Train to Frankfurt

The long 3-legged train ride from Kitzbühel to Frankfurt took up most of today. From Kitzbühel-Hahnenkamm station (the secondary station at Kitzbühel, where there's no office or ticket machine, just the platforms and the tracks), I jumped on the 10:55am local train back to Wörgl; and from there (with a mere 6-minute change gap!), I caught another local train up to Rosenheim, which is just over the German border. Then, it was 4½ hours on an InterCity train, direct from Rosenheim to Frankfurt (via Munich, Stuttgart and Heidelberg). Not the most eventful of days — but no problems on the trains, and I reached Frankfurt at a reasonable hour.

I found an empty cabin when I jumped on the train at Rosenheim, and I had it to myself for the first leg of the journey. When we reached Munich, I was joined by a German family of 3 (parents and a 3-year-old kid), who had reserved their seats in the cabin, and who hardly bothered me at all during the ride. They got off at Stuttgart; and in their place, the cabin was filled by a loud-mouthed African mother, and her rather-annoying little kid. I endured my new companions for a while: but eventually it was just too much, so I bailed out and moved to a new spot, this time in the regular aisled seating area.

Scenery-wise, there wasn't much going on. It's funny to observe how when you cross from Austria into Germany, the scenery changes immediately from striking snow-covered mountains, to flat boring woods and farmlands. As I've gotten used to, border control simply did not happen on the train today: I don't know exactly where I crossed the border, and I don't think it really matters anyway. The only real giveaway, was the change in announcements from "thank you for travelling with Austrian Railways", to the now-familiar "thank you for travelling with Deutsche Bahn, goodbye".

It was dark and quite cold (is it just me, or am I saying that an awful lot these days?) when I arrived in Frankfurt. Fortunately, my hostel was directly across the road from the station, so it wasn't too hard to find it or to reach it.