Onboard!

While it's pretty easy to take your bike on local trains in Germany, it's a very different question on the intercities. It's understandable given the pricing structure of German rail - passenger journeys have by law a fixed price per kilometre, but bikes only cost €10 - and there is no political interest to change this. But at least even some ICEs have a few places for bikes but you have to book long in advance, and you can't choose your seats. With the result that our bikes are at one end of the train, and our seats at the other. And there are 12 carriages!

Astrid's sister, Claudia, went straight to the front of the train while we went to the back with bikes. And then we had to walk along the whole train with a couple of bags past families with pushchairs!

Still we made it! Just got two more trains to go!