Bavaria steam, rail and ale: part 1

2-10-0 No. 52 8195-1

Day 1: Wednesday 4 May - getting there
My third trip with Railtrail Tours and another very early start to get the 8.55 Eurostar to Brussels. That meant catching the 5.44 from Brighton! This was before the London Road trains started, so it was a taxi to the station. In the end I caught the train before the one I'd planned on, so met Martin and got my free coffee and croissant at Des Vins. So, it was an ICE to Frankfurt and a change for Nürnberg, arriving at 8pm. Then it was a coach ride round the city walls to the Hausbrauerei Alstdthof for my first veggie meal of cheese croquettes and salad (the others had pork and dumpling). With this we got to try three very tasty beers and a red beer brandy! The itinerary had changed somewhat to accommodate this meal and there was an optional return later in the week to look at their cellars that I declined.

Czech 4-8-4 475.111

 Day 2: Thursday 5 May - by steam to the Czech Republic
Another early start for the 6.40am train hauled by 2-10-0 No. 52 8195-1. At the Czech border, we changed engines to a beautiful 4-8-2 'Mountain' loco 475.111 which took us to Pilsen. Here we marched out of the station and I got left behind, but phoned Martin and was found in the cathedral square. Had a ridiculously cheap coffee (paid in Euros) - €4.20 for three coffees! - then went underground with a tour of the town's joined up cellars. There was a celebration going on of the towns liberation by the Americans, with various re-enactors to be seen. On the way back, we had a meal in the restaurant car and arrived back at the hotel around 11 o'clock.

10 001 at Neuenmarkt

Day 3: Friday 6 May - 10 001 semi-streamliner

Phew, a later start today. Time to buy a sandwich and catch the 9.05 to Neuenmarkt-Wirsberg to visit the railway museum (Deutsches Dampflokomotiv Museum) there - tantalisingly close across the tracks, but we had to walk to a bridge to get there. No live steam today, but a surprise was finding the semi-streamliner No. 10 001, one of the last locos to be built in Germany (in 1957). We also saw Hitler's coach, a tank painted in photographic grey and an austerity class of wartime locos. A big loco, 50 975, was outside on the turntable. We had two loops on a little diesel railway, past a snow plough, then back over the bridge to the station, where we spotted a rally of Goggomobils going on!

Brewery museum at Kulmbach

Then it was back on the train to Kulmbach and a long walk to the Mönchhof Brewery Museum (Bayerisches Brauereimuseum Kulmbach), where we were treated to a glass of their microbrewery Museum beer. After the guided tour, including a lovely art deco tiled room of mash tuns, we had more beer samples (no dark beer tho), with pretzel, then a meal in their on-site restaurant, sitting outside - I had two sorts of fish and potatoes. Then I shared a taxi back to the station with Big Alan from Horsham, who'd got one there!

Two Pacifics, Swiss and German

Day 4: Saturday 7 May - two Pacifics
Another early start! This time on the 7.29am to Hanau. Here - on platform 101 - we joined a train hauled by No. 01 150 to Neustadt Weinstrasse, where we spotted Swiss Pacific 01 202. An extra on the itinerary was a (long) walk to the shed… once again I got left behind in the hot sun, but it was worth it to see the two locos side by side posing. Then a schlep back to the station and over the bridge to their railway museum DGEG Eisenbahnmuseum (which as the crow flies was within spitting distance of the station) to see a Bavarian pacific and various railcars. After a couple of beers in a cafe opposite the station it was back to Hanau for a meal of warmed up pizza and platform 103 for a train back to Nürnberg.

Part 2 - to the lake! >

More photos on Flickr