Summer 2024 : Back to Berlin

After last night's Italian I had indigestion in the night again and subsequently am really tired today - it's a good job that today was going to be straightforward

It was rather odd that the station at Binz had so few seats - there were constantly people standing around. Goodness only knows what it's like in the height of summer. But on the plus side, I did manage to buy a bottle of Vita Cola from the station buffet (this was the GDR answer to Coca cola) - it was OK but I'm not going to be importing any to the UK.

I'd swapped my seat reservation from the 1019 train to the later 1219 which gave us a much more relaxed start to the day - although swapping the reservation on the DB Navigator app didn't give me any confidence because I never did find out our new seat numbers.

As it happened the first class carriages were very thinly populated, so we were able to find good seats very easily.

The ICE was running only very slightly late (5 minutes late at Prenzlau) but the final destination (Berlin Sudkreuz) was deleted although this didn't affect us as we were getting off at Berlin Hbf

The very comfortable train (an original ICE 1) repeatedly got up to 120km/h before the driver chickened out and dropped the speed back down again. Wikipedia suggests that the line is built to 160kph but the signalling is only fit for 120kph running!

Very friendly staff on board although none of the ones I interacted with spoke any English - my very basic German is getting me through the days without too much embarrassment .

The route from Stralsund to Berlin seems to be about as far east as possible in Germany before going into Poland. Boring scenery where you can scan the horizon looking for something, anything other than wind turbines or the occasional dump of used tyres. We passed through some very run down towns that seemed to have had their guts knocked out of them - the buildings and roads were dilapidated, but the cars were new and in good condition.

We arrived in Berlin only a couple of minutes late and were thrown into the madness of the Hbf - madder than usual outside because of the football.

We are staying once again in the Intercity Hotel just outside the station. Our room has disconcerting views of trains passing just outside - but no noise whatsoever!

We're going to eat in the hotel this evening and have an early night. We've got a brisk start in the morning and I'm shattered.