Europe Day 4: Salzburg to Berlin
First Class Strudel
The train to Munich was next, the first of two to take me to Berlin.
That morning, I decided to take an earlier one than initially planned, finding myself on the platform just before the doors closed (when you have a five day pass you can make these kind of moves). I was astounded that one could just hop on and find plenty of seats to choose from. I even get a last taste of Austria with an apple strudel from the dining car before crossing into Germany and being told to put on my face mask. At the same time, they did a casual passport check. I must have looked out of place, since I was the only person on the carriage who was asked to show it.
From the border onwards, the landscape says goodbye to the mountains. Out the windows it is just flat and green, fields and forests, and more flat and green. The train rushes silently on the tracks at formula one speeds.
It was a morning spent pretending to be a European business train commuter. I could get with it: working on a laptop, coffee & strudel, looking at the rolling green German countryside for inspiration. It seemed classy, sophisticated, very vip. If I was a successful business social media influencer type (e.g. forex), i think I would be posing in a 1st class train carriage instead of a private jet for my forex trader identity profile pic.
