Hey! I made it into Cologne. It was snowing lightly as we landed in Frankfurt. The snow had started to stick to the tarmac, and the de-icing trucks were just fanning out to go clear any layers of snow or ice.
The intercity express train from Frankfurt to Cologne made short work of the 118 miles (190 km) from Frankfurt. The trip took only 50 minutes. These trains travel at speeds up to 186 mph (300 km/h)!
Left: The Embraer 190 ‘Cityhopper’ as we boarded in Amsterdam | Right: Arrival in Frankfurt with light snow (35 °F/ 2 °C).The Intercity Express train for Cologne, at Frankfurt airport’s ‘fernbahn’ (long-distance) station. It stops for only 3 minutes. You had better be ready to board! .. and stand at the right place on the platform! There is a diagram on the platform’s message board that shows the train car numbers, so that passengers can position themselves in the right place. Of course, if you mess up or run late, just board the train, and then walk through the train cars to find your car and your seat.This map is from Deutche Bahn’s app on my smart phone. There is wi-fi on the train (of course). I’m in the train (plain red dot on the bottom left; the other red dots are train stations). The thin gray line that the red dot sits on, is the track, and we are 5 minutes away from Cologne. (The river is the Rhine).
