Dortmund Hbf, Dortmund, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany, 2015

When CNL457 was cancelled, along with most other trains out of Koln Hbf on the evening of the 20th of May, the hotels were immediately filled in Koln, meaning that to get my hotel room, I had to go to Dortmund, again using a special ticket for a Regional Express there (if memory and subsequent research serves, it was RE10143 or RE10145). I didn't get any photos that night, but I did shoot this extremely early in the morning the next day. DB's solution to my problem was to put me on ICE513 first thing the next morning, at 0636, to be precise. Since this happened, my understanding is that this was not the most direct way to get me to Nurnberg (Nuremberg) Hbf, where I had to get the DB bus to Prague. The reason is that ICE513 skips Nurnberg, instead operating to Munchen (Munich) Hbf via Mannheim, rather than Hanau and Nurnberg. Therefore, I had to change in Mannheim for the bus, which actually originates in Strasbourg, and calls at Mannheim before Nurnberg, continuing direct to Prague from there. I presume this weird routing had something to do with the rail strike.