Trains in Germany.

 

This is Tayte reporting, my mom wanted some pictures of the trains that we ride so here you go.

Here’s Tenery waiting at the train station in nuremberg. As you can see there are several tracks and several platforms. We’re on platform 6 as you can see in the picture. When you walk into the station there are big screens that say what platform each train is at and where each train is going. You then walk through an underground tunnel until you get to the correct platform.

 

Here you can see the many platforms. Hbf stands for hauptbahnhof which is the main train station in each city.

Here’s the staircase you come up to get to the platform. You can see a regional train coming in (regional bahn or RB).

The train we’re getting on is heading to Berlin, but one of the stops is in Jena. That’s where we got off. In the bottom right it shows you how the train will pull into the station it will pull in between 6B and 6E.

Here’s the underground tunnel between platforms. at one end of this tunnel is the train station with travel information and restaurants.

Here’s our train pulling into the station. The white trains are inter-city express trains (ICE trains). they’re nicer, faster, and more expensive than the regional trains. With the train pass that we bought we get unlimited travel on 10 travel days on any train, so obviously we take the ICE trains.

Here is the inside of the ICE Trains. at the ends of the car there are nice glass sliding glass doors and bathrooms between every car.

Our reservation: when you make a reservation you are guaranteed a seat and these panels light up above the seat so everybody knows that they are reserved. If you don’t have a reservation you have to try and find a blank seat to sit in. This train is going from Munich to Berlin but we’re only riding from nurember to jena so that’s what shows up on the reservation. Sometimes when you get close to your destination city it lights up with a new reservation. For example, it might say Jena-Berlin and somebody else has it reserved for the rest of the trip after we get off.

 

I hope that helps you picture it. Let me know if there’s anything else you want me to post about. Tschuss!

prague!!!

this past weekend we went to prague. all of the other byu interns went as well, so that was fun. oddly enough, this was the most relaxed weekend either of us have had since tayte came here. before i say anything else, let me say this: we really enjoyed our time here. the food is super good and so far, this city has had the best first impression. it’s really clean and people are nice and everyone speaks english. that being said…
i feel like prague is one of the more popular touristy european cities, but there really wasn’t much to see. we left on friday to make sure we would leave ourselves plenty of time to see everything (because of that hype…). we had seen pretty much everything we wanted to by around 5 the first day we were there. but it was ok. don’t get me wrong—prague is super cool. every where you look there is a cool cathedral or other building you can go into and winnie the pooh is out in the town square all day (i wish that was a joke or an exaggeration). we didn’t feel like there were very many iconic touristy things to see here. we did see the ones we thought were important, but i had never heard of them (oops).
but i can’t stress enough the fact that we really did enjoy our time here. i promise.

friday, 7/17

the day started off somewhat early because tayte had to give a presentation to some people at the institute. he was just presenting on the research he had been doing. being the supportive wife that i am, of course i went over there to watch. he did a phenomenal job.
then we packed up some stuff and got on a train and went to prague. we made our way to our hotel. it felt like it was kinda on a side street, and i was worried it would be a dump. but it was actually really cool. we really liked it. (side note: there was wi-fi that we could actually connect to and use it on our phones and everything would load instantly…you know, like it does in the states. interpretation: we loved it) we went to pull some moolah out of a nearby atm, then ordered a pizza from the hotel, then hit the hay.

saturday, 7/18

we made our way to castle hill to see a big castle and cathedral. on the way, we saw a cool view then both fought a knight. nbd. just another saturday.






after the duels, we made our way to st. vitus cathedral. it felt really big and there were a lot of cool stained glass windows. the coolest thing about those windows is that there are so many and they’re all so different.





good ole peter.




































this probably goes without saying, but here’s a fountain.





































st. vitus cathedral.

you can see it from pretty much anwhere.


very majestic.































the inside.





















the prague castle was in the same complex (for lack of a better word) so that was up next.
disclaimer/confession: we bought tickets for the whole complex thing, which included the cathedral, the castle, and some other exhibitions. except our tickets didn’t give us access to absolutely everything. and here’s the problem: i can’t remember what pictures came from where. so here are just some pics:



ok i know he looks fake, but this is actually a real guard.



































the {probably fake} crown of a king. in the reflection you can see me talking to justin, one of the byu interns. he’s probably telling me how fake everything is.


an actual real crown.


somebody’s bones. tayte is really into that sort of thing. (not in a weird or creepy way…)


this was the street we had to walk down to see all this stuff. around this time, i began to really wish that my in-laws (especially my father-in-law) were with us. now that would have been an enjoyable experience.








but then we came on this view. (travel tip: find good views of the city. they’re always worth it)


we met up with everyone for lunch. after, we all went our different ways (only to meet up again at the astronomical clock. it was pretty awkward.) we weren’t planning on seeing it then, and we had no idea what time it even was. turns out it was about 13:00 (that’s 1:00, in case you didn’t know), and the clock was about to perform its magic.



here’s the thing. this is a cool clock. it tells time in 4 different ways and it’s a lot smarter than i am, and i’ve accepted that. but it doesn’t do anything spectacular at the top of the hour (like i was expecting it to). i mean, it’s not like knights come out and joust and stuff. the 12 apostles do make an appearance though, and a rooster crows, so i guess that’s something. i mean it was cool.
after it did its thing (meaning at 13:00:47), we climbed up the tower. we do that a lot. but all of the asians were going every direction imaginable, except up, so we chose the road less traveled. (we made good timing too, because about the time we started going down, they all came up.) it gave a cool view of the city.



that castle looking thing is the cathedral we had just gone to.

then we decided to go across the charles bridge. i’m not sure why it’s famous, but it is pretty cool, and it allows people to get from one side of the river to the other without getting wet or having to swim.




this thing that looks a little lopsided isn’t and marks the entrance to the bridge.



these are the dancing buildings.

‘nuff said.

























sometime after this picture was taken, we went back to our first hotel, picked up our stuff, and headed to our second hotel. (back story: one of the interns found this hotel, and it was a “four star and really really cheap” so apparently we had to go there. except when we first reserved it, we only did it for one night. later, when we decided to stay there two nights instead, we couldn’t get a reservation at this hotel, so we had to get two different ones.) we walked into this nice, 4-star hotel, sweaty and hauling two big backpacks. we walked up to the concierge, and this is how the conversation went:

mr t: hi.
{silence}
mr t: we have a reservation and need to check in.
{silence}
mr t: my name is tayte
concierge: {interrupting} i’m gonna need an id or passport.

apparently we aren’t 4-star hotel material. maybe it’s because we’re too outdoorsy.
then we went back to the city center, met up with some of the other interns, and went to a jazz concert.

sunday, 7/19

we woke up early to be able to eat some breakfast before heading to church. we were there with every other old person in the world. or so i thought. then we got on the elevator to go from our 8th floor room to the lobby to check out. i swear we stopped at every. single. floor. so many people all checking out at the same time!!
anyway, we made our way to the train station so we could leave our large-ish bags in a locker. on the way, we found the king wenceslas. he was a good king, wenceslas.


we went to the french market, got some french food, and loved it. tayte got mussels.





gross.





























then we found the john lennon wall. john lennon painted graffiti on it. and now it’s famous. something about peace? we weren’t sure. but we like walls, graffiti, and john lennon.




remember that lopsided building that marked the beginning of the bridge? yeah we climbed up to the top of that. we like views.










it was awesome. have i mentioned how much i like hanging out with this cutie??












best part of every trip.