11th December 2005 - Day 69

The day started at 0430.

I forced myself out of bed and was out of hostel by 0505. It's quite a weird feeling walking to the Haltestelle so early in the morning in the cold. I was extremely awake despite having less than 3 hours of sleep.

Opposite the Haltestelle, there were two girls making a nuisance of themselves screaming away. They were probably drunk.

I'm quite suprised to see so many people on the tram. Most of them were probably returning home after partying last night.

I reached the Hauptbahnhof at 0548, and went to buy the ticket from the DB Automat. I also printed out the train details of the connections I was going to make later. I am still quite impressed by this service. It makes everything so much more convenient for the commuter to get from one town to the other. The printout is free. Maybe that's where part of the train ticket price goes to.

The train conductors are quite hardworking. I didn't expect anyone to check my Fahrschein so early in the morning.

First stop: Konstanz. The train went through the Black Forest region and most parts were covered with snow.

What I see out of the window

At a particular train station, I saw a convoy of tanks being transported by rail.

Wonder how much does the Deutsche Bahn charges the Bundeswehr

I reached Konstanz at 0917. It was quite cold as the sun has just appeared. My fingers were numbed by the wind.

If you're wondering why there are no photos, that's because my camera battery gave up on me. It might be due to the ambient temperature as I had no problems with it back in hostel.

Yes, it was fully charged when I brought it along.

I walked around the town. Since it's a Sunday, most shops are closed. Nice window displays. But I could only look from outside. I got tired of the place and left at 1138, two hours ahead of my planned departure.

Next up: Ulm. I took the train to Ulm in a largely unconscious state. Until a mischiveous little girl came and knocked me on my head. Her mother apologized. There wasn't anything interesting on this stretch of journey. No snow or forests. But lots of entertainment from the above mentioned girl who was bawling away because she wanted to occupy two seats. It was quite crowded so her parents didn't allow her to do that. The girl then shouted at her mother.

The mother then raised up her left hand, and in a quick motion, brought it down to meet the right cheek of the little girl. The girl was left visibly shocked with a sharp tinge on her cheek.

Of course that didn't happen. Parents here are generally extremely patient with their children. They'll try to reason with them, though it wouldn't work anyway. The child usually quieten down when they realise it doesn't get them what they want (or the attention of their parents).

I reached Ulm at 1355. The Weihnachtsmarkt there was quite lively. I brought some gebrannte Mandeln. It's basically almond nuts coated with burnt sugar (caramel).

I then visited a Brotmuseum and spent an hour inside learning about bread. How bread came about, what bread is made of, baking of bread using the batch and continuous methods, and the blah blah usual stuffs.

Diese Darstellung bedeutet, dass ohne Trinken und Essen keine Liebe gibt.

The fainting woman in the middle is Aunty Venus. She thinks she can live on love alone. Hello? Eat bread and drink something leh!

Featuring: tallest church spire in the world

There's always something that each town can hao lian about. Either that, or it's on the UNESCO World Heritage List or something equivalent. Ok ok. We call that identity.

"In Ulm, um Ulm und um Ulm herum"

Ulm even has it's own tougue twister!

Last stop: Stuttgart. I went to Stuttgart only because I have to umsteigen there in order to get back to Karlsruhe. Since there was a good one hour before my train, and the Stuttgart Hauptbahnhof is located near the city centre, I went to the Weihnachtsmarkt for a walk. There's a small skating rink at this Christmas market. Generally, all the Weihnachtsmarkt here are all about the same, except when there's a certain theme.

All the Christmas markets here really saved my Sunday. Otherwise I don't know what else I could do in one hour.

The train back to Karlsruhe was 10 minutes late. You should have seen how the situation at the train station was like. Kiasuism is universal.

So, time to get some sleep.