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Our trip jas equalled or expended our best expectations so far. To those of you who have recently traveled to West-central Europe, some of this may be old news. But here are shared observations to date, with emphasis on rail and on interface of transportation and land use in Germany and Switzerland.

Brief comment of flights to Frankfurt: SAS plus Lufthansa deservedly good reputation. Highlight was 3:30AM (Iocal time) Sunday morning over mountains and infields of Greenland.

German hosts in Frankfurt live in an 8-floor apartment building in working class Nied precinct of Frankfurt. From balcony, continuous passing of S-Bahn (commuter trains) and also ''Strassenbahn'' (usually two-car light-rail) is like happy music. Germans and Swiss, even with now costly homes, do not usually have large yards. (American Dream: we all own our own 'ranch' with a riding mower to 'graze the pastures'. Many urban Germans have have a small neat +/- 2500sq ft garden plot, - as part of a set of a dozen such plots, tucked into unused areas or other abandoned acreage, which in the U.S. too often go unused. Of special note are that many are located on the Deutschebahn right of way, many as close as a dozen feet to the mainline tracks.

Germans visually all own and lover their cars, - many Mercedes and BMW's. But they also use alternative transportation. My so-year-old portly 'Blue Collar Elite' host, Herr Kuellner, rides the Strassenbahn (light-rail) to the Saturday market in nearby Huesch (very little available parking). Most people walked or used public transit. He never drives to downtown Frankfurt, - ust uses the S-Bahn, as we did to access the Hauptbahnhoff (main rail station). He drives to a lot in the vicinity of his large factory and bicycles the last Moo-meters. Cars are definitely important, but people also use alternatives, including God-given legs!

We loved the city of Ulm; a lovely prosperous city of about 100 000, dominated visually by a magnificent late-Gothic Cathedral. (Lutheran, not R.C.) Ulm, like most German and Swiss cities, has banned private vehicles from the inner city. (Working trucks and service vehicles OK) Recall that even 'enlightened' Nordy's blackmailed Seattle into abandoning one miserable little block where people. not cars, would dominate. Here in Europe whole sections of high-end retail, quality hotels, restaurants, public building, museums, etc., are accessed by walking! And it works!

Downtown Ulm is booming with new multi-storey department stores under construction in the heart of the ''Fussgangecone'' (pedestrian zone). Parking jots are found on the edges, but total urban space in this wealthy S.German city devoted to 'vehicle storage' is a tiny fraction of that in U.S. cities. And cars are the passenger vehicles! Virtually no macho pickups. The one SUV I saw in Frankfurt was (and I'm not making this up) sold by a Puyallup dealer !! (Hans' comment: probably belonged to a G.I.)

We rented a car one day in order to explore the productive agricultural countryside south of Ulm. Traditional agricultural villages thrive, with traditional manure piles in the farmstead courtyards. (Lots to report on contemporary agriculture another time. Had a nice talk in German with village farm folks.) Fascinating is these farm villages near cities are also now high priced suburbs from where the urban middle class commutes to town, - fast, on counts roads in their Merks and Beemers. But without the land-gobbling sprawl. Costly new homes are only on the immediate edges of existing villages. Precious farm and forest land is preserved. The entire landscape is 'tidy'. Cities end abruptly, and the farmland begins. Villages are compact with precise defined boundaries. There is no unproductive land held for speculation, nor leap-frogging development, or random cooperation!

Gramti is probably worse than USA, but litter and trash notably absent. And in Switzerland the RR rights-of-way are utterly clean.! Swiss landscape differs from southern Germany Scattered hamlets and individual farms rather than compact villages. Yet the ultra-thrifty Swlss efficiently use all land beGeen/among this more dispersed settlement pattern in an economically productive, yet visually aesthetic manner.

Travel by DB & SBB (German Rail & Swiss Rail) is flawless. ICE train Frankfurt to Ulm just as advertised. Great for businessmen, etc, but too fast for this visiting Geographer to see the country; and the ICE serves only big cities. Regional rail is better for gawking at the landscape, seeing 'average folk' and serving smaller communities. On time performance of all trains perfect. On Board crews very small. Everyone - even on ICE trains - boards and seats themselves', assumes people know how to ride trains, as commuters do here. More good news: many cars or enclosed sections of cars are non-smoking! We understand the smoke situation will worsen as Darleen and I travel further east in Europe.

Generally we in western U.S. are ahead of Europe in smoke-free environments. Most restaurants don't have no-smoking areas, and majority of people appear to smoke. I talked with some ''green'' youth in Ulm. The young man was stumping for better environmental policies and behaviors with a cigarette hanging out of his face !

On Regional rail great numbers of middle class working folk, students, etc., take obviously daily shod hops. Scores of bikes at stations. Remember, this is a wealthy area with fine roads and widespread car ownership. It is just that they also use alternatives too !! Whether by custom, law, economic incentives or a combination, the Germans and Swiss simply have not allowed private vehicles to totally dominate their lives and communities 1!

Winterthur, Switzerland: Industrial city with few new or rebuilt buildings than in Germany. Why? The Swiss' prosperous neutrality during WW11. Ulm and Augsburg and other German cities were deeply damaged by Allied bombings but often rebuilt or restored to old pedestrian oriented intercity patterns. ''in Switzerland we met up with Herr Peter Roehrer, our gracious 38-yr old German speaking host. On April 29th, spent all afternoon with him as we toured the Swiss Locomotive Works factory, and discussed issues of interest to ''SLM'' (Sid Morrison ?) in the Pacific Northwest, as well as transportation business, the government in Switzerland and the USA. I was able to five a WashARP perspective on US transportation and rail history, policy and potential which Herr Roehrer had not fully heard, and we were told, was to be shared with top management.

I had a close-up look at rail car and locomotive projects under construction for Greek, Finnish and Swiss customers. This was a superb and mutually beneficial meeting. As usual, Darleen who is an intensely devoted rail advocate, was an excellent addition to the meeting, - even enjoying the factory tour.

Herr Roehrer speaks better English than l in German, so most of our meeting was in English. ( Elsewhere my German has worked fine.) Had many conversations with people totally in German, Outside of the tourist and business industry, many average Germans do not speak English. Most Swiss are multi-lingual. Signs and brochures are in four (!) languages - German. Italian, French, and English.

One disappointment: our ATT Phone Card simply hasn't worked for us an-here! And if it doesn't work for us in Germany or Switzerland, our hopes for Slovakia aren't high!

(PART TWO TO FOLLOW LATER)

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Last Update: 11/14/98
Web Author: Warren Y. Yee