GERMANY | Dessau – Weimar – Coburg – Kassel railroad trip

October 2024. During a week-long whistle-stop tour of Germany, we visit Dessau-Roßlau in Saxony-Anhalt, Weimar in Thuringia, Coburg in Upper Franconia (Bavaria) and Kassel in Hesse. Smaller cities, yes. But each with their own significance. Untouched by overtourism. We’re avoiding using the white trains of DB Fernverkehr, Deutsche Bahn‘s long-distance section and opt to use the red trains of DB Regio and other regional operators.

Germany is a fun country to travel in. It has good roads and an efficient railway network. Prices for hotels and restaurants are also okay to good. German Brauhaus cuisine, equivalent to French brasserie cuisine or English pub grub, is just very tasty. Big, meat-heavy portions, rich sauces and potato Knödel. And of course rich desserts.

Germany is also a neighbour of Belgium. The Federal Republic of Germany is 11.6 times larger than the Kingdom of Belgium, with 357.022 km² and 30.689 km² respectively and thus sometimes you need quite some hours on a train, even at high speed, to get somewhere.

For us, Germany offers a good mix of proximity and familiarity, but is different enough to give this away-feeling of dépaysement. A French word which Google translates as ‘change of scenery’. Literally, dépaysement is ‘decountryfying’ or something like that.

“Dépaysement is an emotion felt by the change of habits or environments. It often refers to the feelings associated with immersion in an unknown environment, different from the original one”, Wikipedia says. “Dépaysement can thus occur when changing from one place of life to another.”

Why this itinerary?

We consciously chose for Dessau, Weimar, Coburg and Kassel because they’re not A-list destinations. Imagine your first trip to Germany or even Europe and you wouldn’t put those on your list. Not even on the list for a second, third or fourth visit to the Bundesrepublik. That’s okay.

You could argue Dessau, Weimar, Coburg and Kassel gravitate towards the label of ‘niche’, ‘left-field’ or ‘specialist’ destination.

So why did we choose them? Firstly Danny wanted to visit Dessau and Weimar for their connection to Bauhaus. Timothy wanted to visit Weimar for its cultural and political history.

And I wanted to visit Coburg as it’s an ancestral home of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. A branch of the House has become the Belgian Monarchy.

Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, Duke of Saxony, was born at Ehrenburg Palace in the tiny Duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld in modern-day Bavaria on 16 December 1790. In 1826, Saxe-Coburg acquired the city of Gotha from the neighbouring Duchy of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg and gave up Saalfeld to Saxe-Meiningen, becoming Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The dynasty of this name was therefore founded by Leopold’s eldest brother, Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, the father of Albert, Prince Consort of the United Kingdom.

On 21 July 1831, Leopold took the constitutional oath to become the first King of the Belgians.

We added Kassel to the itinerary because we had two days left to plat with. Kassel is (kind of) on the way home and is known for the Documenta festival. It’s also more of a tourist destination.

Variety

Our for legs of the journey had distinctive vibes and shoed us the variety and diversity of Germany. Dessau had been heavily bombed during World War II and offered a ‘new city’ atmosphere.

Old Weimar and Coburg were better preserved but have different styles as they developed separately.

Kassel is also a ‘new city’ but is much larger than the other three.

Things that struck us in Germany

On this trip in to smaller cities in Germany, a few ‘phenomena’ struck us.

Light lunch please?

For lunch, we headed to fully-fledged restaurants with fully-fledged menus. Finding a ‘light bite’, but still sitting down, was near-impossible. No so-called fast casual restaurants. A salad? No. A panini, a club sandwich? No. Bread meals in Germany are something for evenings at home.

Sprechen Sie Englisch?

A Eurobarometer report estimates that 45.5 million Germans speak English as a second language, making Germany the European leader and sixth worldwide in non-native English speakers.

Over half the population is fluent, with proficiency varying by region and age group. Germany ranked 10th globally on the EF English Proficiency Index (EPI) in 2022, achieving an average score of 613, which indicates very high proficiency. Bavaria leads among federal states with a score of 636, while Karlsruhe is the top city at 655. Major cities like Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin also exhibit strong English skills.

Demographically, young Germans aged 21–25 are the most proficient, with overall skills typically at a C1 level for those under 40. Men tend to score slightly higher than women. Older generations, particularly those over 55, generally have lower proficiency due to historical educational trends, as English only became mandatory in schools in 1964.

English is widely spoken in professional settings, especially in hospitality, technology, and finance, with many job postings requiring it.

While larger cities and tourist areas are accessible for English speakers, navigating local services without German can be more challenging.

In restaurants, understanding speaking at least some German was de rigueur. We were in cities which are mostly visited by Germans so people in hotels and Brauhäuser don’t really need to speak English (well). Most of the museums and sights we visited had explanations and tours in German only or only limited English texts.

Luckily we understand German enough to know what people are talking about and we speak it well enough to ask some questions and order food and drinks.

Stille Nacht

We were in small(er) cities and when returning to the hotel from dining it, it was oh so quiet. Shhh. Shhh. We clearly weren’t in Berlin or Munich. People stayed home at night.

To be honest, we were there on weekdays. In Kassel, it was a bit less guaranteed to have a table at the restaurant without reservation. For the Saturday, we booked a table in advance.

Be quick when getting on and off a train

Last but least. As train guards ourselves, we found this striking. Trains only stop very, very briefly at stations.

Be quick to get on and off the train. Be ready at the door, because the train doesn’t wait. Germany is not Belgium, and passengers know it. No waiting until the train has stopped to gather their belongings and go to the door.