Trip to Konstanz

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It has been a long day, but it has been a good trip overall. I was travelling by train from Vienna to Konstanz (Germany). The departure time was around 10:30 from Vienna Central Station, and I was supposed to arrive in Konstanz at about 18:50. But of course, there was some delay. I actually missed the first connection in Münich, but I took an alternative route, which actually had a very nice landscape (I think it was Switzerland), and since the temperatures have suddenly dropped, the landscape was full of snow. It was a nice view to enjoy inside the warmth of the train.

I was supposed to change twice, but I ended up changing 5 times. In the last change I had 3 minutes to change platform so my Usain Bolt spirit had to be awakened for that one (and actually also for the previous one, where I also had 4 minutes to change).

In any case, I took this as an adventure, so I guess that was the right attitude to do this. In the end, I reached Konstanz at 19:20. If I had to do this often it could be tougher. Some trains are a bit shaky to work properly on them. On this long trip, after the first train, I did not have a chance to get water, and I was thirsty (and that happened from 15:20). I wish they would put fountains on the train stations (actually on all the trains that do not have bar service). On the first train, that was supposed to last 4 hours, I did not manage to make the socket work, and the battery of my computer does not last for so long. So it would not have been a good trip to work, but I noticed that from the beginning, so I decided to read, write, look at the landscape, and listen to podcasts.

I can see that the train has a huge potential to substitute the plane, but it needs to improve on quite a few aspects, including reliability and making it easy for people to work on them (and also, the time to change trains was a bit too short, if I had had heavy luggage, I would have never made it). But I had 3-hour trips on planes that did tire me more than this one. Travelling by train is far less tiring, less claustrophobic, and there is no danger of having unpleasant turbulences or a nasty wind for landing.




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