2024-07 - Blog Posts
A few details from Singen Stadtpark
This bridge is not particularly big or special, but it cost YES Marks in the early 1920s, as post-WWI Germany went through a phase of hyperinflation.
A few bugs seen this summer!
The East side of Île de la Table Ronde is the noisy side, with the motorway running on the opposite side of the river. It's also the side with the widest walking track, and it was teeming with grasshoppers! I noticed a couple had landed on my shirt and were just chilling (maybe interested in eating the fabric? I'm thinking of locusts, aren't I). @teamroquette took the photos as I was unsure how much I could move without them jumping off. Turns out they were really chill.
Other critters seen this summer include some seen at Oberkirch: bees working on flowers, that's a classic, and... some less fortunate insects.
Bonus - posted here because my sister will kill me if I post this on Instagram where she can see it: a spider hanging out by Nonnenmattweiher lake.
An alternative to Diesel: the Baureihe 563
More and more of these trains have appeared in the Offenburg area recently. Technically, I could be talking about both of the trains above because I'd never seen a Baureihe 218 locomotive (right) before, though over 400 were built in the 70s, but I am talking about the train on the left: the Baureihe 563.
5 is an unusual first digit for a German train type. Locomotives start with a 1 or a 2, for electric and Diesel power respectively, while passenger-carrying multiple units start with a 4 or a 6, again for electric and Diesel power respectively. Evidently, as seen above, these trains can run on non-electrified lines, but they are not Diesel multiple units - they are battery-electric multiple units.
Part of the Siemens Mireo family, the Mireo Plus B can run on electric power either from the overhead cable, or from the onboard batteries. The manufacturer states that the train can run between 80 and 120 km on battery power before needing a recharge from overhead cable, typically at a terminal station. This makes this train ideal for relatively short runs, such as those seen around Offenburg, the central station of the Ortenau area. As such, they are becoming more common, running local services for regional operator SWEG, indifferently on non-electrified lines like the one to Oberkirch, or electrified lines such as the picturesque Schwarzwaldbahn.
I know that Japan and the UK (link to Jago Hazzard's review of the GWR Class 230 and a quick overview of the BEMU topic) have also recently (re)introduced BEMUs. France hasn't really got on-board with this yet, as far as I know. Instead, they have built lots of bi-mode trains (mentioned at the end of the post), which have electric motors which can be powered by overhead cables or by an on-board Diesel engine.
Summer highlight reel: Oberkirch
I praised this hike on a loop South of Oberkirch for its amenities, but the views were also fantastic. In chronological order, here's the first vineyard I came across on the circuit.
The first drinks hut, with schnaps, is the Köbelesberghof to the left, out of frame. The hamlet opposite, which OpenStreetMap names In der Rot, looks gorgeous among the vineyards and forest!
Just below the summit area of the Geigerskopf is the Busseck Hof vineyard, and beyond, the plains in which the Rhine flows.
Turn around at the previous photo and the path to the Geigerskopf summit will appear. A tower at the top offers some stunning, unimpeded panoramas of the Rhine plains and the Vosges on one side (Strasbourg is visible in this picture), and the Black Forest hills on the other.
Finally, climbing down, past Busseck and past the drinks hut I stopped at (Klingelberger Hütte), we reach this viewpoint overseeing the town, with the castle visible on the hills opposite. It seems that all the fruits are grown here: apples, plums, pears and grapes...
For Vectron!
Produced since 2010 by Siemens, the Vectron is a modular locomotive platform with various engine options - AC electric, quad-voltage for use across Europe, "last-mile Diesel" option for parking, Diesel motors, dual mode/hybrid... It hauls both freight and passenger trains. But the main reason I've wanted to mention the Vectron is...
this Mitchell and Webb sketch!
This is from series 3 of That Mitchell and Webb Look, which was aired in 2009. The Siemens Vectron was officially launched in 2010, so it's fair to say that the name appearing in both is a coincidence. However, when I see a Vectron, it reminds me of this sketch, so it's harder for me to take this train seriously!
But it is serious business, as it is one of the most common locos in continental Europe. Only Iberia (due to using a different gauge) and France (because if it ain't Alstom, they'll oust 'em) don't see much of them. The examples shown here are from Germany, Switzerland and Slovakia, and were all pictured in the same area of Germany. The quad-voltage version in particular allows companies to carry freight all over Europe, they're virtually borderless.
Yet here I am, still snickering at the name, by Vectron's beard!
Grand Geroldseck castle - only a cat of different coat
Close to impressive Haut-Barr castle, a one-hour hike from Saverne, sit two more ruins. All of these castles were built around the same time, late 10th to early 11th century, but despite being so close, they weren't owned by the same people.
While Haut-Barr was under the control of the Bishop of Strasbourg, the two Geroldseck castles, the Petit and the Grand, were built by the Geroldseck family, in charge of protecting the lands of the Abbey of Marmoutier. At the time, Alsace was part of the Holy Roman Empire and divided into many largely independent pieces, so these castles facing each other were on a border of sorts. However, the male Geroldseck line went extinct at the end of the 12th century, and the land was co-owned by so many people that no-one was maintaining the castle. The last stand came in 1471, when a group of disgruntled knights used it as their base. The Imperial bailiff laid siege, won and the castle was left as a ruin after that.
While Haut-Barr castle gets a lot of visitors, owing to the possibility of driving there, the Grand Geroldseck is worth the extra walk and brief climb from its neighbour. As well as the dungeon, lots of walls and rooms are still present, making it an interesting place to explore. The remaining walls continue to receive restoration work - there seem to be a few differences between my first visit with @teamroquette and my second this summer, for example, I don't remember seeing the little garden a few years ago.
All that's left to say is: "OI YOU!... YES, YOU! Have a good time."
Fruit, glorious fruit!
Little did I know until yesterday, the vineyards and orchards near Oberkirch, on the edge of the Black Forest, are magnificent at this time of year! Now I think of it, I didn't see any cherries, and apparently they are in season... maybe I just missed them. As for what they make with all this fruit in Germany, well...
That'll be schnaps.
Available in all good drink huts along the hiking trail! A friend and I saw a self-service drinks cabinet on another hike to the North of Oberkirch, but this circuit was on another level. I must have seen at least four drinks stops, ranging from a cabinet with a cash box to a full-fledged hut with shade and benches. It appears to be a local speciality, and I'd say this sells it quite well!
It's quite the feeling to enjoy a cold schorle (fizzy water with a dash of juice, I passed on the schnaps because I don't go for alcohol) with an incredible view on the way back down a hill on a hot day!
A few pictures of Bastille Day fireworks... at least whatever got above the roofline.
A year ago, I was taking off for Japan
No such five-week adventure this year, but I have the chance to relive the smell and taste of Japan courtesy of Yuki, Kazu, Asaka and Maiko who I met in Paris last month, and who gave me a lot to eat and drink! So, to mark the anniversary, I decided it was time to have nice things...
Kitsune udon with nori, ebi and yuzu senbei
The kitsune udon floored me. The smell of the soup base was enough to transport me, I couldn't get enough of that savoury scent.
Matcha KitKat, dried nattô and konbucha
I hadn't tried nattô in Japan, but I'd read it had a bit of a reputation. So I was a little apprehensive trying the nattô morsels, but a little less so when I read that dried nattô is actually milder than the real thing. And I like it! And so do colleagues I've shared it with!
The konbucha is... interesting. First, do not confuse with kombucha. I know, I know, it's very confusing. This konbucha is kelp tea, a tea made with algae, combined with plum and extra salt. It kind of tastes like the sea, only milder... It's pleasant in its own way, though I'd probably make the next one less strong.
And if you want to run through last year's voyage, I did a travel blog here, but I'll also go through some places here at a leisurely pace (I've already reviewed Kushimoto, Hikone Sawayama and Nagahama -to name what I can remember- from that trip here).
It's been a wild couple of weeks in France, so when it got to a point when I had to go outside, I couldn't set my mind to find somewhere interesting. So I settled on nowhere special, just somewhere across the border with a train station and countryside not too far.
Lahr/Schwarzwald. Perfect.
Actually, there was a slight purpose to the trip given the time of day. I was hoping to see what was running on the Frankfurt-Milan "EuroCity Express". I'd seen an Italian train run it before, and this time it was a RABe 501 Giruno, the most recent Swiss high-speed train. I'd seen it before, but not caught a decent shot of it, so here it is!
The busy Karlsruhe-Basel main line sees a lot of traffic: higher speed like the ICE 4 at the very top and the ECE (I say higher because they can't travel at proper high speed because of everything else), regional trains, international freight... Among the inter-city trains out that morning was this Flixtrain, the same Flix who run buses across continental Europe. They have a few lines in Germany, using some old Inter-Regio carriages.
For an outing where I was just expecting to watch trains go by like a cow in a field, I dare say got more than I was banking for that morning, as a Baureihe 708.3 track inspector (Doktor Gelb?) and a brand new Mireo Smart regional set with no livery, either undergoing testing or out for delivery, made some surprise appearances.
