My Humble Advice On Long-Term Travel Via The Bahn (Railway of Germany)

 1. Load the Bahn app on your smart-phone....it'll provide updates if  'crap'  occurs.

2.  Always be ready for a plan 'B'  situation....meaning a overnight in cow-town.

3.  AC on the ICE trains (high-speed rail)....is marginal. If above 35 C....it won't be effective.

4.  Reserve seats when possible.

5.  If you get stuck in some city....waiting five hours for the next leg of the trip....don't go loitering around the train station.

6.  Keep a couple of coins on you....for station toilets.

7.  On ICE trains....it's 100-percent chance of a ticket-audit.

8.  Accept the fact  that the Bahn is 'on-time'....about 65-percent of the time....so you have hefty odds of missing a train in your 3-leg trip.

9.  In a station like Frankfurt....there's forty-odd junkie/nutcases wandering around....be aware of that.

10. Don't travel via rail...if you know of a winter-storm, or a massive rainfall period. 

6 August 2026: Germany: 5 Things

 1.  The Leipzig drone 'attack'?  Tuesday night....around midnight....some Halle Airport employee (probably a tug-guy/logistics-guy....noted a drone and 'brought it' down.  He calls airport security.  Cops arrive within minutes....then they note explosives on it.  Yeah...kinda freaks out folks.

Security is bumped up....within 15 min....another drone detected and brought down...same deal.

Blame?  Well...this is a airport which handles Ukraine re-supply efforts.  So the Russians are believed to be behind the business.

Interior Ministry hyped-up over this, and I would imagine surveillance is maxed-out.

2.  In the past week....there's a public letter signed by 1,000 lawyers/judges in Germany....stating a effort to oppose the AfD Party.

The problem in this?  Well....in the future (even 10 years down the road)....if a prosecutor comes up to challenge AfD 'players' in court over anything....if his/her name was on the letter....they can be challenged in court and dismissed.  

How they got so far and thought the letter was super-smart to sign?  Unknown.

3.  There's talk of deleting the reduced rate of VAT (sales tax, currently at 19-percent) for food.  This would mean all items....including grocery items....would be taxed at the normal rate of 19-percent.  Public support questionable.

4.  Linke Party group in the Berlin-City election....says that if building a partnership with the SPD or Greens.....they would have to accept the idea of expropriation.

This means the new city gov't would go and 'grab' apartment buildings....paying off the losing organization with city/state-cash.

This topic has come up a fair bit over the past decade....the problem is....where the cash comes from, and the significant amount required just for a building (or two).

The 'Kids'

I sat and read over this AM story....Spain's Ceuta (the enclave in Morocco).....say they will seek transfer of over 1,000 "unaccompanied migrant minors," to mainland Spain. 

The 'minors' gimmick....the 'kid' showed up....probably lacking a ID....convincing the gov't guy that they were juvenile in nature.  True or not.....not really a item to discuss.

A 2025 reform to Spain's immigration law says unaccompanied minors must be redistributed from overstretched territories within 15 days ​of their case file completion....so there is no choice.

Will the towns/cities accept the 'kid'?  They have little choice.  Will the 'kid' stay there?  I've of the mind....I'd probably have a 'go-to' list....places with better deals (yeah, like Germany).

This Ceuta deal becoming a bigger 'mess'?  You start to wonder about that.

Russia Planned Attack

The newspaper....Die Zeit....reported today....that German intelligence services halted a Russian assassination plot on Stefan Thumann the CEO of Donaustahl....one of the bigger drone manufacturing companies......helping Ukraine with vast amounts of drones.

Region?  Bavaria.

SPD Party Strategy Paper?

 It got brought up via Focus today.....the SPD Party is having a discussion with the Linke Party....finding  path to merge.

If you went down the top forty points of the SPD....there's probably 20 points where they could merge.  The problem is....probably half of the SPD voters (the older crowd)...wouldn't be that thrilled.

Where both are in national polls?  SPD around 14-percent....Linke folks around 11-to-12 percent.  

Just a humble guess.....10-percent of SPD wouldn't support this idea.  Not sure about the Linke voters.

Why make this move?  I'd suspect that if you gathered up SPD voters who were 40 or older....most aren't really hyped-up for the party, and it's been trending that way since Merkel.

Younger voters from the left?  They might see a reason to exit from Green Party numbers....maybe over a year or two....perhaps taking 25-percent of the Green vote.....getting the SPD/Linke 'creature' up to around 30-percent.

I'm not saying this is a done deal....just that some talks will take place.

My View On This Hyped-Up German Chatter for Air Conditioning

 First, once you got up to 35 C (PLUS)....for about 10 days in a row (meaning 95 F)....yeah, you had to take drastic measures.  

Shutters got closed at 11 AM....brought the AC unit up from the basement and ran for 10 hours per day....sipped through 4 lemonades in the afternoon....stayed mostly in the shade.

Then the heat wave ended.....getting back to 25 to 30 C for two weeks.

Yesterday ended the 2nd heat wave (going to 34 C for three days).  Cooling trend now for 10 days.

There's probably one more heat wave by the end of August.

Biggest negative?  I have to listen daily to the German wife talk about climate change, American SUVs, the great evil triggered by Trump, and mankind's spiral.

You can assume that about 25-percent of German society is opening up a discussion about buying a 3,000 Euro AC unit.  Half of them will buy the unit by March of 2027.....then discover that 2027 only brings four days of HOT weather for the upcoming year, and the AC  unit was a total waste.

These France Fires

 French police now say.....they've arrested around 400 individuals (at least up to last night)....for starting fires.  

Reasoning?  None given. 

Ethnic status?  So far....none given.

5 Aug 2026: Germany: 9 Stories

 1.  2nd heat wave in effect.....yesterday was  35 C day (95 F).  Today will max at 31 C.  Yeah, I've been running the portable AC unit a bit.

Thursday is supposed to return to the 27-to-30 C temps for a week.  

2.  Crazy police crash in Frankfurt last night.  From the report....cops were bringing two 'guests' back to the squad area....crashing into another vehicle.....both vehicles totaled. 

3.  ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) ran another 45-min Bahn (railway) critical report last night.  

The general problem (if you review the facts)....the Bahn is in the middle of a long era (over 10 years) of upgrades/renovation.  Anyone expecting the top efficiency BS....is kidding themselves.  If you are on a wild 500 km trip via the Bahn....yeah, you need to be open to the idea of delays or cancellations.  

4.  20 Sep Berlin-City election approaching.  Linke Party in the lead: 21-percent.  CDU at 19-percent  SPD at 12-percent.  AfD at 18-percent.  Greens at 17-percent.  Everyone else at 4-percent or less.

CDU currently runs the council......so the Linke is posed to lead. 

Based on reporting....a large segment of the youth vote is Linke at this point.

5.  EU has started to talk 'tough' on border control, and people-smuggling.  Whether or not it's true....unknown.

6.  Hotel Adion in Berlin to be sold.  Highest rated hotel in Germany....was actually owned by a syndicate group.....around 4,000.  Most were in a age-group aimed for retirement and wanted to 'dump' their shares.  About a 3-min walk from the US embassy.  

7.  The 'Abdul-terrorist' event in Berlin...isn't really concluded (the guy is dead).

Questions continue to arise.  One of the key ones.....police had identified him as a 'threat'.....yet he was on bail.  How this was possible....no one can readily explain.

8.  Oddly, several cities that hosted World Cup soccer games....are waiting to be paid by FIFA for 'services'.  

9.  Ladies Tour de France.....investigations?  Well....there's inspections going on....some type of special bra being used....for aero-dynamic purposes (illegal apparently).  My view....if you are a big-boob gal and Tour-rider.....this improves airflow around the boobs.  How they tested this and proved the point....unknown.