Interrail 2023 – 1. – Le départ

Bonjour, Moikka, Hi!

If you are reading these lines, it may be because you got lost on this wonderful web intertwining all of us small humans thanks to its wonderful power of connecting people, or because I sent you the link through one way or another!

However you got here, please keep reading (or don’t, that’s equally fine) and come along for my journey by train throughout Europe, starting today 😉

As of now, I am planning to write one article per leg during my journey, basically one for each city I’ll get to visit (so don’t worry if I am not publishing any article for some days, it’s normal ☺️ – this message is mainly destined to Maman & Mamylu 🤪).

Today is the day, and after weeks of preparation my trip can finally start!

Today’s plan

The first day of my Interrail has mostly been composed of travel time :

• 8:41 Champagne-Ardenne TGV / 9:59 Strasbourg

As always, I like Strasbourg, it seems like a really nice city to live in. As I only had 50 minutes, I just walked for a bit near the station (really, who had the idea to « wrap » this station with glass? Not the greatest idea, especially during a heatwave 😅…). Anyways, the « ode to joy » while entering the station was quite funny, they really do love their « European Capital » title – just reminding that the EP is relocating there for 3-5 days once each month 🤪. (I know there’s also the CoE, European Ombudsman, ECtHR, etc.!).

But I had to catch my train to Offenburg, so *Bach* to the station…

• 10:51 Strasbourg / 11:22 Offenburg
• 11:27 Offenburg / 11:51 Karlsruhe Hbf

One thing to know about Karlsruhe: It is basically where most German federal legal institutions are based, such as the Federal Court of Justice 😉

While starting to go to Karlsruhe city-center, I received an email saying that my train to Munich had been cancelled – awesome 😅! This gave me the opportunity to visit Karlsruhe Hbf’s ticket office, surprisingly big (even though the station is in itself quite important), and the issue was quickly dealt with.

As my train was leaving two hours earlier than expected, I didn’t have enough time left to visit the city, so I just wandered near the station… (Fun fact : There is a zoo in front of it).

• 14:05 Karlsruhe Hbf / 16:56 München Hbf

I’m currently on the train to Munich, and will arrive in about two hours 😉

The new German ICE has in my opinion quite a nice interior, and I really like the seat reservation system (basically you can get on the train, but you only have a seat if you reserved one, this being written on the seat)

Anyways, that’s it for today ☺️ Thanks for reading!

I’ll be in Munich until Friday, so you should expect the next article around that time 😉