Mountain villages and wide rivers

The train journey from Graz, Austria to Frankfurt(Main) took all day.   Starting at 8.25am arrived in Franfurt at 6.15pm.

  A marathon train trip, with a mixture of fellow travellers. The first train from Graz was amazingly quiet; chance to move around to get the best photos of the mountainous area towards Vienna.

Changing trains at Vienna meant boarding an extremely busy Intercity train, heading right through the heart of Germany, to Dortmund.

 Really glad I booked a seat because people were standing and sitting on the floor by the luggage racks.  A long journey from here, made worse by delays because of engineering works.  Some good views of the Danube on the way through.

Around my table seat were 2 French girls, an oldish German chap who loaded his tobacco pipe just before he got off, and I was sat next to a young German chap, originally from  Vienna, who happens to live in London, but was delivering a brand new telescope to his godson near Frankfurt.   It strikes me that everyone you meet has an incredible back story, of different lives, and different reasons for travelling.  The delays were causing problems for the 2 French girls, who hoped to be in Paris this evening!! They were worried that our 45 minute delay would jeopardise them getting their connection.

Finally, arrived at a cathedral to train travel - the vast, arched main station at Frankfurt.  It's incredibly busy, it really is impressive.

After a quick curry from an Indian restaurant just around the corner, I took a 15 minute stroll to the river which flows through Frankfurt(Main)  - the Main!