To Germany, Saturday

We had four trains to catch today, so started early and planned to catch the 8:30 am train to Amsterdam from Bovenkarspel. We had to be in Amsterdam to be on the 10:34 international train to Germany. We were early as usual, and walked onto the platform at Bovenkarspel at 8am to catch the earlier train just as they closed the doors and moved off. They then announced the 8:30 train was cancelled. Stress! The 9am train was running a few minutes late but was an Intercity and had us in Amsterdam at just after 10am.

The international train was nearly full, and the only place for our 20kg bags was in the overhead luggage rack. We sat opposite some German people who spoke no English. A Chinese man opposite was using a large Toshiba laptop that one lady used as a support as she walked along the aisle, to the surprise of its owner.



We left behind the flat wetlands and cows, for rolling hills and trees.



We could see we had reached Germany as the colours of the trains changed to red. 4 hours later we changed trains in Frankfurt airport, than again at Mannheim to reach Heidelburg about 3:45 pm. It was nice to be off the trains, even though they run at 170 km/h. It would be a better trip without the luggage.