It was a warm summer day when I arrived in Munich. I had been hiking for a week in the Alps and was on my way home.

Since traveling long distances by car is quite tiring I decided to make this trip by rail. Since I didn’t find places to sleep for the weekend when I planned this trip, I decided to head homewards on Friday which would give me some time for cleanup before work starts again at Monday.

I am a Linux system administrator and in charge of the Linux systems of my company. There were plenty of older systems waiting to be upgraded while keeping everything else up and running. Quite the pain in the ass. I would cross this bridge exactly on Monday morning.

The 6 days of hiking were fun and helped me to get away from my daily grind for a while, doing something completely different. My sons were old enough to stay at home alone for a while, especially with my parents living nearby.

Checking my watch it was about noon. The ICE would be leaving around 15:30. That was enough time to get lunch and explore Munich ab bit.

I’ve been in Munich twice already, but it had been a while. Once on a school trip and another time on a monitoring workshop a few years later, which was rather brief as I was most of the time on the workshop.

Looking around I found greek restaurant near the central station. I went for some gyro.

Many restaurants were in bad shape after government fucked up corona management. Many smaller businesses closed their doors forever.

I would love to visit the Deutsches Museum again. The visit on my school trip was quite exciting. I was about 16:00 . It was a technical museum with many cool exhibits. Unfortunately I had not enough time for a visit today.

I started at Stachus and passed the Frauenkirche, got a beer at Hofbräuhaus and had a look at St. Peter’s Church. When it was time to catch my train I went back to the central station to catch my train.

Having a smartphone with navigation software is just convenient in unknown places. I arrived at the train station without hassle and enough time left to find my way to the correct platform.

In front of the staircase leading up to the main hall stood a young woman with a large suitcase. The elevator and the moving staircase seemed to be out of order. She wore an elegant red dress and heels. Her long wavy brown hair hung down to her hips.

“May I help you?” I asked.

She turned to look at me for a moment, and threw an amused glance at my shoes.

“The suitcase is heavy. Do you really want to carry it up there? It would be nice though.” she smiled slightly.

After she took the small bag, that probably contained her laptop, and slung it over her shoulder.

Then she pushed the handle of her rolling monster back into the suitcase.

I lifted the suitcase briefly, and as I assumed the suitcase wouldn’t be much of a problem. A bit beyond 20kg, a few kilograms lighter than my favorite kettle bell.

“No problem” I assured her

“I can handle this.” I picked up the suitcase.

“Thank you, sir!” She smiled politely.

Slowly she started to climb the stairs. I picked up the suitcase and followed her closely. After a few steps she looked back over her shoulder. Then she started to climb the stairs faster, up to a normal pace.

After several days hiking in the mountains a simple staircase was a breeze. I kept up without a problem. After we reached the platform level I set the suitcase back on the ground.

“Thank you!” She smiled.

“You’re welcome!” I turned away.

Finally I arrived at the correct part of platform for claiming my reserved seat.

Looking at the displays the ICE seemed not to be late. Well it was a few minutes late, which was normal with Deutsche Bahn.

After the train arrived I claimed my seat. It was near the back of the train. Since I had only my backpack I stashed it above my seat in the luggage net and made myself comfortable. The seats are not really comfortable, especially for five hours. The space for my legs was just enough.

An elderly woman sat down beside me after a few minutes. We greeted each other briefly. She started to read a book.

The train left a few minutes later. I looked out of the window at the scenery for a while. We passed Ingolstadt and Nürnberg. In Würzburg the old lady left the train.

I’d be at home at about 21:00. Without further delay. My car was parked near Siegburg station and it was about half an hour ride home by car. At this time traffic usually wasn’t an issue anymore.

At around 19:30 the ICE arrived at Frankfurt central station. A tall lanky guy with slightly Asian facial features took his seat beside me. His dark brown hair was cut rather short and he wore a suit. Nothing fancy.

He gave me a timid smile which I returned. Then he folded himself onto his seat.

I leaned against the window in order to give him a bit more space.