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A Weekend in Bavaria • Sam Hawksmoor London to Erlangen by Train

I have just returned from Germany. And yes, I saved a tiny bit of the planet and went by train from London all the way to Erlangen in Bavaria – home of Siemens, Adidas, and Puma if you didn’t know. It is also a big university town specializing in medical/wellness research.

My journey begins with Eurostar that delivers you to Brussels and Deutsche Bahn railways.
Journeys such as this are not without anxiety. In England a railway station usually has two platforms perhaps three at a junction. In places such as Frankfurt or Koln there can be 20 to 30 platforms and your train will arrive on platform 4 and your next train will be on 19 perhaps and you’ll have ten minutes to get there but, and it’s a big but, when you get to 19 there will be a track change and you’ll have to haul your luggage down the steep steps back to track 5 in two minutes. (I managed to miss the bottom step twice and sprawled all over the floor, but nice people picked me up and pointed the right way and informed me I had ninety seconds left).

Somehow, I managed to catch four trains with seconds to spare and arrived in Erlangen somewhat relieved to meet my nephew. We went for coffee. Big mistake. German’s do not do good coffee. They insist that it is not possible to do a one-shot Americano and must be filled to the brim so there is no room for the hot oat milk. Luckily there is strudel, and I found a brilliant bread shop that did the best cornbread and strudel ever.

I must assume everyone is healthy in Erlangen as there are hundreds of bikes at the station scattered in a huge pile. It’s a town of 130,000 people.  Walking it when you have sciatica is possible but painful. I have no idea why I have sciatica; it began a month ago out of the blue but a lady on the train assured me that sesame oil will fix it and I await a delivery today. I shall apply it with positive thoughts.

I managed a day’s walking in Nuremberg with said nephew Dominic, and it was a busy Saturday.  Some pretty scenes around the river and people seem happy and friendly.  For me it was good not to be thinking about Trump for a few days and I was encouraged to see young people protesting against Musk’s favourite political party the far-right AFD.  The daughter of the house is avidly against the AFD and is aggrieved one of her teachers is an AFD member who makes them write essays praising Musk. Extraordinary. Something I hope wouldn’t happen in the UK.

My time with relatives was short, but so nice to catch up and discover their hopes and dreams. I was impressed the 14-year-old boy was not interested in planning a career at all. He’s going to teach surfing in South Africa and live in a Kombi. I suspect given all the careers that AI will steal by the time he is 18 it’s the exact right choice. He understands more than many of us do that doing something that will make you happy is the right thing to do.

My journey back was a tad fraught. It’s eight hours to Brussels but by hour 9 I knew I was going to miss all my connections. We trundled into Koln at 9.30 pm and although I appreciated the pretty diversion route by the river – I was worried that I’d have to rebuy all my tickets the next day and find a hotel.

My nephew’s wife found me a room in Hotel Windsor thank god. But my card didn’t work thanks to the two-step authentication which for some reason never comes through until after the ten-minute window. Luckily, they accepted cash. My room was right at the top in the roof. All well and good but I noticed the emergency fire escape sign was stuck to the ceiling. It seems in case of fire you have to climb on the bed, then the window ledge, open the window somehow and climb out onto the roof. Try that with sciatica if you will.

In the morning I walked back to the station and the DB staff were super cooperative, recognizing I wasn’t the only one who’d missed all connections. They stamped my ticket and assured me it will see me all the way to London, including Eurostar and so it was.  At every stage people were friendly and helpful and it was smooth sailing from there on. But next time I’ll build in more time between trains as I cross Germany.

**You can book a ticket with Trainline.com from London to anywhere in Europe and I recommend you do, and you can take two bags if you really need to.

© Sam Hawksmoor April 1st 2025
samhawksmoor.com

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