good afternoon guys from the very busy cologne railway station in germany uh i'll tell you what
cologne is a great place i've only been here a couple of hours really but i've had enough
time to have a wander around and also go in the cathedral which is just behind me there
there's loads going on i would definitely recommend it anyway i can't stay here for
much longer because i'm taking an ICE train all the way down to brussels in belgium
in first class i'm really looking forward to this it should be a great journey a couple of hours i
think it takes so why don't you come with me for the ride and i will see you on the train
cheers for now yes so like i said i'd had a couple of hours to wander around cologne and
i can't really start this video properly without giving a nod to the world famous gothic cathedral
now dating back to the 13th century it's pretty much right on the doorstep of the train station
and so there's no excuse not to visit is there the twin spires tower 157 metres above the city
and really dominate the landscape for miles around and wherever you are there was a small
queue to get in when i was there but entry was free and yeah once inside you can really
appreciate the enormousness of the building an amazing and beautiful place and not to be missed
anyway back to the trip and Koln Haupbahnhoff is like i said right in the center
of the city in the main hall you have a rather small i thought departures board
access to the 11 platforms and the many shops and food outlets is through the main passageway here
and then up the stairs or escalator where if you get the right one you'll be rewarded with
this amazing view of the south eastern arch of the roof that's fantastic isn't it now train
information is again displayed at platform level as you can see here and oh this is quite useful
by the way you get these train consist diagrams where you just find your service and then you
can see what's on it and more importantly whereabouts your carriage is going to be
if you're a trainspotter which i'm not by the way this must be one of the most picturesque stations
to spend a few hours at you know especially on a day like this there's so much going on as well and
the trains arrive over the Hoegensollen bridge that spans the river rhine you can walk across this
incidentally and get really close to the trains whilst also admiring the thousands of padlocks
locked to the fencing between you and the tracks i wish i'd had more time in cologne to
be honest i really enjoyed myself and yeah i would definitely recommend it to anyone
right so here was our train a deutsche bahn ICE3 or intercity express 3 a class 406
4602 i think i've got that right but i'm sure you'll tell me if i haven't
anyway it's uh yeah capable of a top speed of 320 km/h now we wouldn't be
going quite that quickly today but as i understand it these particular sets
are used for cross-border travel because they are able to operate on different electrification
systems again please comment below if you can add more detail to that statement
as per usual i'd positioned myself miles away from where the train actually stopped
and but fortunately i was in the rear carriage where after a rather chaotic boarding i was able
to make my way into the panorama lounge area which is just through this glass partition here
now notice the glass to the driver's cab here which can be frosted or unfrosted to give you a
great view of the track but as you can see it was frosted today unfortunately other than that though
my first impressions were yeah quite posh really i was in seat 102 today there are just eight
seats in this section laid out in a tiered two one configuration we'll have a closer look at the
seats once we get going shall we we actually left seven minutes late due to a technical issue that
was left 'unexplained' all good though we slowly made our way through the suburbs of Koln towards
our first stop which would be Aachen HBF to be honest this first leg would prove to be fairly
unexciting in terms of scenery but it was a nice day and the ride was certainly smooth and relaxing
right so the one other passenger in this small compartment left the train at Aachen
which gave me the opportunity to explore this area in a little bit more detail
as you can see each seat has a padded headrest with the embroidered ICE logo on it
i quite liked this colour scheme by the way it was quite understated and suited to the first
class experience i thought there's a drop down armrest here and yeah looking at the floor you can
see the tiered seats which i guess is designed to give everybody a better view of the cab
if only down the side of the seat we have a conventional power socket for electronic devices
and uh just above that is the seat recline lever
there is also an at seat audio system which was switched on uh but
as with many of these relics it didn't actually produce any meaningful noise
in any case most people use onboard wi-fi these days don't they and i'm pleased to report that
this was excellent really fast and loaded everything i'd go as far as to say that this was
the best on-board wi-fi i'd ever had i was even able to watch live streaming channels on youtube
there's a qr code on the back of the seat where you can rate your ride and a coat hook just to the
side the drop down table is sturdy enough though it didn't appear to slide forwards or backwards
great legroom as you would expect from all these seats in first class
above the window is the digital reservation display indicator and individual reading light
buttons the lights themselves are built into the roof note no overhead racks luggage
provision is instead behind the second single seat windows have pull down blinds as you would expect
we pulled into Liege which as you can see was pretty busy i was feeling a bit
hungry at this point so after we left uh i decided to go and check out the dining car
it was quite quiet in here i thought i'd have a quick beer which was okay
price wise three euros and 30 cents the menu was quite extensive as
you can see here so you're not going to go hungry on these trains are you
now most of the dining car area was fitted out with these kind of stand-up tables
where you can also lean against the side of the train however
there was a much more pleasant area of adjacent seating which i thought was really comfortable
and to be honest if i was traveling standard class i would have spent most of my time in
here and maybe spent a little bit more money on food and drink as a consequence
so after my beer it was a good chance to have a walk through some of the seating
configurations on this train now adjacent to the Bord Bistro we have standard class which
starts with three compartments that seat five or six people and i reckon you need
to book these pretty early if you want them they're great for families though aren't they
and then you get the normal 2-2 configuration which is laid out in
both table and airline style seating and as you can see there is ample provision
for luggage here with spacious roof racks running on both sides above the seats
there are two first-class carriages on this train separated from standard class by means of this
glass partition the first of these carriages is not too dissimilar to the one we've just
walked through insomuch as again has a mixture of open and mainly airline style seating
and three compartments at the far end now there were two toilets in this carriage so i felt
it was probably a good time to carry out a quick loo review
okay latch locking door and the first thing i thought was it was really dimly lit
anyway a large mirror and corner sink with sensor activated tap and soap dispenser
i think this was a soap dish now this was interesting a disinfectant with
instructions on how to wipe the toilet seat i've never seen that before nice idea though
toilet roll is here and a paper towel with litter bin back next to the sink incidentally
there is an accessible toilet with baby changing facilities in the standard class carriage back
past the dining car a push button flush handrail and coat hook if you can find them in the dark
all good though and stocked and working as expected
i headed back to my seat through the other open first class carriage
we were getting close to brussels by now and so it was time to relax again for
this final part of the journey and through the outskirts of the capital
we arrived at brussels midi five minutes late which was no big deal for me
deutsche bahn emailed me with etas right the way through my journey
which was really useful the price i paid for this one-way first-class ticket was
29 euros and 90 cents which i didn't think was bad value at all really but
like i said earlier for even better value in the future i would probably buy a standard
class ticket and then just perch myself in the dining car for most of the journey i think
okay guys and that was cologne to brussels midi on the ICE this one here behind me incidentally
let me know what you thought in the comments below i thought it was pretty good it was
clean efficient everything worked well thanks very much for watching anyway
i hope to see you on another adventure of mine soon and as always guys cheers for now!