Family travel,  Frankfurt,  Germany

Day 6, Part 1 – Frankfurt – Köln

October 12, 2013.

I actually waited for this day because we had bought a family ticket to Köln by train. Guess how much we paid for the family ticket? €44! Can you believe that? Yes, but that was for the slower train, not ICE high-speed train. We checked three days earlier that for a family of 4, ICE fare would cost us €138 but we did not buy because we were afraid that we might want to go somewhere else; Berlin perhaps. Few days later we decided to go to Köln and went to Deutsche Bahn counter to purchase ICE ticket but little did we know that the later we buy, the more we have to pay. It would cost us €368! We were not willing to spend that much so we asked for cheaper ticket. So yes, we bought the €44 ticket. We were not rushing anywhere and I thought it would be nice to capture some photos along the way. I don’t think we would be able to do that if we were to take ICE high-speed train.

DBticketsOur ticket.

Like previous days, we took the train from Offenbach OST to Am Main Hauptbahnhof. We were 10 minutes late and ran as fast as we could to catch the train to Köln. We knew for a fact that the trains in Europe are very punctual. Lucky the train was still there. Perhaps they have a grace period of 30 minutes or so because we waited about 20 minutes in the train before it departed.

train-from-FBfIn the train; still at Frankfurt Am Main Hauptbahnhof.

So, our train route: Bahnhof-Siegen | Siegen -Köln Hbf.  And for my own record, here are the stations that we passed by from Frankfurt Hbf: Galluswarte – Messe – Frankfurt West – F-Eschersheim – F-Frankfurter Berg – F-Berkersheim -BadVibel Sud – Bad Vilbel – Dortelweil – Groß Karben – Okarben – Nieder-Wollstadt – Bruchenbrücken – Bad Nauheim – Ostheim – Butzbach – Kirch-Gons – Langgons – Großen-Linden – Wz-Dutenhofen – Gießen – Wetzlar – Asslar – Werdorf – Ehringshausen – Katzenfurt – Edingen – Sinn – Herborn – Burg Nord – Niederscheld Sud – Dillenburg.

BahnhofWestFrankfurt West.

Bad-VilbelA farmhouse in Bad Vilbel.

Dortelweil - Gross-KarbenSomewhere between Dortelweil and Groß Karben.

OkarbenSomewhere in Okarben.

Bad NauheimA house in Bad Nauheim.

Bahnhof-LindenGroßen-Linden.

GiessenGießen station.

Giessen2Somewhere between Gießen and Wetzlar.

WetzlarHouses in Wetzlar.

DillenburgDillenburg station.

And Dillenburg was the last stop of the train. Wait! We thought we would be taken straight to Siegen? Well that was not our case. Remember that we were 10 minutes late? We figured that the train that went straight to Siegen had departed on time. The train we took was to Dillenburg. We were a bit panicking but nonetheless, we guessed that we can just take the next train to Siegen.

And so we did. We took another train (more like a bus train; shorter and seatings like a bus) from Siegen to Dillenburg. This was the route: Dillenburg – Sechshelden – Haiger – Rodenbach – Dillbrecht – Rudersdorf (Siegen) – Siegen.

redleavesviewViews along the way.

SiegenSiegen.

And from Siegen, we took another train at platform 54 to Köln. These were the stations that we passed by: Eiserfeld – Niederschelden Nord – Niederschelden – Mudersbach – Brachbach – Freusburg Siedlung – Kirchen – Betzdorf – Scheuerfeld – Niederhövels – Wissen – Etzbach – Au – Rosbach – Schladern – Dattenfeld – Herchen – Eitorf – Merten – Blankenberg – Hennef im Siegbogen – Siegburg/Bonn – Troisdorf – Spich – Porz-Wahn – Porz(Rhein) – Köln Steinstraße – Köln Airport-Businesspark – Köln Trimbornstr – Köln Messe – Köln Hbf.

The trains practically stopped at every stations. Took us about 4 hours to reach Köln. OK, that was tiring!  I slept all the way from Siegen to Köln Steinstraße. But I did snap a photo of the train route in the train after I woke up. I gotta keep a record.

Finally, Köln, aku datang!

KolnKöln Hauptbahnhof.

Köln was colder than Frankfurt. 7°C! I was freezing because my jacket was not thick enough. I had my gloves on all the time to keep me warmer. Azmi and his dad seemed ok with the temperature but Yassin was just like me, lucky he got thicker jacket.

End of part 1. Part 2 will be about Köln Old Town. Stay tuned!

 

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