From Darmstadt To Karlsruhe
My last leg of the day was to take a direct train between Darmstadt and Karlsruhe. This was a quick journey of about an hour and a quarter.
The route is more interesting in sunny weather than the couple of pictures I took, as it passes through Heidelberg, which would make another break. In fact both Darmstadt and Heidelberg, would make a better overnight stop than sterile, inaccessible and complicated Frankfurt. For Frankfurt, think of Birmingham or Manchester with lots of high rises and no culture or good places to have a quick meal or coffee. I pity those, who have to go there on business regularly.
Exploring Darmstadt
I love exploring towns and cities in trams or regular buses, as you see the city from an intimate and personal angle. If like I did this in Darmstadt, alighting when I saw something that took my interest. These pictures show a history of my short visit to the city.
I started by going to the main square called Luisenplatz with its column and statue of Ludwig 1. I finally found a cappuccino in a rather pleasant Italian cafe.
I then walked to the castle and then back to another main square by the old town hall. On a better day, it would have been a pleasant walk and there were a couple of museums that seemed to be closed because of rebuilding. At least I found a very good tourist map of the city, which was magnitudes better than anything found in Frankfurt.
I also came across a BT phone-box, which appeared to enclose a working German telephone. Does anybody use them any more? And especially in a smaller city in Germany!
I then went to see Waldspirale, which is one of Friedensreich Hundertwasser amazingly mad buildings. Another in this blog is at Spittelau in Vienna. One other work of his, I must see is the station at Uelzen in Germany. Some might think Hundertwasser completely bonkers, but he certainly created buildings that entertain.
I wonder what it’s like to live in one of those eccentric flats in Darmstadt.
From Frankfurt To Darmstadt
It didn’t take me long to get fed up with exploring Frankfurt, with its unfathomable U-Bahn/S-Bahn system, lack of information and maps, endless stairs to the U-Bahn. I mentioned all this in the Tourist Office as I left and the lady said that they keep telling the authorities about the information and especially the dreadful map, but nothing happens. All they need to do is talk to Munich, where everything is so much better.
I was also finding it difficult to find a cafe where I might get something delicious and gluten-free for lunch.
So I implemented Plan B and took a train to Darmstadt, which is just a few kilometres north of Frankfurt.
I started by catching the train in an S-Bahn platform underneath the Hauptbahnhof and within an hour I was in Darmstadt, where with help from a guy in the tram information, I got a go-anywhere ticket for the trams and started to explore.
The Anonymous Widower 