By train to Lindau and Lake Constance

Every year we plan a few big trips together, Timothy and I. When we heard ÖBB’s proposal to launch Nightjet service to Brussels in December 2019 we jumped on the occasion and included a ride back home from Austria to Belgium on the Nightjet after our autumn Berlin, Czechia and Slovakia trip. However as we all know in early 2020 an annoying new coronavirus, COVID-19, appeared and shook up travel all over the world. We changed our plans to an itinerary in ‘safe’ Germany including stops in Leipzig, Nuremberg, Regensburg, Munich, Lindau and Garmisch-Partenkirchen from where we would take a short train ride to Innsbruck to board our Nightjet back home.

After finishing our mini citytrip in Munich we continued south, towards Lindau in Lake Constance where we would be enjoying a nice lakeside overnight. To travel there we selected to travel on the southern axis of Alex (we already travelled on the northern axis from Regensburg to Munich). The Alex service suited us best timetable wise and also the classic loco-hauled service always evokes more charm.

Once again we would be travelling along the Allgaubahn but unlike our trip to Füssen we would make the entire trip along the line this time.

As it wasn’t a foggy morning this time we could enjoy the scenery all the way, from us leaving Munich and it’s suburban area along the rural hills for the first part of the journey.

Further south is where the journey gets more interesting, crossing a more mountainous terrain where the train twists and turns in between hills and mountains. We enjoyed some spectacular views over the villages and lakes scattered between the mountains. During our descent into Lindau in Lake Constance we crossed through some vineyards.

Due to some signal fault right before or arrival into Lindau we had about 50 minutes delay as we had to wait for trains to clear the section before allowed to pass the signal at danger. The final part of the trip into Lindau is over the dam connecting the mainland with the ‘island’ of Lindau where we terminated in the wonderful terminus station.

The Alex south axis is a full diesel powered operation. A modern Siemens diesel locomotive is pulling a rake of classic coaches. Just like on the northern axis you have got a number of former western or eastern German coaches, all with the old style compartments and opening windows.

As we once again travelled on a first class Bayern ticket we could ride in a first class compartment. We were lucky in having one of the few air conditioned former TEE coaches in our train today. While they used to be all first class, Alex transformed the in a mixed class configuration. While a few first class compartments kept their six classic seats and TEE design (although updated into the Alex colour palette) and remained first class, the rest was given 4 abreast seated benches to be able to transport eight persons per compartment or knocked out completely to provide space for bike transport.

The rear part of the train was also only until Immenstadt, after which the two rear coaches where closed (normally they would be detached here for the Oberstdorf part of the train, which seemingly didn’t run that day).

We enjoyed the full trip in our comfortable former TEE first class cabin and didn’t mind the extra delay as we were seated comfortably. It was nice to be able to travel in an old style of train, they are getting real rare today and mostly replaced by some standard multiple unit, missing a lot of the charm.