In The Lap of Luxury

Lately we’ve been taking the train to wherever we’ve been needing to go, instead of chancing our arms with the complete randomness of the ‘mitfahrgelegenheit’ system of car-sharing, where you book a ride with someone and then pray for three things to happen; a) That they actually show up in the first place. b) That they’re not a crazed maniac. c) That your fellow passengers are also not crazed maniacs.   Taking the train negates at... Read More

Hello, Hannover

Good Morning, Hannover... To escape the complete emptiness that envelops Frankfurt every Friday night for the entire weekend, and in order to be with Anna’s family for a family celebration, we went up to Hannover last weekend for a change (which is supposed to be as good as a rest). Needless to say, owing to our usual quality planning, it also ended up being my first day of ‘proper’ work in a long time so, barely able to see from tiredness,... Read More

The Can & Cannot’s of Train Travel – Part II

It was a big NO, for the Nozomi... From the positively ‘cannot’ to the ‘maybe can’, train travel can be a fun, scenic and enjoyable way to get around. But it can also be awful – having talked about the two absolute worst-case scenarios yesterday, here we look at things that aren’t as bad…although still frequently unfortunate.   Savings, what savings? Across the world, I’ve paid a wide variety of prices for train travel. In Ireland... Read More

The Can & Cannot’s of Train Travel

  From Munster to Frankfut, mit liebe (with love). With summer heat rapidly covering every corner of Germany (along with E-Coli), it’s time for a raft of German holidaymakers to look forward to the spuriously-titled ‘savings’ priced tickets and, if they’re especially lucky, have a free roasting thrown in. I say that because last year, many of the intercity trains in Germany suffered malfunctioning air conditioners, sending temperatures... Read More

4 Bodies, 6 Bags & A Giant Rucksack Bound For Frankfurt.

The relative expense of the Deutsche Bahn national train system in Germany means that, unlike back home where insurance and potential murder concerns have prevented a nationwide take-up, car-sharing on long journeys has become very much part of the norm over here. I’m not entirely sure how it all works, but it seems to be mostly borne out of financial necessity, with ticket prices from Muenster to Frankfurt for example seemingly often... Read More

What’s ‘bed’ in German?!

After a really great Easter back at home eating good food, drinking good drink, and catching up with friends, it was high time to head back to Germany to begin the settling down properly. Unfortunately, when we planned our period of yo-yoing back and forth between Dublin, it seemed most likely that we still wouldn’t actually have a place to live when we came back to Frankfurt and thus would have to continue our apartment search. Like I say though,... Read More

The Travel Bahn

A German Barbecue. Last time I wrote, I was staying in Ochtrup in the North-West of Germany, in particular I was patiently working my way around various galleries in the Dutch town of Ootmarsum, having some difficulty believing that artists in a town completely full of artists could still command such high prices for their work. Anyway, after one more night, a trip briefly around a park in a town called Gronau (along with a trip to the local McDonalds... Read More

The Summer’s Best Escape Routes…

Will it or won't it...not a safe bet this summer, I'm afraid... Last week I made a bold speculation that the airlines may very well be screwed over for the next 2 years – if, as it did the last time it erupted, the Icelandic volcano continues on for that length of time. What that means, until such time as the respective European aviation authorities manage to gather around one table and sort out a unified response and guidelines on what... Read More