Train Connections

I'm back in Erlangen from Bochum. On the way I tried to comfort a girl who failed to get off the train at Hanau because the doors didn't open. This meant that she had to take a round trip to Wuerzburg and back which took a couple of hours. I pointed out that it wasn't that bad, there was no need to cry and this kind of thing happens to me all the time.

And just to prove that I wasn't making this up I then got on a train in Nuremberg that went straight through Erlangen and out the other side. I didn't know that any trains did this (duh!), so I took an hour long trip to Bamberg and back.

The Model 3107 Chair

Today I got fed up with looking for flats, so I got on a tram and went to Strünkende Castle which is at the end of the line. It's several hundred years old and now houses a museum. The museum has lots of the usual stuff (armour, weapons, axes, pots, bones etc) and also a collection of 20th century chairs.

Possibly the most famous chair of the 20th century is now in the hands of the Victoria & Albert Museum. It belonged to the photographer Lewis Morley and was used in 1963 (the year that sexual intercourse began) for a photograph with Christine Keeler, who was then embroiled in the Profumo affair.

The museum in Strünkende Castle explained the appeal of this chair, which is a copy of the model 3107 chair by Arne Jakobsen. So if you ever run into this photo again, be sure to gaze at it with an open jaw and dribble "Phwoooar, that's a model 3107 chair".

Bogestra

I'm still in Bochum and still looking for somewhere to live. My favourite word in Bochum is "Bogestra". It stands for "Bochum-Gelsenkirchener Strassenbahnen" which is the company which runs the trams and buses in Bochum (and in neighbouring Gelsenkirchen), but I think it could be put to good use as a general-purpose swear word.

"Well Bogestra to all that!"

"Would you object if I were to fondle your Bogestras?"

"If you do that again I'll string you up by your Bogestra."

"Bogestra! Bogestra! Feckin' Bogestra."

"If I don't find a room soon I'm going to be totally Bogestra'd"

The great thing about this name is that the Trams are remarkably free of graffiti. I think that this can be linked to the fact that all seats are printed with "Bogestra" scrawled several times into the fabric. What more could any vandal add to that?

I'd best be off, as the internet cafe allows smoking, and had the Bogastra idea of venting the room by opening the skylights to let in some freezing cold air.

Bochum

My life had slowly been drifting into a totally lazy nothingness, so I packed a toothbrush and five juggling balls and got a train to Bochum. I hoped that things would become a bit clearer being there rather than in Erlangen.

I nearly missed two trains, the first one I only caught because the guy selling Bratwursts helped me buy a ticket. My last remaining screwed-up five Euro note kept being rejected by the ticket machine, despite receiving a good kicking. Luckily the Bratwurst guy was able to give me change.

This gave me five minutes in Nuremberg to buy a proper ticket, some breakfast (it was only 1pm) and a magazine. I then sprinted to the platform sidestepping lots of little people and was able to sneak in the door where the guard was waiting. The train left literally 5 seconds after I got on. After walking around Bochum for 20 minutes I gave up and booked into the Hotel Ibis.

That's the good thing about being completely disorganised: it gives you something to write about. The journey was quite nice, a little old Austrian women gave me a ham sandwich and the train went down the Rhein valley past lots of castles and the Loreley rock.