Travel by Train in Deutschland, circa 1975.

by John Bushouse
(Fort Wayne, IN, USA)

Salzburg

As this former member of the US Army was stationed in Germany for almost three years, traveling by train was always an enjoyable experience. Great scenery: mountains, trees, farms, sheep, and tidy at that. On Saturday, all people sweep their sidewalks, and even the less wealthy folks have a clean and tidy place. Great people: a common greeting in Bavaria is Greiss Gott, or God greets you, Germans in circa 1975 appreciated Americans to protect them from the Russians, Germans generally don't drink alcohol to get drunk loud and rowdy, just drink beer or wine because the water is not potable.

You can definately count on train arrivals and departures - Period. In case your watch doesn't work, you can set your watch as you depart on your train by the time of the departure. Being late is bad, so Germans don't do that. I've been through all these cities, plus more lessor known ones: Berlin, Dachau, Frankfurt, Grafenwohr, Karlsruhe, Kornwestheim, Ludwigsburg, Oettingen, Mannheim, Nurnburg, Salzburg, Schweinfurt, Stuttgart, Tubingen, and Ulm.

Travel by train is the norm for most longer trips in Germany. Shepherds in the distance with their flocks of sheep, take your pick of about 160 castles to visit, famous landmarks to numerous to leave one out, great food every where. The backyards of most folks houses have vegetable gardens and maybe some flowers, could be a couple of chickens, rabbits, or dogs nearby as well. Just not the American traditional backyard, grass.

I’ll just mention this, but 34 years ago, one must not flush the train toilet at the train station. Maybe I am living in the past, or maybe the rules are still the same.

Again, Germany has great people, great food, great places to visit, and lots of mountains to let the conductor of the train do the driving, to enable one to enjoy the scenery.