Conversation

Udge: I've been travelling often between Stuttgart and Munich, because of this database project; I've been on the train at least twice a month since summer.

Dinner guest: That must get really boring, seeing the same stuff all the time.

U: Actually no, it's fascinating, not "the same stuff" at all. It's always different: one week the rapeseed is in bloom, next week the first poppies are out. You can really watch the change of season happening. And it also depends on which train you take.

DG: What do you mean?

U: Well, that route is served by ICE and Intercity trains, which obviously travel at greatly different speeds. The ICE is so fast that you cannot focus on things near the train, they just blur. So you are forced to look off into the middle distance, which gives you a greatly enhanced impression of perspective: It sometimes seems like cardboard cutouts being moved past each other at different speeds, like in a child's model theatre. You also get a feel for the larger shape of the landscape in the ICE, the horizon becomes a dynamic thing, always in motion, like the sea. The rivers bend and turn before your eyes; the hills rise and fall, they surge towards you and drift away.

The Intercity is much slower, so you can actually see what's right beside the track. You can see much smaller things, finer details, like which flowers are blooming where and who's forgotten to put the garbage out. You can see where there is a low spot in a cornfield which traps moisture, where the plants grow more vigorously. You can watch buildings going up, new gardens being planted. And then there's the agriculture, all of the field work.

DG: Which is best, fast or slow?

U: Faster is prettier, but slower is more interesting.