I learned yesterday that starting Saturday (13th July), there’s engineering work on our route, so we’d have a multi change ahead of us As it is 11th July, no such fuss, and our 0855 EC398 departed on time. A much smaller train than I expected, smaller than the usual DB ICE beauties, and we had a compartment of 6. As we entered, a guy was already in with his double bass wedged precariously in the luggage racks overhead. He was brusque and unapologetic, muttering (in American English) that he’d missed his train so was on this one, and it would be best if an adult sat under the instrument in case it fell. Whilst we were digesting this, fortunately, the people who had actually reserved the other two seats turned up. Cue much affected drama as he had to take his double bass down and move compartment, and we all reconfigured ourselves.
I took a stroll to see if I could find the restaurant car. There is no restaurant car. To be fair, there was no knifey forky icon on the train in the app, so not a total surprise. Anyway, around 11.30am, a guy came round with a snack bag for each of us. Bottle of water, tasty little chocolate, a wipe, and a paprika cheese spread ryvita “sandwich”. Oh well, it went down. A while later, a man came along with a tray of snacks (paid) and a backpack of hot water for tea or coffee (free).
Timsformational 