We’re running down the Rhine valley under a blurry grey sky that tells me it’s going to be snowing soon.<\/p>\n
It was snowing in Köln this morning, if the weather reports are to be believed. It looked like it wanted to do it in Basel, but perhaps the city’s heat footprint prevented it.<\/p>\n
This train is an ICE3, newest and sleekest of the German “InterCityExpress” fleet. Their noses are getting more and more pointed with every version: if they keep it up, pretty soon they’re going to look like the newest model of the Shinkansen. Everything aboard them is polished stainless steel and beautiful modern birch paneling, with seats in a neutral blue: here and there you get gray-speckled white granite (in the bistro car ![\"Don't](\"http:\/\/outofambit.blogspot.com\/images\/TheSpotlessToilet.jpg\")
and the toilets, which are spotless, and merit a picture of their own — sorry, the quality of the picture won’t be great when it gets pasted in — but these facilities still cause me some wonder when I remember the pestholes that some other trains’ toilets can become: specifically, in the US and Ireland, two of the three countries on Earth which honestly believe that the public rails should function without subsidies).<\/p>\n
A cranky moment there…never mind. This is a train on which every seat has a plug \/ power point, so shortly I can go back and give Ryoh-ohki a recharge (and the phone too): they’ll both be well topped-up by the time we hit Cologne.<\/p>\n
The train which paused opposite us just now in the station at Karlsruhe went by in “kissing cousins” mode: four engine sets — one at each end and two more in the middle, nose to nose, for when the train splits. Unfortunately I’m in the “back half” of our train, which is hooked up the same way, so I don’t get the dramatic 200-kph view out over the pilot’s shoulder (they do call them “pilots”, on these trains: possibly with some slight justification, since not so long ago, anything that went at this speed would have<\/em> to be flying…).<\/p>\n Onward to Köln…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We’re running down the Rhine valley under a blurry grey sky that tells me it’s going to be snowing soon. It was snowing in Köln this morning, if the weather…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n