By a lucky coincidence, this was the final day of the European Transport Conference being held in Goethe University in Frankfurt. So I decided to pop over there and hopefully bump into some people I knew. I had had a look at the conference website the previous evening, and saw that two former Leeds PhD students from Portugal were presenting. Uunfortunately when I got there they had already left, but I did bump into Prof Austin Smyth (who had in the past been an e...

Breakfast in the 'hotel' was adequate, served by a very grumpy woman. After escaping, I decided to be a tourist for the day, so cycled to the bottom station of the funicular. I managed to find a place nearby to lock the bike, then got a ticket for the ride to the top of the hill (see photos). It was worth the trip. Back at ground level I walked around the town, and noticed the large number of Chinese visitors. Obviously a regular thing in Heidelberg as some o...

Up at 0630 and after a quick breakfast at Premiere Classe I cycled through Strasbourg to Kehl station. It was quite chilly at this time in the morning. I got to the DB station about 9, and an excellent chap sold me tickets with seat and bike reservations from Frankfurt to Venlo via Wuppertal, and also an international bike ticket for Germany & Netherlands. Moreover the price was cheaper than quoted by the booking office in Strasbourg. (Because that was SNCF ...