21. February 2025
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All German States (and the Eleven Biggest Cities) on one Rail Ticket – Part 2

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

AIthough has just been a day trip, but I just felt it is too long to tell the story of my one day trip on 14th January 2023 in one post. Finally, I decided to do the trip report in two postings – make sure you read the first one before. All 16 German states, the largest cities of the country and three rail lounges – in this part you hear whether I finally made it and what the side stories would have been. It’s a story of a very special train trip.

 

All German States on One Rail Trip – The Trip (Recap)

This is my schedule of my trip. In part 1, I already told you that ICE 507 was replaced by an alternate – this had no impacts on my travel plan but the train number, which has in fact been ICE 2807:

Depart Train From To Arrive
23:39 ICE 920 Frankfurt Airport Hamburg 06:50
08:34 ICE 507 Hamburg Berlin 10:20
12:29 ICE 509 Berlin Munich 17:01
18:47 ICE 590 Munich Mannheim 21:19
21:57 ICE 836 Mannheim Saarbruecken 23:29

Here is the whole trip visualized in a Google map: Especially during night time, I partially deactivated the tracking of the mobile phone, so that there is a lack of precision of the map below:

 

 

All German States on One Rail Trip – Sumup of Pt. 1

In the first day posting, I gave you some general background, why I felt to visit all 16 states, the eleven largest cities and the premium rail lounges of the three largest cities. I already took you a bit to the organisational handling and the positioning to Frankfurt Airport Station, which had a slight bit of trouble. The first leg of my trip was the longest one, connection from Frankfurt Airport to Hamburg, where I had a look into the premium section of the German Rail Lounge. From there, I had a roughly two hour connection to Germany’s capital, Berlin. The train was just in time, so that I had two hours to explore Berlin Main Station and its Premium Lounge. This is right where this posting is beginning.

All German States (and the eleven biggest Cities) on one Rail Ticket – Part 1

 

All German States on One Rail Trip – Leg 3: Berlin to Munich

To make it short: the German Rail Premium Lounge – the only explicit lounge and not separated area driven by Deutsche Bahn – is really a nice place. If my picture material is sufficient, I will definitely feature it in a separate review soon. The most entertaining part of my almost two hour stay there was a family (mother and her two sons), who felt to check the storage capacity of the lounge. I would not even dare to order four tomato and cheese panini in one go (plus two wraps and a drink) – especially after I already had two orders before. That’s the quick way to fame, for sure. Not sure if you really want to make other people think you are a moron.

I more and more felt that on that day, I don’t need too much additional food. I got rid of my Franzbrötchen from Hamburg en route between Berlin and Munich. The in-train service in First Class was a bit of lame – so I finally decided to get my first in-rail gin and tonic on my own – by the way, just at the moment when we crossed the state line between Thuringia and Bavaria. Before that, the beautiful terminus station of Leipzig was a nice stop, meaning that I also had Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony in the books.

Welcome to Bavaria

Until reaching Bavaria, not too many things happened. There were two guys sitting next to me and chatting all the time – which I somehow appreciated. I felt a bit tired and they might it feel less lonely. Crossing the Thuringia-Bavaria state line did not only mean that I had my first alcoholic experience on that trip, but also just two hours left to go to Munich. No need to assume that I have to go for the Nuremberg-Frankfurt shortcut I mentioned in the first part of this report. The train was still on time when we reached Bamberg around 15:14 hrs.

Unfortunately, Bamberg was somehow the killer to me. Being relieved that the trip will likely work out (due to the backup for the ICE from Mannheim to Saarbruecken), it somehow felt to remind that I didn’t have too much sleep so far. Amazing how quickly your power can fade… But I more or less had a nap until Greater Ingolstadt. Again, the train arrived on time in Munich… In my Insta story sumup, I joked that this is definitely not in line with the prejudices you typically had. I was so much looking forward to a Leberkässemmel in Munich, i.e. a bread roll with a Bavarian style meatloaf. Unfortunately, my favorite provider for that was closed for whatever reason. So I went to the German Rail Premium Lounge, the last one on this trip. The ones in Berlin and Hamburg are definitely more charming than Munich, but there is no need to complain if you have another of their delicious pumpkin soups.

 

All German States on One Rail Trip – Leg 4: Munich to Saarbrücken

I was tempted to have a sparkling wine in the Rail Lounge, as there was only rather little potential not to make it to Saarbrücken that day… Or at least to Homburg (Saar) which would have fulfilled the “all German states” thing as well (as it is located in the Saarland). But: it ain’t over until the fat lady sings… So I decided not to party too early. A lady sitting across me in the lounge stated that her ICE to Hamburg is leaving at 18:19… and ordered a pumpkin soup at 18:10… Yeah, this hot dish is simply magic – you have to risk your connection for it!

I had a smooth trip to Mannheim – almost frightening how easy the trip finally has been. At Ulm, we crossed the border between Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg and thus checked the 15th state of the trip. I went for another gin and tonic and felt the adrenaline and the luck in me. During the day, this trip more and more became a challenge, mentally, but also physically. When I stood up for the loo, I terribly felt my hip due to all the seating. Furthermore, I just felt so badly for oxygen. I became more and more tired of breathing through the mask. Latest when the train left Stuttgart (I even set foot on Germany’s fifth largest city while the train stopped). I felt very optimistic and a bit of enthusiastic. Now that the trip brought me that far, I wanted to complete it.

20 very welcome Minutes in Mannheim

Nonetheless, the 20 minutes wait in Mannheim were extremely welcome. Breathing without the mask felt so good, even though it got old and rainy now. Just some two hours left before I finally would be at the Premier Inn Saarbrücken city center..The train arrived in time apart from updating Flyctory.com pages (like this one) during the ride, I was counting down the minutes to Homburg (Saar) – that’s finally where the Rheinland-Palatinate to Saarland state border is located… and I would have made it in time.. Finally watching the train live tracking when it crossed the state border (approximately) was a somehow cool moment. Time to relax now until Saarbrücken… Looking forward to… SLEEP!

 

All German States on One Rail Trip – Reprise

I am writing these words on the morning thereafter, after a bunch of hours of sleep in the Premier Inn Saarbrücken City Centre and breakfast. As I already wrote, the trip was indeed physically demanding. Despite the couple of hours of sleep, I still feel exhausted and tired. More than that, though, I have quite some aching muscles, which is especially weird as I did not move that much, tried to use as light luggage as possible etc. Especially the upper leg area feels stressed – much more than I am used to from longer flights.

Would I do such a trip again? Not tomorrow 🙂 But in general yes. And maybe also rather in summer than in winter. It just gives you more opportunity to explore the country, see through the train window. Of course, I also need to have an idea what could be a cool rail trip. Overall, it was quite a relaxed way of exploring the country. Yeah, I have been very lucky as I practically did not have any delay. Even the replacement train from Hamburg to Berlin did not bother me at all. The only train issue I had was the positioning one from Cologne to Frankfurt Airport – but that was an easily solving.

Overall, it was absolutely worth to do it. Compared to other Flyctory.com trips, it was even rather cheap. Or as a friend of mine said: you might be more relaxed if you stayed at home that day. But therefor, you will remember that 14th January 2023 for the rest of your life.

Happy to take any suggestion what one could do with a German Rail one day ticket as well.

 

“Rides on Rail” Postings

Here is everything about trains, trams and other rail vehicles:

 

Flyctory.com and Saarbruecken

Here are all my postings related to the Southwest German city of Saarbruecken:

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