ICE: Frankfurt-am-Main - Berlin
I enjoyed my first ride on the Intercity Express three and a half years ago, on April 2nd, 2002, when I traveled from Frankfurt-am-Main to Berlin, as an IT consultant going to our Berlin branch:
The electronic tableau over the sliding glass doors shows the speed: 240 km/h. And we were going 255 km/h at some point (may be we reached even higher speeds but, of course, I was not staring at the electronic board during the whole four-hour trip). That’s, undoubtedly, the fastest speed I’ve ever traveled at, without leaving the ground. The breathtaking views flew by at an amazing speed, a bit blurred: wheat fields, green hills, modern windmill farms looking like giant plastic toys. The seats are as large as business class armchairs on a Boeing jumbo jet, but there is so much more free space, you could spread your legs all the way, even if your name is Arvydas Sabonis. You can work on a table in front of you, and on the walls there are electric sockets to plug your mobile phone or a notebook. A smiling lady in a uniform serves coffee and tea. (Hey, that’s almost scary, I already sound like a sales representative of Deutsche Bahn…) Well, the other side of the medal is that you gotta pay for what you got. First class tickets cost a fortune. I presume lots of people travel in the first class just because their company covers for it. Most passengers are wearing business attire and are working either on big piles of papers or PC notebooks. They got no time to waste: four hours is half of a working day and they’ll probably charge their clients for this. I am also working on my new Siemens silver-colored notebook, sort of… I was supposed to read the documentation and some specs, but for now I am writing this journal entry instead, at 240 km/h.
October 20th, 2005 at 10:44 pm
Ooooh.. Ive never been in one, have seen them go by a number of times as one of the largest stations in the country is nearby, as well as one of the international routes to White-Holland. Of course they dont go nearly as fast here as you experienced :) Combination of old tracks and trying not to blast people off the station :) I probably wont ever travel in one. The tickets for it are so expensive! I have however been on a train to Belgium. I dont care what they say about Belgium, if anything they got really nice trains. Working doors, no graffiti, a digital destination display, comfortable seats and you can actually sit down! Perhaps one day I’ll be on an ICE but I’m not counting on it :)
September 7th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
Are you there?
Thanks for clearing this up .