Final Full Day: From Salzburg to Frankfurt

So most of my day, I was in transit. I had about a 6 hour train ride from Salzburg to Frankfurt. The train ride was fun, but long! As I started my journey, I realized that I had not provided a photo of a train compartment so, here you go…
I was pretty much alone in my compartment from Salzburg to Munich because the heat was not operational. In Munich, two guys and a lady named Yvonne joined me. Yvonne was unlike any other person I have encountered during my visit. While most Germans and Austrians I found to be very nice, they are not eagerly friendly like Americans. For instance, when I am in a group of people I will walk up to everyone and say hello. Germans and Austrians will stand back and wait to be approached and if not will not say anything. Yvonne was very much like an American… We chatted in German and English during most of the ride from Munich to Heidelburg (her home) about my trip, my mom, yoga and life. She felt familiar… As she got off at her stop, we hugged good-bye, because that is how Americans do!
In Frankfurt, I went on a mini-tour of the city. I visited Römer and saw some of the Main River. It was night and Frankfurt is known for being a rough city so, I did not want to stay out long. From what I saw, Frankfurt is quite lovely, but more of a place for business and residing and not vacationing.

Rail Adventures

I LOVE trains! At least, I love the trains in Germany, and I am sure I would in the rest of Europe! It is such a great hassle-free way to travel. I bought my ticket, got on, rode for around 3 hours, got off and was at my hotel.

They have comfortable seating, are super fast (like 180 mph/300 km fast) and offer door-to-door service, or close to it. A few things you might need to watch out for are reserved seats and the kids-free section, if you do not want to be attacked by 4 year old twin boys, who could have been extras in Children of the Corn….

So, you can reserve seats on the train. You do not know this until the person who reserved the seat arrives and pretty much kicks you out. How lovely?!?! And to make matters worse, I was so flustered by the situation that the guy had to speak to me in English so I could understand.

I ended up moving further down in the car and was in a row by myself, the whole time worried someone else would come and try to claim my/their seat. Anyway, no one did, but the terror twins. These kids ran all over the car and occasionally into the car behind us. Side Note: The high-speed ICE trains in Germany have glass, electronic doors, like a store, that connect the cars together. You do not to manually open the doors to walk between like you do on a subway. So, the terror twins would then wrestle all over the car and occasionally into the empty seat next to me. What did their mother do? Nothing! Augh!