top tech high speed trains to China and not at least have a similar set up here. Munich airport to center would I am sure be greeted by the travellers but it was rejected by the parliament.

Just yesterday, Britain's National Express Group were awarded the contract to operate Nurenberg's S-Bahn network. You will find  S-Bahn networks in most large cities. They serve the wider suburbs of a city with a quick and fairly frequent service. Sometimes as in Munich they dive underground and serve the city centre too but use different tracks at different levels to the U-Bahn or Underground. Tickets are valid for both.

There have been shouts of foul play the Brits undercutting the current holders the German Railway by 200m Euros. Contract starts in 2018 and now everybody is waiting to see what Munich does as it's S-Bahn is also up for grabs for 2018.

So you are warned, visit Nurenberg and Munich within the next 3 years. After that the whole country will go to pot!

I actually wanted to Blip a rather good selfie taken on the walk but thought I owed it to Nogbad to post the train as he is battling with travel arrangements for himself and friends Phil & Paul in the UK for a trip over here in a month or three. Nogbad is rather keen on doing the train, as up until now he has done dozens of flights and  a car trip. His journey however will luckily not take him on our route. The train is Swiss carriages being pulled by two German locs.

I have Flickr'd a few trains to Mathews Album. A goods train, a Bummel Zug (2 carriage local train) and the Swiss "express". Angie's type of train also came by but just at that moment the battery died and it took me a while to get the replacement in.