Neun minuten

Nine minutes was always going to be tight. To alight from a busy train, replete with luggage, and then traverse across nine platforms even on the simplest concourse to then board another train in the space of nine minutes: tell Deutsche Bahn they’re dreaming.

And despite choofing along at speeds in excess of 300 km/h, the task became even more onerous when we departed Strasbourg with the accompanying announcement that we had suffered a coincidentally nine minute delay “due to a technical issue that had now been fixed”. The gap grew to 14 minutes by Karlsruhe and 15 by Stuttgart: ICE 517 was (we were told as we rolled into Stuttgart) unfortunately unable to wait for us.

As a result, we took our chances reservationless on ICE567, half an hour or so later, and resided in the lobby space where the doors exist and the wagons connect for the full two hour trip to Munich. It was a zoo: CrazyTown on a train.

But we made it to Munich. And to our hotel at Sendlinger-Tor. And then to Octoberfest.