AllThingsGerman.net » Travel

Landing in crosswind at Düsseldorf airport

Graham — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 17:55:40 +0000

Germany has been battered by two storms over the last week.

This film, posted on YouTube, shows planes landing at Düsseldorf airport during the high winds.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

Oberursel’s shiny new (restored) station building

Graham — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 23:54:26 +0000

Many towns in Germany face the same problem – their station building. Not on a scale with Stuttgart, but given that many of them were built in the 19th Century, they often suffer similar fates such as underused ticket offices, high running costs due to the old building materials, and general desire from travellers and locals for the buildings to be put to better use and provide more services.

At the same time, they expect them to look good and still retain their 19th Century character, and not get covered in graffiti. With many of them being listed buildings as well, this is not an easy task. Another complication is that the buildings are often owned by Deutsche Bahn, reducing the lack of influence that local towns have over how they are used.

Oberursel’s station is one of those that had suffered this fate until recently, but for the past three years things have started to change. An organisation called SEWO, who were originally created by the town itself to re-develop the Camp King area, were able to buy the property from the railway.

Since then they have been restoring the station building to its former glory and at the same time modernising it so to make the whole thing more economical to run, whilst at the same time ensuring that the work is coherent with the listed building status. The exterior, for example, has been painted in the original colours.

Finally, last week, the scaffolding was taken down and the front of the station could be seen once again, although work continues inside.

One of the main changes inside is the ceiling. The original rooms had been 12m high in some places, meaning that a lot of empty space had to be heated and could not otherwise be used. With the new ceiling/floor the available floorspace has been increased.

Inside the station - the room will be part of the new dance school

The windows are – with one exception – in their original frames. To insulate these better, a pane of glass has been added on the inside, but not fixed into a second frame like normal double glazing. Apparently this insulates the windows better, without trapping condensation between the panes.

The whole building has also been re-wired. The non-public parts used to be used by the railway for a variety of technical elements, but for whatever reason there were no plans of which wires went where. So the electricians pulled everything out and started again from scratch.

Outside, a small extension has been added which has a kiosk in it selling tickets, and unlike the previous ticket office it is open for most of the day.

The new tenants inside the building will have to wait until the spring before they can start moving in. These will be: a Kindergarten, language school, dance school, Turkish delicatessen and bistro, and a restaurant. The variety of the tenants is such, that in combination with the ticket office the building will be in use for most of the day and night, reducing the chance of graffiti and vandalism.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

Lufthansa’s excellent customer service

Graham — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 06:30:29 +0000

If I have problems with the customer service of large corporations in Germany, or indeed in some other countries, then I often write about it.

Today, I am going to do something to redress the balance and write about an example of good customer service that I experienced recently – with Lufthansa.

When we returned from our recent trip to Lanzarote, one of the wheels had broken off one of our suitcases by the time it came along the carousel in Frankfurt.

We duly headed to the damaged baggage desk in the basement of the airport and showed them the problem. They gave us written confirmation of the damage without actually accepting liability, and told us to call a special telephone number once the suitcase was empty to arrange for it to be collected.

We followed the instructions on how to label the empty suitcase and called the number that we had been given. On the other end of the phone was someone from DHL who arranged a day for them to come and collect the suitcase, and our normal DHL parcel courier turned up at his usual time on the appointed day to do so.

Only three days later we received a phone call from Lufthansa to say that the suitcase could not be repaired, so instead it would be replaced and we could choose the colour of the new one.

That was Friday, and on Monday morning the new suitcase arrived in a large cardboard box. Not only had they replaced the suitcase at no charge to us, but they had even given us one in the same size from a well-known high-quality brand.

So thank you Lufthansa for proving that there are multi-national companies out there prepared to do everything to make their customers happy.

I am obviously not alone in my opinion of their after-flight service. You may also like to read “Compliments and complaints with Lufthansa” on Maria Shipley’s travel blog.

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

Bergen auf Rügen

Graham — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 05:34:53 +0000

When I arrived on Rügen, one of the first places that I went to was the island’s capital, Bergen.

Bergen auf Rügen somehow felt familiar, even though I had never been there before. It reminded me of other places that I had visited on the North Sea coast, even though it is actually located some way inland. I think this was a mixture of the architecture and the layout of the town, of maybe it is something that many towns along the coast have in common.

The market square and a car park is located at the centre of the town, although – perhaps confusingly – the signs to the free car park called “Zentrum” actually take you in a different direction. From that car park it is a 10 minute walk to market square along a tree-covered road.

The market square

Once there, the most noticeable building is the Benedix House, named after the family that used to live there, it is considered to be the oldest residential house on the island of Rügen and was apparently built in 1538. It currently houses the tourist information office.

The Benedix-Haus and Tourist Information Centre

And it was that office that I headed to in order to pick up some leaflets about things to see and do during my stay. There are also local bus and train timetables available, and the staff can help visitors find and book accommodation.

Just around the corner from the tourist information office is the Marienkirche (Church) which has a peculiar clock face – with 61 minutes on it!

The Marienkirche Clockface with 61 minutes

The other main attraction in Bergen is the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Tower, which at a height of 91m above sea level, offers spectactular views across the island. It was built in the 1870s on a hill called the Rugard, on the north-eastern corner of the town and co-incidentally also on the way back to the car park.

A leafy avenue from the car park to the market square

Bergen auf Rügen is situated just off the main island road, the B96, but also has a mainline railway station. I was amazed to find out that it is possible to get there from Frankfurt am Main by train without changing trains, even though the journey takes almost 9 hours. There is even an overnight connection with Basel in Switzerland!

Maybe on my next visit I’ll give that train journey a go…

Some other posts on this topic that you might like to read:

Upgrading the train stations

Graham — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 19:54:05 +0000

For the past few years the stations along the U3 line from Frankfurt to Oberursel have one-by-one been re-built.

The main reasons for this have been modernisation. The station at the end of the line had been just a provisional platform due to the line being shortened, and new signalling and information displays were installed.

Another was to add more capacity to the system, as many of the older stations had a maximum length of 50m, which equates to four carriages. Now all platforms are 75m long for the six-carriage trains that run on weekdays.

But one of the most important reasons in my opinion was to make all of the stations “barrierefrei”, ie. to make the platform the same height as the floor of the train.

When the line was first constructed there were no platforms at all. The stations were usually nothing more than a shelter where the tram stopped and the passengers had to go up a flight of steps in the tram doorway. (Apparently there was an exception provided by one carriage which had a low-level floor, but this was taken out of service as it lacked its own brakes).

Then at some point the platforms were introduced, although these were still not at the level of the trams. Originally the line was used for goods traffic as well, and the flanges of the goods wagons had to be able to pass over the platforms, and these were wider than the trams.

Eventually proper platforms were introduced, which were 56cm high. That left just a single step up of 24cm to enter the new U-Bahn trains and many of the older type of trains still had a step in the doorway.

The re-built platforms are all 80cm in height, with ramps at the end of them for wheelchair access, making it possible to get onto a train without going up or down steps at all.

And with the Hessentag only a few weeks away, the final three stations are now being hurriedly upgraded.

Lahnstraße, which was a “relatively” new station compared to much of the line, is now closed in both directions, and Oberursel Bahnhof has temporary platforms whilst it is being re-built.

Rosengärtchen, our local station, the newest on the line and one of only two that are single-track, was left until last. Work starts on it tomorrow, so the station will be closed for approximately three months. During that time we will have to walk to one of the others nearby.