Posts Tagged ‘train’

Last train to Darmstadt.

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

Strange. This is the last time I am driving the ICE route to Darmstadt. After almost six years of commuting back and forth between Berlin and southern Hessia, it feels strange to look out at the landscape passing by. The interior of the trains, even with their changes over the course of the last years, may not be home, but it is a well known place to be. Bye Darmstadt, bye ICE, bye bahn.comfort status.

Von wegen Meckern über die Bahn.

Tuesday, July 11th, 2006

Schon dem guten Herrn Gintschel war ich für meine Vergeßlichkeit bekannt – der Hausmeister meiner Grundschule hat mir des öfteren Zutritt zur Grabbelkiste mit den Fundsachen gewährt, wenn ich mal wieder meinen Turnbeutel liegen lassen hatte. (Oder meine Zahnklammer.) Heutzutage lasse ich andere Sachen liegen. In der vergangenen Woche zuerst meine BahnCard auf dem heimischen Schreibtisch, so dass ich im Zug nicht die Gültigkeit meines OnlineTickets nachweisen und auch keinen reduzierten Tarif für den neu fälligen Fahrschein Berlin-Darmstadt nutzen konnte. Dumm gelaufen. Aber immerhin gab es einen netten Zugchef, der mir einen entsprechenden Eintrag auf die Rückseite meines neu gelösten Fahrscheins anfertigte und mir riet, noch am gleichen Tag bei der OnlineTicket Hotline Bescheid zu geben, dass ich meine BahnCard vergessen hätte und ein Ticket nachlösen müsste. Er sagte, dass in meinem Fall wohl entweder 15 € oder 8 € Gebühren erhoben werden könnten, je nachdem, ob mein Fall als vergessene BahnCard oder als vergessener Bezahlungsnachweis für das OnlineTicket behandelt würde. Ausserdem solle ich in jedem Fall eine Kopie meiner Fahrscheine machen, bevor ich selbige an die Bahn schicke. Nett und auskunftsfreudig der gute Mann.

Doch damit nicht genug. Am Freitag bin ich dann von Darmstadt nach Freiburg (Breisgau) gefahren und musste in Mannheim umsteigen. Es war heiss. Portemonnaies in der Hosentasche bei heissem Wetter sind eine unangenehme Sache. Also lag meine Geldbörse neben mir auf dem Sitz. Wo sie natürlich liegengeblieben ist, als ich ausgestiegen bin. Glücklicherweise fiel mir der Verlust sehr bald auf, denn als ich in die Lounge des Mannheimer Bahnhofs ging, griff meine Hand ins Leere. Zum ServicePoint geschickt berichtete ich mein Unglück, eine Verlustmeldungsbestätigung wurde ausgefüllt, die nette Dame am ServicePoint nahm meine Handynummer auf und sagte, sie würde sich melden, sobald sie mehr vom Zugchef des betreffenden Zugs gehört hätte. Wenn die Börse gefunden würde, könnte ich diese wohl entweder in Saarbrücken (der Endhaltestelle des ICEs) abholen, oder sie mir per Post zustellen lassen. Doof. Aber selber schuld., dachte ich.
Ich musste nicht lange warten und der Zugchef meldete sich persönlich auf meinem Mobiltelefon und sagte mir, dass er das Portemonnaie gefunden hätte und es an der nächsten Haltestelle in einem anderen Zug wieder gen Mannheim schicken würde. Famos! Leider hat das nicht geklappt, wie mir ca. 20 Minuten später mitgeteilt wurde (ich sass derweil angenehmerweise in der DB Lounge und konnte mich mit Getränken versorgen), ich solle also nicht auf den nächsten Zug warten, sondern statt dessen einfach so nach Freiburg fahren, wo ich um 23:10 das Portemonnaie in Empfang nehmen könnte, denn eine Kollegin würde noch am selben Tag zufällig nach Freiburg fahren. Hei! Wie nett!
So bin ich dann ohne Fahrschein oder Portemonnaie aber mit Verlustmeldungsbestätigung ausgestattet nach Freiburg gefahren (was man aber vorher mit dem Zugchef absprechen sollte) und habe ein paar Stunden später mein Portemonnaie von einer freundlichen Angestellten der DB AG überreicht bekommen – nicht ohne mir vorher die Scherze eines witzelnden Kollegen anzuhören. Den Spaß gönne ich unter solchen Umständen sehr gerne. Das Überraschendste war allerdings, dass das Portemonnaie voller war als vorher! Drin steckte nämlich eine Visitenkarte:

Mit freundlicher Empfehlung
Herr A. Schmidt
Zugchef

Vielen Dank, Herr A. Schmidt! Ohne Portemonnaie wäre der Aufenthalt in Freiburg und insbesondere die Rückfahrt wenig erfreulich gewesen…>

Enveloping myself.

Sunday, November 27th, 2005

I like to travel, but there is one major downside to traveling: noise. It is worst in airplanes. Even if the flight is just an hour long, I feel totally knocked out during the flight and probably for the following hours too. The noise inside the plane is just too much for me. In trains the noise is more subdued, depending on where one sits, depending on the train, and on the quality of the tracks. Nonetheless, after more than four hours the noise starts to nag at me, producing a certain feeeling of unrest – a feeling between being tired and being over-sensible.
More than a year ago, I read about a new generation of consumer headphones that have built-in active noise cancellation technology, which was said to reduce noise by neutralizing it with anti-noise (you should know a bit about the nature of waves to guess how this works). Since then, such a noise-canceling headphone has taken one of the highest priorities on my gadget wish-list.
A few weeks ago, after finishing some tiresome work optimizing the HTML code for a friend’s website I decided I’m in for a reward, checked the current offerings for noise canceling headphones, and decided that the Sennheiser’s PXC series is what I am looking for. After doing some price comparisons I decided to place a bid for the 250 model on eBay. I got lucky and bought the thing for 78 € including shipping.
The PXC 250 is a foldable headphone that is designed to be easily transportable. The one thing that differentiates it from other portable headphones is a stick about as thick as my thumb and about twice as long. This stick is home to two AAA batteries and (at least I would guess so) the noise-cancellation electronics. The cable from the headphone jack goes into it and another cable leads from the stick to the headphones. The stick is probably the biggest drawback to the whole thing, because one has to decide where to put it. At least it has a clip that allows attaching the stick to your belt or, as I usually do, to one of the pockets of my pants. The length of both cables is a bit less than a meter. If you’re not taller than 2.10 meters this should work for you. The headphone itself is light and comfortable to wear. It is, however, not as comfortable as my Koss Porta Pro, because the earpads exert a bit more pressure on your outer ear. This is necessary though – the pads will passively filter out the higher frequencies thus they have to fit tightly enough to not let sound pass by unobstructed. Still, after several hours of wear it is a relief to take them off for a while and massage your ears a bit.
On the stick there is a well-designed sliding button that turns on the noise cancellation. Before turning it on in a train you will hear rumbling and other lower frequency noises. After turning it on you will hear … less. The rumbling fades away to a gentler, smoother lower frequency noise. This general reduction of volume along with the smoothing has a soothing effect. The noise is definitely not gone, but it surely is less bothersome. You can use this feature without having the headphone plugged in to another device. This noise reduction is also great if you want to listen to music: you don’t need to turn the volume as high as you would have to without the noise cancellation. This makes listening to music less stressful too. Great stuff. Excellent investment.
If you turn the thing on in a silent environment you will notice a subtle hiss in the speakers. This hissing noise is, at least to me, practically inaudible in a train or a similarly noisy environment. If you want to use the headphones without the noise cancellation turned on you will be disappointed. The bass will be much to low – there seems to be some kind of loudness function associated with the noise filter. Other than that the sound quality of the PXC 250 is very good; I would say it is in the same league as the excellent Porta Pro. All in all I can definitely recommend this device. I am looking forward to test it in an airplane, but I am quite confident that it will make flying a less bothersome experience.
The only real drawback that I am feeling is that this thing will make the envelope that I build around me while traveling even less permeable. Of course I can work better and listen to music in a more relaxed manner when wearing these headphones. Nonetheless, it also lessens my contact to my surroundings. I am less approachable, won’t hear people having a conflict, won’t hear the chatter of others around me, won’t hear nice stories people might tell each other. Some chances will just pass by without being noticed. *sigh* Such is the nature of envelopment.

Post-conference hiatus is over.

Sunday, October 23rd, 2005

The conference was quite a success. Nice people, interesting talks, no major disasters. I did not leave Darmstadt immediately to have opportunities for socializing and joining the one-year Diskothek anniversary party in the 603qm which was quite a bit of fun. On sunday I took the night train to Copenhagen, where I … became ill for a few days when the post-stress relaxation set in (probably enhanced by the less than ideal sleeping conditions in the sleeping coach and potentially infected co-sleepers in same coach). However, a few bins filled with handkerchiefs, visits to the local sauna and hearty meals later, I recovered. And now I am back in Berlin. I did some work after the conference though, as you will see in the next entry to this blog.

ICE 1 version 2.0.

Tuesday, August 9th, 2005

Finally. My biggest gripe with the German railway – there are no power plugs in the first generation of ICE trains – seems to be in the process of being removed. In a recent announcement the Deutsche Bahn has stated that the first train with a new interior design has entered service on the fith of August. The rest of the fleet will be upgraded until 2008. Marvellous news. They will switch the interior design to be similar to the design of the third generation ICE trains which is my favorite design in the last fifteen years or so: comfortable seats, enoughs plugs and a more open feel. I hate the old seats which have enormous unmovable armrests. Made me feel like sitting in a cage or in a surgery seat put into upright position. I will post a new entry as soon as I have entered the first of the renovated trains (the first one is ICE 787 running the route Hamburg to Munich).
Mehr Informationen und Bilder.

You can call me Confusious.

Friday, October 15th, 2004

No, this is not the first sentence of a novel that I am writing. Though it would actually be a good first sentence. Why would I like this sentence but still not use it in a novel? Well, the first person who guesses correctly will be invited to a free beverage of her or his choice!

Instead of a famous novel I present you with a short anecdote from the daily affairs of yours truly. Currently I am in Oslo – in the train from the airport to Oslo, to be exact – and sitting in this train comes as a surprise to me. This morning I thought that I would instead be sitting in a train from the airport Berlin Schönefeld to my humble apartment in Prenzlauer Berg right now. Well, it seems that I got something about the today’s date wrong. As the check-in lady of Norwegian told me with a hearty laugh, my flight will be leaving tomorrow, not today. Seems I got something wrong about today’s date and the date written on my ticket. Fine, this is funny, and I like a good laugh. However, if the lady would have known how I came to Oslo she might have been even more amused, more amused by the exact same amount that I have been more frustrated…
The thing is, when I sat in the train to Berlin Schönefeld Thursday last week, I was a bit less relaxed than I am now, and would most certainly have refrained from writing down anecdotes. I was quite anxious instead. The Tram had been late before I entered the S-Bahn to the airport. The S-Bahn was delayed even more. Minutes were passing quite quickly, the train finally arrived, I was running to the airport with a big load on my back, arrived 30 minutes before take-off, and they did not let me check in anymore. No hearty laughs there. So, last week, I missed the flight that I was supposed to have taken. (I had to pay the full price for a new ticket the following day – Norwegian might be a cheap airline, but it certainly is not a very flexible airline.) This week I am a day to early. *sighs* What does this tell me? Traveling by train is better than traveling by plane. Another possible conclusion would be that it be more comfortable if I knew when to be where and what to do there instead of just drifting through life.

Getting reorganized.

Monday, August 2nd, 2004

Yesterday evening I arrived back in Berlin after a 12 hour trip from Darmstadt via Leipzig to Berlin – there have been quite a few traffic jams on the autobahn. Makes one remember quite vividly, why traveling by train is a Good Thing. There was a lot of comment spam – most of it generated yesterday though, so I hope it hasn’t been indexed by search engines yet. Now I have to rent an apartment for when we visit my brother’s wedding, organize other stuff concerning the wedding, write a few mails regarding college seminar organization, try to find somebody to rent the free room in our apartment to from now to September, get my article published, try to get my diploma published, and, of course, work on my dissertation, i.e. read Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception, and analyze my recordings.

The college’s workshop was excellent, we managed to get quite some stuff accomplished for the people who presented their material, though we had a hard time agreeing on the procedures for the conference we will host in 2005. The chalet was wonderful and the view we had from there magnificent. I am also pleased to report that my knees managed to cope with the downhill part of the one hiking tour that we made on our free day.

Bluetooth scare.

Saturday, May 15th, 2004

On my way to Darmstadt this Wednesday I had the luck to sit in an ICE2 wagon, which provides power for my PowerBook – usually you only have ‘powerless’ ICE1 wagons going from Berlin via Franfurt to Basel or Zürich. So I had my PowerBook up and running including digital paraphernalia such as my USB bluetooth dongle to connect to my mobile. Well, I was pretty surprised when suddenly a message popped up that a file called “vorsicht.pwi” was sent to my computer via bluetooth! A look into the directory which I have designated to be the receiving directory for bluetooth files revealed that indeed, there was a new file bearing that name. This was the content of the file (there were a lot of non-readable characters in the file too, you can download this and the other file as a zipped archive if you want to check out the exact contents):

 Vorsicht, sie wurden gehackt! Sit auch im Zug!!    B ”   #     O 

A minute or two later I got another message with the same name. This time the content read:

   d d    P   /   =
    S     S    @    
    F    E *  !   A *   E L     +
 Vorsicht, sie wurden gehackt! Sitze auch im Zug!! Bitte aufstehen!!!    B +   $
 !      ’
 A !    B ” 

Well, I did not stand up, as the ‘hacker’ requested, instead unplugging the bluetooth dongle and then checking my bluetooth settings. So far I had both not changed the default settings which turn on visibility for my bluetooth port and which disable encryption for bluetooth connections. I then used my mobile (a SonyEricsson T68i) to look for other visible bluetooth devices in the train compartment, and subsequently discovered a device with the name “Nokia6610” (not sure if the model number was this or something else). I didn’t do anything related to the Nokia though and later decided to turn on my bluetooth connection again, this time with visibility turned off and encryption turned on. No more detectable hassles for the rest of the trip. Strange nonetheless. I guess this person did at maximum have access to the directory which I have designated as being accessible for bluetooth devices. Seemed to be more a joke to scare people off (and correctly point to the weaknesses of unprotected bluetooth connections). However, Heise has posted an article on bluetooth device security problems on the same day that I was ‘hacked’ – nice coincidence.

Einfach und schnell ins Internet?

Thursday, April 29th, 2004

Insbesondere einfach. Nämlich nur einmal. Ich habe mir ja vor einer Weile mal so eine rail&mail Plastikkarte von der DB gekauft, um in der DB Lounge in Frankfurt zu mailen, zu surfen und solche Beiträge wie diesen hochzuladen. Hat ja auch alles schön funktioniert: Für 3,95 € eine Karte erstanden, Kartennummer und PIN freigerubbelt, selbige im Browser auf der automatisch angezeigten Startseite eingegeben und – schwupp – online gewesen. Unter dem Preis steht auf der Oberseite der Karte noch 60 Min. und Gültigkeit bis: 31.12.2003. Fein, nicht wahr: 3.95 € für 60 Minuten. Als ich mich dann letzte Woche wieder einloggen wollte, bekam ich immer nur eine Fehlermeldung zu sehen: die von mir angegebene Nummer sei nicht gültig. Fragezeichen. Nachdem Ausprobieren verschiedene Browser habe ich dann doch eine der Angestellten in der Lounge angesprochen, die mir dann sagte, dass meine Karte nur einmal gültig sei. Ausrufezeichen. Tatsächlich, auf der Rückseite der Karte steht als letzter von vier Punkten: Ablauf des Guthabens erfolgt mit 1. Login. Soso. Ich hab das ja im Kontext mit den oben genannten Angaben auf der Vorderseite der Karte so interpretiert, dass (selbstverständlicherweise) mit dem ersten Einloggen das Guthaben abzulaufen begänne, nicht, dass es sofort abgelaufen sein würde. Völlig absurd. Es gibt ja auch eine andere Karte, die teuerer ist und wohl so funktioniert, wie ich es mir auch für meine Karte gedacht hatte. Als ich mich beim ersten Einkauf nach den vorhandenen Karten erkundigt habe, wurde mir dieser Unterschied offensichtlich nicht erklärt. Wer wäre denn sonst auch so blöd, sich für knapp vier Euro eine Karte zu holen, die nur für eine Transaktion gültig ist (abgesehen davon, das ich das Ausgeben von Einmalplastikkarten auch aus ökologischer Sicht für unangemessen halte). Ich werde mich noch auf offiziellem Wege bei der DB beschweren, mal sehen, was die dazu sagen.

Jolly good.

Thursday, April 29th, 2004

Nobody told me that the rapeseed fields would be full of blossoms already. An unexpected shock. The bright yellow of the rapeseed blossoms is particularly pleasant when seen together with meadows full of thickly orange-yellow dandelions. This makes the train ride an experience to be enjoyed even more than usual. The only side effect of this sight that is not 100% good might be the fact that concentrating on the papers which I have to grade is not really made easier when your view tends to wander out of the window…

Tsk. Forgot my ticket.

Saturday, February 7th, 2004

Just a moment ago the train attendant came by to check the tickets. It seems I left mine on the table in our office in Darmstadt. Bad Luck. We’ll see what happens… And we’ll see if the DB staff will handle it’s bahn.comfort customers in a different way.

I’ll probably update this entry in a while ;-)

Well so far we already had a change of staff, but the second team of attendants somehow seems to have overlooked my lacking of a ticket. Hehe.

Now back in Berlin. No further ticket hassles. Good Luck!

Railway, landscapes and snow.

Thursday, January 29th, 2004

If only I would have had more time to sit back and watch things pass by on today’s railway trip from Frankfurt to Berlin. It has been a constant change of white, snow covered fields, sunny green meadows, grey skies and snowy hills, misty stretches and heavy snowfall, filling the air with a white-speckled light grey. Trees with snow covered branches have always been one of my top favorites visual aesthetic pleasures. I hope the temperatures stay below zero degrees Celsius; otherwise this particular tree-adornment will quickly dissolve into unpleasant wetness.

Hamburger Schule.

Saturday, January 24th, 2004

Es ist doch immer wieder großartig, Jungs aus der Heimat zu hören. Heute während der Heimfahrt hab ich zum ersten Mal mit wirklicher Muße das Album “Blast Action Heroes” von den Beginnern gehört. Nicht nur der angenehm zwischen feinsinnig und krude changierende Witz ist tipp topp (am liebsten mag ich vielleicht die Zeile “dann ist mir das wie Kaffee Latte” – Hey! Ho! muß ich da rufen… ); ich mag auch das Lied über Schily und Schill mit seinem netten pseodobiografischen Versen zu zwei wirklich finsteren Gestalten unserer politischen Landschaft. Weiter so, Dicker! Ich groove mich hier durch die Zeit im ICE Abteil und hab ein ernsthaftes Lächeln auf den Lippen. So soll es sein.

bahn.comfort.

Wednesday, January 14th, 2004

Hmm, eigentlich dachte ich, heute zum ersten Mal in den vollen Genuss meines neu erlangten Status als bahn.comfort Kunde zu kommen und ich Frankfurt am Main in der DB Lounge Zeitungs- und Getränke Völlerei zu betreiben, aber leider hat der Wecker zu spät geklingelt, so dass ich nicht mehr den Zug bekommen habe, der mir einen ausreichend langen Aufenthalt im Frankfurter Bahnhof gestattet hätte. Schade. Einen für bahn.comfort Kunden vorreservierten Platz habe ich auch nicht in Anspruch nehmen müssen, da eh genug Platz war… Immerhin: die neue Bahncard, die ich zugeschickt bekommen habe ist nicht mehr einfach weiss, wie die normalen Bahncards 25 und 50, sie ist silbern wie die Bahncard 100 (alias Netzkarte)! Das ist natürlich schon mal ziemlich cool und hat mich mit großem Stolz erfüllt. Vielleicht war der Schaffner ja sogar deshalb so nett? Man weiss es nicht. So einfach kann man mich zufrieden stellen. Mehr über dieses spannende Thema, sobald ich das erste Mal in der DB Lounge war.

Le premier fois.

Thursday, December 4th, 2003

This weekend I will be in Paris for the first time! I have driven along the highway around Paris (never have I been so concentrated as in these 40 minutes driving through Paris rush hour traffic) but I have never ever set foot on the city’s grounds. La terre française. The trip is sponsored by the post-graduate college and we will make exkursions to two sites: Le Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers et La Vilette.

Well, we might also visit one or two cafés on the way…

Small steps.

Thursday, July 3rd, 2003

Yesterday and today I did some more research regarding the subjects train station and passenger terminals. Surprisingly, there doesn’t seem to be that available on the web, at least in German. There are many sites where you can read minor variations on the anti-surveillance-Foucault’s-Panoticon-exclusion-of-the-homeless theme – this is an important and central problem of contemporary cities and their public or semi-public spaces – however, this definitely doesn’t cover the intricacies and sublime effects of urban/spatial/technological design on social action. So, I’ll see what I will find in the texts that I ordered via internet at the libraries in Darmstadt. (I still can’t believe I managed to make those orders and start the real bibliographic work – a true burst of productivity!)

Still, I found one or two interesting things. Following, a few links (all of these sites are in German):
on urban space: stadtraum.org, transitraum
on train stations: diskus, Bahnhofsoffensive gegen Rassismus (derive), INNENSTADT-AG Frankfurt, Rund um den Bahnhof (Schweiz), TAZ Artikel 25.01.02, and a historic essay on train stations
on video surveillance: spotoff

On the train again.

Saturday, June 14th, 2003

Again sitting in the ICE from Frankfurt to Berlin, I am hoping that the train will be late by about 35 to 40 minutes. In Frankfurt we were only late by about 15 minutes. Only? Wanting to be late?! Yes, yes, yes, yes. Why?

  1. If I am late I might be able to get some compensation in form of a voucher from the DB.
  2. Kerstin works until midnight. If I am late I might get picked up at the train station!

Convinced? I hope.

Blogging on the way to Buchholz.

Saturday, June 7th, 2003

Yeah! Rock’n’Roll! Right now I’m sitting in the ICE from Frankfurt to Hamburg. The train has already left Hannover behind. I’m driving through the heartland of good old Lower Saxony. Temperatures here seem to be much more in the pleasant range; I would guess something like 21°C (it’s now 20:40h). I’m looking forward very much to arrive back home, drink a fine and cool Malzbier and hang loose. Tomorrow, Kerstin will arrive from Kopenhagen – hooray! This will be a day of Partying! First: welcome girlfriend. Second: Go take a swim in the beautiful river Seeve (probably together with Timo and Berit). Third: Dress up. Fourth: Go to the wedding of Meik and Katja. Fifth: Get drunk. You can probably guess the rest :D
Be jealous, yours truly will soon haunt the world famous Nordheidemetropole!>