4th Leg: Strasbourg - Munich
Sunday Morning
It turns out that yesterday’s “third leg”, Paris to Strasbourg, was not so smooth and sunny after all. I found this morning that I had in fact left my jacket in the train yesterday, and this is a great pity for me, as I had worn that fine waterproof on many a journey over the last seven years. I will just have to move on though.
Strasbourg was a good enough place to stop. The old centre is a very cute, half-timbered place of winding little cobbled streets; and with the various canals and fine weather, we passed a very tranquil afternoon in the city. We did come across some pretty drastically unobliging French people, but we are well-hardened to this sort of thing, after living in London.
Now we are in Germany, on a slightly more complex leg of the journey, requiring changes of train at Offenburg and Mannheim. We passed through deepest Rheinland in the first hour or two of the morning, and I coud well see why this area has been fought over in various wars: it seems exceptionally rich and fertile. Now we have gone further north - a slightly indirect route - passing into flatter, plainer country. But all this western part of Germany seems heavily populated, and heavily industrialised. It is green and forested and very picture-postcard, but there are also lots of factories and large concrete buildings emerging from among the trees. And there seem to be lots of medium to largish cities very close to each other.
Since our first train at 8 o’clock this morning, the carriages have been full of beer-drinking Germans, probably at least some of them on their way to Oktoberfest in Munich. I have already seen some men looking ridiculous in Liederhosen, and - I invent this not - there is already a noticeable and permeating odour of sausage.
The train is stopped now in Stuttgart - solid-sounding place. I had always imagined this to be a very organised city, with lots of cars and heavily-built people. I had also imagined it to be smoky and grey though - but outside it is still bright and sunny.
I think we are now in Europe - a place more European than Spain or Italy, or perhaps even France. I shall call this “deep Europe”.
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