| The model railway layout of the Gods |
[Jun. 9th, 2009|09:23 am] |
As Kraftwerk remarked, in their minimalische dansefloor klubsmascher 'Trans Europe Express':
Rendezvous on Champs-Elysees
Leave Paris in the morning on T.E.E.
Trans-Europe Express
In our case, it was more like walking across the road to the Gare de l'Est and leaving Paris in the evening on the City Night Line, but hey, we were close:
The sleeping compartments on the train come in varying sizes and degrees of luxury, but they're all miracles of three-dimensional origami. Everything folds out of everything else. It's not easy to get a photo that illustrates this, because there's no room to step back and take an overall shot. So here's an ART shot of the bunks, as reflected in the washbasin mirror:
And then it was out through the suburbs of Paris, into Champagne country. The route passes through Epernay, with vines marching up the hillsides, and skirts the Mercier champagne factory, which is a vast complex resembling several miles of Victorian cotton mills laid end to end. Mysterious towns and villages flit past the window. There are people living whole lives out there:
If you happen to have your Thomas Cook European Railway Map handy, you can trace the route of the Paris - Berlin overnight trains. The route is not really direct, and in fact takes some interesting diversions - because there's no pressing need to travel as fast as possible. On the contrary, the train is timed to proceed at a fairly relaxed pace, thus ensuring a decent bit of shut-eye and an arrival in Berlin at a civilized breakfast hour:
The train leaves France via Metz and a huge bridge over the river Mosel, then it's Saarbrucken, Homburg, Worms, round the back of Frankfurt, Fulda, Bad Hersfeld (which seemed quite good to me) - and, somewhere along the way, Einsiedlerhof. No, I'd never heard of it, either.
Here, the train stopped for mysterious reasons. Nobody joined. Nobody got off. All was quiet. The station does not appear on the map. And, looking at my photo now, it seems there is something strangely artificial about the scene I captured through the window. Had we passed out of reality, and were just a part of the Model Railway Layout Of The Gods?
After this mysterious halt, the train progressed via Hannover (reverse), Wolfsburg, Spandau, and....BERLIN!
Fortunately, Berlin Hauptbahnhof was entirely real. Here we say goodbye to the City Night Line as we go up the escalator in search of the S-bahn...
I'll post a few Berlin photos next time. And then, Leipzig is looming. |
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| Comments: |
On the train from Dresden to Leipzig my two companions and I managed to get a compartment to ourselves, so out came the iPod and speakers and on went Trans-Europe Express. Very nice! | |
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