It has been a long day. Star of the day is the DB app which has allowed us to cope with the various delays with zero stress and panic, so we arrived at the guest house 45 minutes later than expected – funny that the initial Eurostar delay has propagated throughout the entire journey of 5 trains (including the underground) and 1000km of distance.
The other stars of the day are of course, the girls. G has been clearly very bored at being cooped up all day, but has shown immense resilience at keeping a positive outlook and being persuadable to be entertained other ways, and her older sister has been remarkably patient with her, and displayed great good humour too.
The Pension am Rathaus hotel is simple, old school, clean and seems quiet. It is above a Spanish restaurant, and as Spain is 2-1 up against France at the moment, it’s possible it may not stay that way…
The key code system worked fine in the end too, thank goodness. It was just a metal box with a keypad and I’d got about 3/4 through the code (more or less, but not quite the same as my mobile number…) and a key fell into the opening, like an unimaginative vending machine.
One thing of note today on the 3 DB trains. No barriers at the stations. There were ticket inspectors on the first two trains, but at least halfway into the journey, and they were happy to scan one of the Interrail QR codes, not all four. One inspector glanced at my seat reservation piece of paper and walked off saying “I trust you” (in English). We’re in 1st class, remember! UK train staff can be perfectly pleasant (especially in 1st class) but guaranteed all codes would need to be scanned, and would have gone through machines at the train barriers too.
Tomorrow – NO trains, lots of fresh air and movement! 😃 Forecast was for heavy rain, but looks now more like very warm, if rather humid.
Timsformational 