Germany, inside the numbers for Nov-Dec 2015
Above: Bingen am Rhein, 25 November 2015 (HL).
I returned to Germany this past fall for a month-long trip. It’s instructive to look back at these key numbers: 15, 8550, 3200, 14, 7385, and 4.
15 consecutive years
2015 marks the 15th year I’ve set foot inside Germany. I lived in Heidelberg, Germany between 2001 and 2003, and since leaving, I’ve returned to the country at least once each year.
In the air for 8550 kilometres
•  One-way distance: 8550 km, YVR-LHR-TXL (Vancouver-London Heathrow-Berlin Tegel).
•  Journey time, including LHR layover: 15h25m east (total), 15h45m hours west (total).
Vancouver — London (Heathrow) — Berlin (Tegel)
Train for 3200 kilometres
The following map shows the approximate journey on the train through Germany over the 4-week interval. For more details, click on the “arrow-window” icon at the upper left corner of the map below.
A well-used 10-day German Rail Pass. I didn’t get “controlled” on 25 Nov and 6 Dec.
•  Saving money with 10-day German Rail Pass (GRP).
•  With a deal for the GRP at $440 CAD, usage each “rail day” $44 CAD ($32 USD).
•  Approximate train distances below with distance calculator (in German).
• Columns: (1) Date; (2) German Rail Pass (GRP), day number; (3) train route; (4) route distance in kilometres; (5) total distance in kilometres.
| Date | GRP | Route | Distance | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 Nov | 1 | Berlin Spandau — Hannover Hannover — Steinach Steinach — Rothenburg odT |
244 410 13 |
667 |
| 13 Nov | 2 | Rothenburg odT — Steinach Steinach — Würzburg Würzburg — Regensburg |
13 56 205 |
941 |
| 15 Nov | 3 | Regensburg — München | 126 | 1067 |
| 17 Nov | 4 | München — Karlsruhe | 338 | 1405 |
| 19 Nov | … | Karlsruhe — Speyer | 50 | … |
| 21 Nov | … | Speyer — Worms | 43 | … |
| 23 Nov | … | Worms — Mainz | 48 | … |
| 25 Nov | 5 | Mainz — Koblenz | 94 | 1499 |
| 27 Nov | 6 | Koblenz — Bielefeld | 308 | 1807 |
| 29 Nov | 7 | Bielefeld — Köln | 200 | 2007 |
| 1 Dec | 8 | Köln — Magdeburg | 433 | 2440 |
| 3 Dec | 9 | Magdeburg — Hannover Hannover — Hamburg |
145 180 |
2765 |
| 6 Dec | 10 | Hamburg — Berlin Spandau | 300 | 3065 |
| 8 Dec | … | Berlin Charlottenburg — Potsdam Potsdam — Berlin |
48 | … |
•  Over 3000 kilometres covered with GRP.
•  Over 3200 kilometres on intercity trains, not including intracity trains.
•  19, 21, 23 Nov; 8 Dec: not included. 23 Nov thanks to TouristInfo Worms; 8 Dec S-Bahn.
To the 14 cities
I was fortunate to visit cities small and large, including four of the five largest cities in the country. It’s unusual I didn’t fly into Frankfurt airport or stopped inside Frankfurt am Main. I also experienced balmy conditions in mid-November: t-shirt and shorts weather in Munich!
| Date | City (State) |
Population (Year) |
High (°C) |
Low (°C) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11-12 Nov | Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Bayern) |
10,979 (2014) |
+13 | +7 |
| 13-14 Nov | Regensburg (Bayern) |
140,276 (2014) |
+13 | +4 |
| 15-16 Nov | München (Bayern) |
1,517,868 (2015) |
+23 | +10 |
| 17-18 Nov | Karlsruhe (Baden-Württemberg) |
316,346 (2014) |
+17 | +12 |
| 19-20 Nov | Speyer (Rheinland-Pfalz) |
50,050 (2012) |
+15 | +6 |
| 21-22 Nov | Worms (Rheinland-Pfalz) |
83,756 (2014) |
+9 | +2 |
| 23-24 Nov | Mainz (Rheinland-Pfalz) |
208,176 (2015) |
+6 | +1 |
| 25-26 Nov | Koblenz (Rheinland-Pfalz) |
110,677 (2014) |
+7 | +4 |
| 27-28 Nov | Bielefeld (Nordrhein-Westfalen) |
330,207 (2015) |
+8 | -1 |
| 29-30 Nov | Köln (Nordrhein-Westfalen) |
1,053,528 (2014) |
+12 | +4 |
| 1-2 Dec | Magdeburg (Sachsen-Anhalt) |
234,858 (2014) |
+11 | +5 |
| 3-5 Dec | Hamburg (Hamburg) |
1,814,597 (2012) |
+12 | +6 |
| 6-10 Dec | Berlin (Berlin) |
3,469,800 (2014) |
+12 | +2 |
| 8 Dec | Potsdam (Brandenburg) |
163,668 (2014) |
… | … |
+17C (64F) on the weather tower, at 315pm on 16 Nov 2015 – Deutsches Museum, Munich.
With 7385 photographs
•  Image number, 24521 to 31905
•  7385 photos over 30 days
•  Average of 246 photographs each day
I “flipped” the four-digit image counter on my Canon EOS6D camera for the third time to exceed total exposure number 30-thousand. The reset occurred in Magdeburg, Germany with the image below.
Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen, Magdeburg – 3 Dec 2015.
4 highlights
Week 1, 11-18 November
Regensburg’s “Wurstkuchl” is known as one of the oldest places standing in Europe to serve food. High-quality locally-produced ingredients, long queues for sausage.
Week 2, 19-25 November
In what is known as the oldest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, the oldest gravestone in Worms’ Jewish Cemetery (“Holy Sand”) dates back to 1058 AD/CE.
Week 3, 26 November – 2 December
In Magdeburg’s Old Town, the golden “Magdeburg Rider” is a copy of the oldest German equestrian statue (c. 1240 AD) now housed inside the city’s Cultural History Museum.
Week 4, 3-10 December
The “Bridge of Spies” in Potsdam once symbolized the deep Cold War divisions between “east” and “west” as part of the physical border between East Germany and West Berlin.
Thanks to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Regensburg, Karlsruhe, Speyer, Worms, Mainz, Koblenz, and Magdeburg for their kind hospitality and generous access to various services and facilities. This post appears on fotoeins DOT com as http://wp.me/p1BIdT-7wd.
Fotoeins Fotografie 
6 Responses to “Germany, inside the numbers for Nov-Dec 2015”
Some serious distance first flying and then spending in the train. Latest the train ride would be overkill for me 🙂
Love th pictures, especially the cemetery looks very mysterious
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Hi, Timo. It’s a long way across the “big (eastern) pond”, and yes, it was a lot of distance on intercity trains, though once again, the east and southeast part of the country weren’t well covered on this trip. Thank you for reading and your kind comment!
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Well for your next trip you can tackle those regions 🙂
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In all fairness, I’ve been fortunate to have set my eyes on parts of Thüringen and Sachsen on recent visits in the last couple of years. And yes, I want to go back to Thüringen and Sachsen, particularly to see more about the Sorbian minority in Lausitz (Lusatia). 🙂
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I have never been to that part of saxony either. Only been to the main cities for competitions and to the mountains for training camps 🙂
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[…] day arrives when the timing is a great fit, when the city becomes the first stop on a four-week long tour of the country. I’m hitting a seasonal “sweet spot” in between the summer surge and the […]
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