Food At Last
It was a short walk from the Gare de Paris Est station to the Gare du Nord and the 11:07 Eurostar for London.
I made it easily and an hour or so later, I was having lunch.
Food At Last
It was actually tofu, which I’ve never had before. But it was good to have a meal I could trust. The tea was very good too.
What I always think, is why if Eurostar can do gluten free food so well, why can’t other train companies?
The Final Insult From Germany
The only thing, I consumed on the train was water, Coke and an orange juice in the morning. But others were luckier!
The Final Insult From Germany
The muffin could have been nice. The notes say the following.
Contains colouring. Contains antioxidant. Contains preservatives. With presevative, curing salt. Contains sweetener. Contains caffeine.
Nothing at all is said about gluten.
I suppose gluten is compulsory in Germany!
The Sleeper From Munich To Paris
It takes over ten hours, but as I wanted to be back in London in time to get to Ipswich for the Hull game on Saturday, it was the only way I could do it.
I had booked the sleeper on Deutsche Bahn’s excellent web site at bahn.de. I had a self-printed paper ticket, that worked well. These are some of the pictures I took on the journey.
We arrived in Paris on time at 09:30. I had slept reasonably well.
The Problems Of Eating On The Move For A Coeliac In Germany
Just because I’m a coeliac, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to eat gluten-free food on the move.
In the UK, there are a lot of options.
I can get gluten-free bars like EatNakd or Eat Natural in many places.
At stations, there is usually a good choice at Marks and Spencer of various snacks, which often include sandwiches.
There is also the coffee chains, like Starbucks, where I can usually find a bite of something.
And on top of that most pubs can probably rustle up something to go with half of decent cider or a glass of wine.
But in Germany, I found little to eat on the move.
As I returned from Ulm, I was very hungry, as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. But there was nothing obvious at the station. So I looked at this vending machine.
Vending Machine At Ulm Station
I got a bag of crisps, which at least said they were glutenfrei.
Note though there is only one flavour in the machine and they were paprika. But I was so hungry, that I ate three packets.
Back in Munich, I had time to kill, as the sleeper to Paris didn’t leave until 22:50.
I should have done the sensible thing and go to the pizza restaurant, but I thought that I’d find something. I did and it was this salad.
A Revolting Salad At Munich Station
It was one of the most revolting I’ve ever tried to eat. Especially, as the only implements were my fingers. The picture doesn’t really do justice to the salad and especially the cheese and ham mixture on the top. Alternative layers of revolting cheese and ham had been sandwiched together and sliced up. In the end I gave up and put it in a bin.
I should have been entitled as I was on a First Class sleeper, to use of the DB Lounge. But after installing myself there at about 20:50, I was promptly turfed out, as it shuts at 21:00. So I was left to fend for myself in the cold for nearly two hours.
Incidentally, I could have gone back to the hotel and its warm bar, but there had been an altercation in the subway linking the station to the city centre, so I had to stay put.
It was then, that I met half a dozen Watford supporters on a stag do. They were trying to buy a sausage without bread from a fast food stall and not getting much joy, as apparently, it was against the rules. They were just getting fed up with their restricted diet of beer, bread and sausage.
I had been in Germany for two days, and I’d never found anything acceptable to eat on the move.
If it hadn’t been for the wonderful pizza, I might have starved. I can’t live by coffee with two sugars alone.
I think the rule is you must plan, where you are going to eat. Germany doesn’t seem to be like the UK, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and France.
On the other hand, I tried to plan at Ulm and that didn’t work out! Years ago, I didn’t plan in Berlin, but the hotel was good and sorted out two of the best gluten-free restaurants I ever went to with C.
Ulm Rathaus
Often in Germany, the town hall or Rathaus is the second best building after the cathedral.
As you can see the Rathaus in Ulm is no exception.
Ulm Minster
Ulm Minster is the tallest church in the world and the spire dominates the city.
I effectively walked in a circle round the city and was never out of sight of the Minster.
The Curse Of The Trailed Bag
I always travel very light, as I indicated here.
But why is it that everybody else seems to travel with all their possessions? It’s bad in the UK and as this picture taken at Ulm shows, the Germans suffer from the same attitudes.
I haven’t fallen over a trailed bag for some time, but when my eyesight was worse than it is now, they were an absolute nuisance.
In Germany, where getting up onto and down from the trains is more difficult, I was surprised that they still travel very heavy.
Incidentally, I did see somewhere a sign asking people not to wear their backpacks.
Exploring Ulm
The train station at Ulm is close by the centre and I walked in a circle round the city.
I finally got a bit of sun, but as before, I didn’t find anything to eat. My chosen restaurant was apparently a long walk from the part of the city I was in.
The Strange Lady
The litter bins on the platform, are large three hole ones, so that passengers can sort their rubbish for recycling.
A Typical DB Litter Bin
One of the strangest things I saw, was an reasonably well-dressed elderly lady ferreting through one of these litter bins and removing any glass bottles, which she then put in her bag. Whilst we waited at the station, she came back a couple of times, after someone else put a bottle in the bin.
On My Way To Ulm
I had booked the sleeper to Paris from Munich at 22:50, so as a diversion during the afternoon, I went to Ulm. I had found a restaurant there on the Internet, that said it did gluten-free food, so the plan was to have an early supper and then return to Munich.
I made the mistake of taking a slow train, which took nearly three hours, when I could have done it in just over the hour.
A Fugger Express
As you can see it was called a Fugger Express, which sounds a bit rude to me. I didn’t like the train, as you sit rather high compared to a typical UK train, and when getting in and out of some of the seats, you can miss your footing. The generous European loading gauge may give advantages, but it might not make passenger entry and exit easy. To me, the low European platforms are not a good idea.
Low European Platforms
I don’t have too many problems, but on one station, there was a massive gap between the platform and the train and behind me was a three-year-old who jumped to get off. If they’d missed, they could easily have fallen under the train.
The train also passed through the wonderfully named station of Kissing.
Kissing Station
The next time though, I do this journey, I’ll take a faster train. There are lots of trains and Deutsche Bahn issue a very simple Munich-Ulm timetable detailing them all on virtually a double-sided piece of A5 paper.
The countryside is summed up by pictures like this.
Typical Bavarian Countryside
Green fields and woodland, with the ocassional church poking towards the sky.
But I do wish I’d taken a fast train.
The Anonymous Widower 