Why a trip to Lubeck? There were two reasons. Firstly, my wife, having studied various European cathedrals as part of a WEA course would like to see the one in Lubeck, and its historic city centre. She enjoyed our trip by rail to Aachen. Secondly, I like birdwatching along the Baltic coast in autumn, when many birds are on return migration from Scandinavia and the Arctic. My wife could not do a trip this autumn, so I decided to combine a birding trip with a “proof of concept” rail trip to see if it was possible and convenient to travel from home to Lubeck by rail in a day (and also do the return trip in a day).

I booked a Eurostar to Amsterdam, and Trainline produced an onward outward journey with changes at Osnabruck and Hamburg for a very reasonable 38-99 Euros and a return to Amsterdam from Lubeck with one change at Hannover for 63-99 Euros.

Here's part one of my account and impressions (spoiler alert - it's not the most positive part of the holiday!)

The Outward Journey.

At first mostly all went well. There was a slightly puzzling email from Eurostar about a week before departure telling me that the departure time from St Pancras was now 10-34 but arrival at Amsterdam would be at the same time – but this was the departure time I had booked and was shown on my ticket! There was also a problem with the train for a preceding Paris service, resulting in the need to change the set on that service involving a delay to both that service and the following Paris one, so that the waiting area after check-in and passport control became very crowded and access to it was closed for a while. Luckily, I was already inside, and had a seat. Our Amsterdam departure was not delayed.

The Eurostar journey was uneventful. There were only two negatives to report, my window seat turned out to be a pillar seat, and as a culinary tip I suggest avoiding the dry, chewy chicken and sundried tomato baguette. Apart from the poor alignment of seats and windows, the newer-type Siemens train was a pleasant and comfortable ride.
Arrival at Amsterdam Centraal was on time. It was my first visit after the recent works, which are still in progress on platform 14 alongside the platform used for Eurostar trains. I had just over an hour and a half to wait for my connection to Osnabruck at 17-59, so decided to have a tour of the extensive selection of eateries on the canal side of the station and have an early evening meal. These are one of the good features of Centraal, as you can feed yourself and enjoy a view out over the water. I selected the Brew Dog bar, but their mac’n cheese was not a good choice. Not only was it lukewarm, but the thin sauce didn’t have any cheese flavour to it to redeem itself. The New England pale ale was though very good.

The Osnabruck train was a joint DB (German) and NS (Dutch) operation, final destination Hannover. The former provided a rake of coaches that looked of similar vintage to the later BR mark 2 stock, with air conditioning, but no internal passenger information signage. DB also provided the on-board staff after Bad Bentheim, the first station in Germany. NS provided the locomotive and staff for the first part of the trip. It was clean and comfortable, if somewhat leisurely in its progress across the Netherlands, and lightly loaded. I’d guess that there were not more than 10-12 passengers in my coach at any one time during this journey. Travelling on a train with four-across seating with a much larger loading gauge that the UK brings home (again) how cramped five-across seating is at home. Full marks too to the train staff, who made announcements in German, English and Dutch before each stop that were clearly audible and included a list of times and platforms for onward connections.

We were 5 minutes late at Osnabruck, almost all that delay being due to having to wait for our platform to become free as explained by the announcement on board. It is a two-level station, with upper platforms serving lines that run approximately west to east and lower platforms those running approximately north to south. It is not a well-signed station, particularly at the upper level. There were two directional signs near where I disembarked, one for platform 1, and another for platforms 5 and 11-14. There were no signs for escalators or lifts visible nor mention of the other platforms, to the evident distress of an elderly man of (I’d guess) Turkish origins who was travelling with two large bags. The signs both led to staircases. As I had 32 minutes for my next train (27 after delay), I descended one to arrive in the foyer. This at least had a couple of food outlets and a newsagents open, and as it was a warm close evening an orange iced lolly provided welcome refreshment.

However, it was clear that the curse of DB had struck. My train, ICE 104 whose journey had started in Switzerland, was shown as being 23 minutes late. As I had an 18-minute connection at Hamburg, it would miss my connection. As I was ware of DB’s less-than-stellar reputation for timekeeping, I had checked and knew that there was a later train, leaving Hamburg for Lubeck at 00-06 that would get me there at 00-52. I had even seen that as a fallback there was a last train running an hour later.

Matters went from bad to worse. The main departure board in the foyer continued to show ever later estimated arrival times. Checking DB’s website, it stated that there had been a problem with a preceding train. Eventually the departure board settled on an arrival time at Osnabruck of around 22-06, some 43 minutes late. If it ran to time after Osnabruck, I should just make my 00-06.
 
By 22-04 or so, platform 3 was filling with passengers for my train. As we stood there, we could see the front lights of a train to the north, but no sign of anything to the south, from where our train should be coming. Eventually it arrived at 22-13, now some 50 minutes late. My next connection was looking doubtful.

At least the ICE train has on-board passenger information signage that goes through a cycle of information screens, so I could monitor progress (or lack of it). These started off showing an arrival at Hamburg Hbf of 00-03, just three minutes to get my onward train. The helpful train manager/guard told me which way I should go from the over-bridge at Hamburg, and which end of the platform I should head for. For a few hopeful minutes the estimated arrival time slipped forward to 00-02, but then it slipped back, notwithstanding indicated running speeds of 160-197 kph to end up at 00-08, two minutes after the departure of the service to Lubeck I hoped to catch. The guard helpfully gave me a form to apply for compensation for delay, which was in both English and German. It is not a generous scheme, 25% after an -hour’s delay, 50% after two hours.

I have now found a German website (www.zugfinder.net) that gives ratings for German train services baed on punctuality. Today's score for ICE104, based on the last month's performance is 26% percent punctuality based on less than 5 minutes late being "punctual". It also shows that on neither of the two days after I travelled did the train even reach Osnabruck, being terminated beforehand.

So I arrived at Hamburg Hauptbahnhof, the city’s main station with nearly an hour to wait for my last train. It is not a good place to be after midnight. It’s not well-lit, but is still quite busy, but many are well-lubricated or down-and-out. I was approached by a beggar on the over-bridge, and the end of the platform from which the Lubeck train would depart was not under the station’s impressive looking roof. There’s also not much by way of seating, but I found an empty bench in the dry and watched You Tube on my phone to pass the time. For a while I was joined by a youth with a bleeding cut on his wrist he was attempting to staunch with one of those small packs of paper tissues they sell at station shops. Eventually, my train, a four-coach double decker arrived and I boarded to await departure. Soon after, an elderly female beggar in dirty rainwear reeking of stale tobacco entered to train and went down it seeking donations.

I finally arrived seven minutes late (01-59) at Lubeck. Thankfully, my hotel was a 10 minute walk away, and they had previously confirmed that their reception was open 24 hours a day. I was glad of my bed!
Next time…a ride on the Molli Bahn!