Germany - England 2022. November 18-19 Travel to Koln

 We had a short flight from Ottawa to Montreal before catching the plane to Frankfurt. At Ottawa security took exception to my brand new carry-on small case. There was a prolonged heavy search of my bag, turns out that they were looking for my plastic container of talcum powder. Which the X-ray questioned. They eventually let me take my bag complete with talcum powder. 

We sat on the ground in the propeller plane for 25 minutes after the scheduled departure time and arrived in Montreal thirty minutes late. A more progressive VIA management could decimate this service while Air Canada  might do better to emulate KLM - run a bus from Ottawa to connect with their flights out of Montreal.  However, we managed plenty of time to catch a flight to Frankfurt despite having to walk from one extremity of the airport to the other.

The Frankfurt flight was heavily delayed at the start,  waiting at the gate for half an hour then having to go through a 20 minute de-icing. It wasn't a very pleasant light and the crew was curt at times while service was lackadaisical.

The good news was that with the tail winds we managed to get to Frankfurt only about 3 minutes late, in spite of having to wait for the gate to be cleared.

Getting through the airport at Frankfurt was incredible. From leaving the the plane to arriving at the high speed train platform took us just 16 minutes, and this included the passport check. Our ICE train to Koln arrived a minute later and departed on time two minutes afterwards.

This type of display is shown in every car at the approach to every station. It cycles through all the transport services (bus, train, high speed train) available at that station. On the run between stations the speed is shown on this screen. The highest we noticed on this run was 301 km/hr.

Our train at Koln. We had a slow speed approach to the station, possibly slower than normal to take account of recovery time. This was the final stop from Basle.

We went down to the lower concourse and immediately saw our hotel - great planning. As it was only 0930 and check in was not until 3 p.m., we left our bags at the hotel and walked out into the town. 

Checked that the local tickets did not need to be validated.

We also took the opportunity to take a deeper look at the action at the station with its impressive overall roof with an interesting addition at the north and end. There were a large number of passenger trains coming and leaving but the we did see a TRAXX locomotive as well as an old diesel locomotive with the coupling rods and a modern coupling.

TRAXX locomotive

Koln Overall Roof

A side rod diesel switcher was trying to make its way through a large number of passenger trains

The side rods. Don't know what the word Samson means. Maybe someone was keeping an eye on me from afar

This switcher had the original hook and link couplings to which has been added an automatic coupler for the more modern passenger trains

Looked at the Cathedral which is pretty dirty in most places and badly in need of renovation

Looked through a large Christmas market.

At Vodafone we were able to obtain sim cards for our cell phones. They will work in Holland as well as Germany - and the UK?

By this time it was only just past eleven o'clock and all the chores we had listed had been successfully concluded. Time for an early lunch which started with a well earned large beer.

Fried crunchy chicken

Pork and gravy

After lunch we went in search of railway model shops and found two good ones.  We rook a U-bahn from the Hauptbahnhof to Neumarkt then changed to a tram to Aachener Strasse where we found but were not allowed to go within photo range of one of the car barns. We then took another tram to the end of the line at Sulzgurtel where we took a U-bahn to Poststrasse for the second shop. Then back to the Hauptbahnhof.

Set in the sidewalk close to a crossing near the car barns

After a short rest we looked at the trains at the Hauptbahnhof - it was now dark. The cathedral was not well lit either outside or inside and the Christmas Market was very crowded so we returned to the hotel for an early night.

The cathedral interior, although striking in its size, is as gloomy inside as it is outside. 

The Christmas Market entrance

Considering we had little or no sleep on the way over we had a very full and satisfying day.