This story you can find along many places along the entire german/czech Border (about 500km long). It just does not often divide a spectacular building, as it does here.
@@André-M-OFA-Sanitäter-BW Basel Badischer Bahnhof liegt (im Gegensatz zu Bayrisch Eisenstein) nicht auf der Grenze, sondern 100 % auf Schweizer Gebiet.
@@Zwei-Rosen Ja das ist wohl richtig! Ich weiß nicht mehr wie der Bahnhof heißt und habe den verwechselt! Danke @ARose-gh7xt das du das richtig gestellt hast! Es war Konstanz, ist ja leicht mit Basel zu verwechseln 🤔🤔😉
The Czech word "ruda" means "ore" (Erz). Železná Ruda = Iron Ore = Eisenerz. About 30 years ago I attended a Czech course there and we often walked to Bayerisch Eisenstein (about an hour). It was such a good feeling that the Iron Curtain had stopped to exist. Very interesting video! Schöne Grüße aus Österreich! PS: Ich liebe den englischen Akzent von Rewboss.
Close to there is a stone, the Barenstein which is where the last bear in Bohemia was shot (quite sad) and the Czechs seem to have a clear eyed view of the Hapsburg Empire - ie wasn't so bad and part of their history. They have re-erected the old Marian column in the old town Sq (Prague) and in a pub near the Cyril & Methodius Church I was shocked to see reprints of Sissy, Archduke Ferdinand and the last Emperor hung behind the bar. The brewery in Benesov/Benesau close to Konespiste Castle is still called Ferdinand.
@jcoker423 they had good time in AH, a lot of industry. Turks never got to there so they had progress. But Austria never seen them as equal. Their language was not respected and huge germanisation was carried. At least on front to Serbia in WWI they didn't want to fight for AH. They would sing panslavic Hey Slavs song (later anthem of Yugoslavia) to signal friendliness to Serbian army. Solders from Czechia were buried together with Serbian one as a friends.
@@aurelije I live in Cz, there are memorials to Cz's that fought for AH in WW1, they are not vandalised, they are commemorated. They certainly were the most industrially advanced part of AH and they were pleased to become their own country. Masarek said 'people of the soil (Cz/De), but the depression and a certain Austria corporal changed the dynamic = Benes Decrees. I am just saying around where I live there there are alot of memorials to Franz whatever. Franz Ferdinand (Konepiste) would have made it a triple monarchy and he spoke Cz and had a morganatic marriage to a De/Cz woman. The aforementioned corporal hated him for being 'Cz'. In the Sumava they are recreating the old De customs. Cz's have swung between the East and West. Today they definitely feel part of the West. Come here and speak German or Russia, see who they prefer!
@@aurelije Bohemia was part of the Cislethanian Part of Austria-Hungary. That meant several things. First, in 1906 all male citizens of Cislethania were given suffrage - that meant there was a voting system in place that assigned each citizen one vote (previously, the value of a vote was assigned by the amount of money or land one owned). Secondly, being part of Cislethania Bohemia could send representatives to the parliament according to their population numbers. Margyarization did not take place in the Cislethanian half (being part of the Austrian, not the Hungarian Empire). The Czech identity was no longer attacked but accepted (you are simpflifying a lot of history - the more authoritarian course was abandoned in the 19th century). A few years before 1900 Austria also wanted to implement a law that allowed members of parliament to speak their own language in the Reichsrat (parliament). It failed as the Austrian authorities brutally suppressed a right-wing demonstration againts it which caused massive outrage in the fairly liberal Cislethania.
"Basel Badischer Bahnhof" is a whole German railway station within the town of Basel/Switzerland. It's nice to see nations living together so peacefully that such oddities are possible.
I was there in 1992 and frightened my parents by simply crossing into Czechoslovakia underneath the chain that separated the two sides of the platform.
1983 - With 9 years of age, I have seen the Iron Curtain for the first time. I will never forget that bus tour to the border to the GDR, we passed the Bavarian Checkpoint and cruised through the Niemandsland. I saw the goggles in the GDR patrol tower and thought: "hopefully they let me out again without shooting" - and I will never forget the relief I felt after we left the Todesstreifen.
Ok, it's getting creepy. I used to live near Aschaffenburg: Rewboss makes videos about that area. I move to Regensburg: Rewboss makes videos about East-Bavaria I visit the German-Czech border: Rewboss uploads a video about the German-Czech border the same day ... I even used this trainline three days ago I feel followed
To be fair, the algorithms depend on your smart devices snooping on you to offer you relevant suggestions of what to watch. But if Rewboss is actually making the videos in chronological real time as your movements, then it's time to file a police report. J/k, of course, lol.
I really love it when you make videos on obscure towns and railways Rewboss. I am in Australia, so I will probably never see this town, but I really enjoy getting to live vicariously through you! Thanks for giving those of us on the other side of the world an opportunity to learn about places like this :)
"I really love it when you make videos on obscure towns and railways Rewboss." literally had the same thought and even though I'm German I'm pretty sure I will never see these towns neither 😉
I own a holiday flat in Bayerisch Eisenstein, and was there just this weekend, I'll gladly dedicate my next visit there to you, so you've had a virtual visit! Let me know your address and I'll send you a post card :-) It's an amazing area, great for hiking, and skiing in the winter, and generally just a place to get away from the stresses of life at home in the big city!
I gathered from the comments here that "diving mask" is actually a German nickname - the Czech nickname has nothing to do with diving, only glasses/spectacles!
The Czech train is locomotive hauled because it’s a long distance train that goes to Prague so the locomotive gets swapped to an electric one in Pilsen. It could not work with the tiny railbus DMU that Germany sends to their side, but of course they also use the same DMUs for even smaller lines
@@obelic71my favorite Belgian trainset. They recently started running them in Antwerp region again I think on the line to Mol/Hamont; I can see them from my office. Used to use DMUs but the line was recently electrified.
"Bayerisch Eisenstein" means "Bavarian iron stone" and is thus simply an ancient name for iron ore. The Czech place name is an invention of the time after 1945, when countless German place names were Slavicised by simple literal translation, as was also done by the Poles and Russians.
@@maximkretsch7134 You write nonsense. Border areas mostly had names in both languages. Historically, Czech-speaking and German-speaking residents have always lived there together with varying proportions of representation. Only the Second World War changed everything. First the Germans expelled the Czechs, and then the Czechs expelled the Germans. This broke the historical continuity. Even my grandfather could speak German as well as Czech and it was common here in Western Bohemia. I studied German at school, but I haven't used German since school.
The border going right through the middle of the station building reminds me how in Derby Line, Vermont and its neighbor Stanstead, Quebec, the border goes right through the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. The library collection and the opera stage are located in Stanstead, but the main entrance and most opera seats are located in Derby Line! Because of this, the Haskell is sometimes called the only library in the US with no books and the only opera house in the US with no stage. The building was built this way on purpose because the Haskell family wanted Canadians and Americans to have equal access and represents the special relationship between these two communities. It also reminds me of the Hotel Arbez along the French-Swiss border! It's because of a dispute between France and Switzerland over possession of the Vallée des Dappes. Basically, it was annexed by France, returned to Switzerland, but France called for retrocession and decided in 1862 to offer a nearby section of its own territory, comparable in size, in exchange. Slightly less than 8 square kilometers changed hands, and to make use of the delay between negotiation and ratification, a Frenchman decided to quickly build a three-story structure with a grocery store on the Swiss side, bar on the French side. This then became a hotel under Jules-Jean Arbez. In two rooms, the beds themselves are the boundary!
The fastest rail route between Munich and Prague goes through Linz; it takes about 7h 20m, and requires three trains. Apparently, this is one journey that is hours faster even on a bus.
The track from Prague to Plzeň is relatively reconstructed, the problem is that there is not much effort on the Bavarian side to do something about it, even though there was an agreement in the 1990s to improve the connection between the two cities. So from Plzeň to the border the line is not in good condition because there is no point in investing into it if there is no continuity on the other side of the border.
There's a direct train (RE25) several times a day from Munich to Prague via Regensburg - Furth im Wald - Pilsen that takes around 5h30min, I've never heard of anyone choosing to go via Linz!
That portrait of Albert V of Bavaria is pure gold , the look on his face "whatever.." , not even his weirdly small dog or his seemingly hungry lion can't make him happy
Hopefully the trains will run in 2025 through from Plattling to Klatovy. This would be a good inprovement, so that you can drive electric from Munich to Plattling, with one DMU from Plattling to Klatovy and an electric train to Prague.
I just thought what a great improvement it would be if both operators extended their service to the next bigger township. And how little it would cost.
A friend who lives in Bayerisch Eisenstein is eagerly awaiting the upgrade works to complete so the trains can become quicker - he commutes to Munich for a couple of days most weeks, and he'd love to do it by train. As it is, the track closures are annoying, but will hopefully be worth it in the future.
As seen often, I doubt that this will happen as quickly and as nicely as it seems! Plattling authorities have made life difficult for infrastructure a few times and set wrong priorities in the past. Nice greetings from Plattling!
Do you have any news of the section from Železná Ruda to Klatovy being electrified for such a thing to be possible? I just tried to look it up in Czech and found no indication that such a thing would be happening... Only news that they'll start using new motor trains there next year (presumably so that they no longer have to run the locomotive around).
Wild fact regarding 5:32, General George S Patton's nephew is Donovan Patton...who played Joe in BLUE'S CLUES! Not the same station, but on the US-Canada border, there is a Niagara Falls station on the Ontario side, and a Niagara Falls station on the New York side. The catch...is that these two stations are served by just ONE daily train in each direction (Niagara Falls, Ontario once had frequent Via service to Toronto but this was cut in 2012. It's an interesting operation! The service is on a train called the Maple Leaf that is co-operated by Via Rail and Amtrak, and it goes between NYC and Toronto. Between NYC and Niagara Falls, Canada, it has an Amtrak crew, but between there and Toronto, it switches to a Via crew! Niagara There's also an interesting operation on the Spanish-French border at Latour-de-Carol-Enveitg on the French side. This station has THREE different gauges. The line to Toulouse-Matabiau is standard gauge; the line to Barcelona is Iberian gauge, and the Cerdagne line to Villefranche-de-Conflent is meter gauge. There's a similar thing between Irun in Spain and Hendaye in France. With their setup, both standard gauge and Iberian gauge tracks run together which allow Spanish trains to go to the French station and French trains to go to the Spanish station.
As a freelance linguist, I will say that you have pronunced both names correctly with a decent accent, so hats off for taking a time to study some pronunciation rules, which resulted in your job well done. As a video editor, the video was bloody great! Your feel for angles and objects is great and editing skills are also great, it felt like watching a document. I do not regret watching your video!
@@janfrosty3392 Yes, that was a bit off, but he still managed to say it good enough to recognize it. Honestly, the "ň" sound is pretty exotic to some nations, even though it is natural for us Slavs.
As soon as you said the Czech side once contained German speakers I was like, "OMG! This must surely be in the Sudetenland, that area which us Brits learn about in history classes at school, what with our silly prime minister and his famous speech, 'I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine.'"
4:50 Wait a minute... Geman artist didn't (and apparently still don't) know at all what Lions looked like, how is this portrait so accurate? After a bit of searching, the guy did have a pet lion as part of his private Zoo, which also included an Elephant gifted from the Emperor. Huh.
If "On the Edge" becomes a regular thing, you are bound to talk about the "Vennbahn", another wartime oddity on the other side of Germany. Looking forward to it!
The logo with the outline of Germany lets hope for many interesting visits like this one! And not necessarily railway related: Have you heard about the twin village Dinxperlo-Suderwick? It's half German, half Dutch. And about on the opposite side, seen from Bayerisch Eisenstein ;-)
I mentioned it briefly some years ago in a video I made about Monschau, but frankly @TheTimTraveller made a much better video about it than I ever could. I'm just relieved to have got this video done before Tim did.
@@rewboss I saw that one too, the trifecta of obscure but interesting locales with Rewboss, The Tim Traveller and Tom Scott is always a joy to watch. Maybe a video about the Rheinbegradigung is in the cards then? Some interesting bits in that history as well. Nevertheless looking for the next video
@@RunawayTrain2502 well... his videos are numbered tho... he's kinda retiring soon... ( more like he taking an official personal holiday without thinking if i did setup the schedule for the video correctly, and maybe finally doing something fun with the boys)
Fascinating. I used to travel in Czechia -- though never in that particular part of the country -- and seeing the Czech trains I the station and on the trestle left me terribly nostalgic!
Do it before mid-next year, I just found out they are planning to put new motor trains on the line, so it will be bye-bye to the old locomotives... As a Czech, they make me nostalgic, too. 🙂
The Poles crossing into the former East Germany after reunification to load up at the Grocery Warehouses were a source of amusement during 1 of our trips to Europe a good few years back also. They could get more into a clapped out Lada than you are allowed to carry on a lorry these days! 😜😁
Its amazing to see this station now and rember some childhood memories i almost forgot, we always wen´t to this station when we made a small detour on our Bavaria holiday when i was a Kid. I rember the Restaurant on top had an amazing Bohemian Gulasch, and the small shops on the 1st floor sold everything form Cigarrets to wooden kids toys.
Very cool to see this! In 2010, I was in the area for a ski race, and drove to BE and walked to ZR for lunch (my rental car wasn't allowed across the border). ZR seemed to be filled with shops and stands run by Vietnamese, but I found an authentic CZ restaurant for a good CZ beer.
There was also a station in Belgium/Netherlands where the border ran diagonally through the building. Although set up on a large scale, no attempts were later made to keep the line open. So the tracks (Turnhout--Tilburg) and the very long building are long gone. The line is now a bicycle path. The border goes diagonally through it, and also through the old platform. There are many bizarre borders in that region, due to many enclaves.
Swiss city of basel has 2 shared train stations. One with Germany, another with france. It was convenient shopping in another country going there by bicycle or tram
@@rewboss Maybe on the way to the Czech Republic you are crossing a wormhole at that train station and on the other side the world is upside down. Otherwise I cannot explain that miracle.
I'd argue that in the city of Basel/Switzerland, the situation is even more absurd (albeit the city is much larger of course): Basel has got railway stations of three countries - Basel Badischer Bahnhof in the north of the city, the German railway station that is situated fully in the Swiss city but belongs to Germany and Deutsche Bahn (including a "border crossing"). And Basel SSB (the Swiss railway station) as well as Bâle SNCF (the French railway station) which are kind of next to each other but still are devided and share some of the infrastructure. For foreigners often a nightmare to figure out which train departs where, it's not always obvious (e.g. the TGV to Paris departs from the Swiss station, where as German ICEs depart often from both Swiss and German stations...). I can barely imagine how this must've worked before Schengen!
Wow, thanks for pointing this out! I'm just baffled that this type of arrangement came to be in a non-EU country. Yes, I get it that Switzerland at least now is a Schengen participant, but still. If this arrangement had been inside the EU borders that would have made better sense (or at least less bizarre).
The Deutsche Bahn and the Swiss Railway Company SBB has also in Schaffhausen/Switzerland together a train station. And the best thing is not directly on the boarder is about 20 Km from the boarder away. in Switzerland.
Consider staying in czechia longer, like 2 weeks. We have like 2000 castles. Many tourists make the grave mistake of visiting only Prague city center and flying away after 2 days. Summer czechia is the best country for foot tourism or bicycling. Safe, not too hot, good beer, not expensive, a lot to see, quite a lot of camps to sleep in tent to bring the price even lower. Renting a canoe is also an option for most rivers.
Ich war zufälligerweise im August auch dort. Daher habe ich mich sehr über das Video gefreut. Warst du gar nicht im Gebäude? Da ist die Grenze im Pflaster abgebildet. Ich habe mir die Ausstellung angeschaut, die im deutschen Teil des Gebäudes beheimatet ist. Lustigerweise war der Eintrittskartenverkauf auf der tschechischen Seite, wo auch eine Tschechin kassiert hat - bezahlen konnte man wiederum nur mit Euro :D Sehr sehenswerte Ausstellung über Fledermäuse im Kellergeschoss.
If you like railway stations in odd locations you should check out Ostritz, halfway between Görlitz and Zittau at the border to Poland. While the town of Ostritz is in Germany, its railway station, connecting it with the next bigger cities of Görlitz or Zittau (also in Germany) is on the eastern side of the river Neiße and thus in Poland (Krzewina Zgorzelecka). So each trip with the train starts or ends with a short walk into or from another country.. with no border controls, obviously.
Denmark used to have something similar during "der Kaiserzeit (Wilhelm II) the station was called Hviding on the line from Tönder to Bramming. Hviding was the border station between Germany and Denmark. Now it is a psychiatric hospital (kinda fitting), and the railroad still runs. Hviding is now a whistle stop.
Thank you, Andrew. Terrific video! As a Europe railfan, I must say that the Czech Locomotives are not very attractive at all. It is still a very scenic area. Cheers.
People: "A train is such a nice environmentally friendly means of transport!" Also people: "Pche, they still use these old locomotives that function completely fine instead of throwing them out and unnecesarily buying a new one? Losers"
I dont understand the advantage of the two locomotives either. You get twice as complicated system for the same job. Saving 5-10 minutes dedicated to switching sides aint really worth it. Having permanently locked trains of 2 such locomotives and 5 wagons just means if there is a problem with any of them, the entire train goes to depot, as there is no replacement. Out of 7 Pendolinos, only 4 are functional now. Majority of connections is still served by old, refurbished wagons towed by newer locomotives. 160km/h is not much, but we are a small country, highspeed connection would not serve our citizen, just passerby´s.
To be fair, electric locomotives probably are more environmentally friendly than diesel. I do not dare to guess whether it's more environmentally friendly to keep using a diesel locomotive for more than half a century or keep making and repairing electric ones, though...
I have been here twice, once in July 1997 and again in June 1998, coinciding with the late Queen Elizabeth II's 72nd birthday - there was at the time, a BBC World Service FM Station in Plzen that made a mention of this in their broadcast. In those days, rail travel on the Czech side was much cheaper by comparison. I never really visited the village of Železná Ruda when I passed through, bit hopefully one day I might.
Thank you very much for this again amazing Trip Report!😃👍 The "Eisenstein´s" and their common Railway Station are indeed a very telling Example for Euopean History - and for Railway History.
Very cool! Unimaginable for my generation (1988) that the Iron Curtain went through this place! When I visit my mom, she lives in southeast Bavaria and I live way up in the northwest, I often leave the train in Plattling and that's where I've seen the Waldbahn to Bayerisch Eisenstein. In four weeks I'm going back to Niederbayern, I'm already looking forward to the mountains! Funny how it often attracts southern Germans to the water and us northern Germans to the mountains 😂
My wife is from Pilsen and saw the German mountains from the other side of the Iron Curtain without being allowed to cross. We've tried to explain the situation to my kids when we've been at the border station there, but I'm not sure if it sinks in. In their mind it's perfectly normal to cross the border to visit the Travel Free shop to grab a beer or chips/crisps in the evening and walk back again, or even to take the recycling to the bins in the Czech side of the station. Heck I drank beer with a friend there on Sunday, and decided we needed a kebab, so our 2 families jumped into the cars and drove to the nearest kebab shop that's in Zelezna Ruda to satisfy our desire!
Yeah, beying born in 1991, I can't even imagine that. I visited other countries in 2006 for the first time and even when we were not in Schengen yet, Czech/German border was like policeman doing guest "go, go, go, go" so it was pretty much schengen already back in 2006. Only difference was when we were passing thru Switzerland, if you are white, you can go, if you look like a muslim, they will stop you and check you, I am not kidding, I actually saw that back in 2006. They just ask you if you have something which has to be taxed or something, you say "no" and you go, that was all, so I can't really imagine some long waiting and deep checks at border, it's crazy idea. In the last year, I traveld to Croatia by bus and we had to actually leave the bus at Slovenian/Croatian border for check, I was like "WTF is this?" and then I realized Croatia was not in schengen yet. We are that used to schengen now that even when they just want to see your ID card it's extremely annoying. I traveled to Poland several times in last years, also to Austria and other countries and nobody ever wanted to see my ID card in train or bus, it's the same like you go inside of your country, you barely notice that there is a border, especially now when you have mobile data in whole Europe, only annoying thing which bothers you at border is that you lost mobile data for few minutes before it catches foreign signal, that's really annoying, poor EU should solve that somehow. 😀
Born in 1987 (end of). Can actually imagine because at some point when I was little, my family visited the border regions in South Moravia that had basically only just opened - not even the border, you know, border region - and at some point we were still climbing over wires... ETA: It left a deep impression, and I think it was very important for my parents then. When borders opened with Schengen, father actually travelled to the Polish border to a place where, many years ago, he and his friends got in trouble with border patrols when just hiking in the mountains. Yep, at the border with _Poland,_ presumably a fellow communist country.
I would disagree. The ethnic conflicts and results following 1938 to 1945 are pretty well documented, discussed and uncontroversially established. Germany (specifically Bavarian politicians) and Austria had likewise in the past tried to use the issue (especially demands for reparations) against Czechia in the early 1990s as leverage to be able to join the EU, before signing treaties of friendships and establishing cross-border cultural cooperation that continues today. It is a sad topic that was born from ugly history, but to say it is "rarely touched on" is either being ignorant of the reconciliation that took place decades ago, or ignorant of the current region today.
There is a similar spot in northern czechia, where train ends 8km from the other side. There used to be a railway connecting them, but it was removed. Now there is a tourist path (+ bikepath). Adam Something (youtuber) has a video dedicated it.
@ 8:05 Ich weiß nich warum, aber warum sieht die LOK aus wie Bender der vor Wut rot angelaufen ist? I don't know why, but why does the locomotive look like Bender who is red in anger?
I admid it, I wasn't actively watching your video when you said "relieve map" and had a completely different in picture in mind. Now I am wondering why the German word "Relief" has three syllables. 😝
Not literally in France, but you once had to go through passport control to get to them. But the situation in Basel is actually even more complicated than that.
@@rewboss You must mean Basel Badischer Bahnhof. I remember having to show my passport to get into the station, a sort of exclave of Germany in Switzerland.
^^ i also was once there...behind the train station you can cross the border via the street, but if you wanna cross the border on the platform they wanna see your ID card or Passport... 🤔🤯 that was around 15 years ago or so...
Never had that happen to me in the last few years, maybe you were there just before or around the start of Schengen implementation? They did have some level of controls again during the COVID pandemic, but I never even got checked then even though we made sure to have the correct paper work with us!
Very interesting story. I spent my holidays twice there in my childhood. In 1979 and 1980 my father rented a little house in Bayrisch Eisenstein“ for three weeks. We played at the train station and near the border. We always have been warned not to step into the czech area in danger to be arrested… even as kids.
It does have an exit to France, but there is nothing there -- somebody has to pick you up by car. On the other hand, it has excellent connections to downtown Geneva.
It’s a bit like Basel Bad which is a Deutsche Bahn Station but on Swiss Territory… if you want to use the toilet or have a meal you technically have to go through a customs post.
yeah, over czech republic we had a lot of quite big railway station, unfortunately they started closing down few year back as now you can buy tickets in train too:(, btw - this one goes through my village :D
Never understood those shops on the czech-german border. I have also never seen anyone there. They're such an eyesore they should be immediately banned
They still cater to a particular market - the "Travel Free" shops are convenient and have decent prices, and a good range of spirits etc,. The casino catches people who want to gamble outside of the restrictions in place in Bavaria/Germany. However, I never worked out who buys the gnomes and other assorted garden accessories! The shops on the Czech border and Zelezna Ruda have had a real makeover compared to 15-20 years ago - in general everything is quite smart now. And the main difference compared to the 1990s is the complete absence of young ladies standing at the side of the road waiting for customers. I've not seen that at any of the Czech/ Bavarian border crossings in a very long time now.
There the direct Munich-Prague RE25 train every two hours (7 trains a day) run by Alex-Die Länderbahn on the German side and ČD on the Czech side. It runs via Regensburg, Schwandorf, Cham and Domažlice and takes about 5 and half hours
Quick research on the Deutsche Bahn website says the quickest connections between Munich and Prague are either via Nuremberg and Cheb (about 120 km north-west of Eisenstein) or via Linz in Austria (about 120 km south-east). From my personal experience, even the trip from Munich to Plattling where the line mentioned in the video starts/ends is a nightmare.
@@SimonS44 I, too, would recommend that one. It crosses the border at Furth im Wald, where I live nearby, and in fact I once used that train returning from the Czech village of Domažllice.
5:29 This is a misunderstanding. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia, people could apply for citizenship in the Third Reich. The post-war removal mainly concerned these citizens, language was not decisive.
Five platforms makes it seem like quite a big station to me considering this is somewhere in the middle of nowhere with only 5 trains every 2 hours (though even that doesn't sound too awful for somewhere so isolated), especially given that the central station in my English city with a population of nearly 350,000 people has only 4 platforms but receives 32 passenger trains every 2 hours plus an occasional freight train. Also, it's so rare to see a foot crossing between tracks in England nowadays, what the general dangers of such things combined with the speeds and fast accelerations of modern trains and high suicide rates. And yeah, an engine that has to change ends feels positively archaic in an era that from my perspective is dominated by multiple units, the bidirectional InterCity 125 being a common staple even when I was a young child, although I don't have the experience of travelling internationally by rail often enough.
Level crossing isn't much of a problem when all trains stop there and the traffic is really low. But nowadays almost every (re)construction has under/overpass. And the reason for the old train is that the railway is electrified from Klatovy towards Plzeň so the locomotive gets switched for electric.
This is hardly in the middle of nowhere though. It also gets served hourly in Germany, which is pretty decent and normal here. it's by no means isolated either.
@@dominov You could still use Push-Pull train set where the diesel unit would be swapped for electric one. The only problem is that the driving unti would have to be able to comunicate with both types of locomotives.
@@luksus34 there are quite a few options. Even EMU with batteries or something but I don't think this line has a priority. And it doesn't really matter in terminus station anyway.
This makes me think of Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which is on the USA/Canada border and shared by the towns of Derby Line in Vermont and Stanstead in Quebec, which unfortunately became the victim of tightened border controls after 9/11.
This story you can find along many places along the entire german/czech Border (about 500km long). It just does not often divide a spectacular building, as it does here.
@@André-M-OFA-Sanitäter-BW da wohnten nie auf beiden Seiten der Grenze Deutsche.
@@André-M-OFA-Sanitäter-BW Basel Badischer Bahnhof liegt (im Gegensatz zu Bayrisch Eisenstein) nicht auf der Grenze, sondern 100 % auf Schweizer Gebiet.
Μan kann doch aus dem Bahnhof auch direkt nach Frankreich, wenn ich mich nicht sehr irre...
@@holger_p Ja stimmt! Irgendwie habe ich da was verwechselt! Danke dir! Es war Konstanz!
@@Zwei-Rosen Ja das ist wohl richtig! Ich weiß nicht mehr wie der Bahnhof heißt und habe den verwechselt! Danke @ARose-gh7xt das du das richtig gestellt hast! Es war Konstanz, ist ja leicht mit Basel zu verwechseln 🤔🤔😉
The Czech word "ruda" means "ore" (Erz). Železná Ruda = Iron Ore = Eisenerz. About 30 years ago I attended a Czech course there and we often walked to Bayerisch Eisenstein (about an hour). It was such a good feeling that the Iron Curtain had stopped to exist. Very interesting video! Schöne Grüße aus Österreich! PS: Ich liebe den englischen Akzent von Rewboss.
It has the same meaning in all Slavonic languages
Close to there is a stone, the Barenstein which is where the last bear in Bohemia was shot (quite sad) and the Czechs seem to have a clear eyed view of the Hapsburg Empire - ie wasn't so bad and part of their history. They have re-erected the old Marian column in the old town Sq (Prague) and in a pub near the Cyril & Methodius Church I was shocked to see reprints of Sissy, Archduke Ferdinand and the last Emperor hung behind the bar. The brewery in Benesov/Benesau close to Konespiste Castle is still called Ferdinand.
@jcoker423 they had good time in AH, a lot of industry. Turks never got to there so they had progress. But Austria never seen them as equal. Their language was not respected and huge germanisation was carried. At least on front to Serbia in WWI they didn't want to fight for AH. They would sing panslavic Hey Slavs song (later anthem of Yugoslavia) to signal friendliness to Serbian army. Solders from Czechia were buried together with Serbian one as a friends.
@@aurelije I live in Cz, there are memorials to Cz's that fought for AH in WW1, they are not vandalised, they are commemorated. They certainly were the most industrially advanced part of AH and they were pleased to become their own country. Masarek said 'people of the soil (Cz/De), but the depression and a certain Austria corporal changed the dynamic = Benes Decrees.
I am just saying around where I live there there are alot of memorials to Franz whatever. Franz Ferdinand (Konepiste) would have made it a triple monarchy and he spoke Cz and had a morganatic marriage to a De/Cz woman. The aforementioned corporal hated him for being 'Cz'.
In the Sumava they are recreating the old De customs.
Cz's have swung between the East and West. Today they definitely feel part of the West. Come here and speak German or Russia, see who they prefer!
@@aurelije Bohemia was part of the Cislethanian Part of Austria-Hungary. That meant several things. First, in 1906 all male citizens of Cislethania were given suffrage - that meant there was a voting system in place that assigned each citizen one vote (previously, the value of a vote was assigned by the amount of money or land one owned). Secondly, being part of Cislethania Bohemia could send representatives to the parliament according to their population numbers. Margyarization did not take place in the Cislethanian half (being part of the Austrian, not the Hungarian Empire). The Czech identity was no longer attacked but accepted (you are simpflifying a lot of history - the more authoritarian course was abandoned in the 19th century). A few years before 1900 Austria also wanted to implement a law that allowed members of parliament to speak their own language in the Reichsrat (parliament). It failed as the Austrian authorities brutally suppressed a right-wing demonstration againts it which caused massive outrage in the fairly liberal Cislethania.
"Basel Badischer Bahnhof" is a whole German railway station within the town of Basel/Switzerland.
It's nice to see nations living together so peacefully that such oddities are possible.
I was there last month! I'd be happy to see a Rewboss video about it. I was also at Basel airport, which is also divided.
There's also an sncf station there
@@DadgeCitythe airport is used by three countries but it is actually located in France. It has a corridor route from Switzerland though.
The Basel Tram system also has routes to Germany and France!
As far as I remember it is a relic from the Thurn & Taxis stagecoach era.
I was there in 1992 and frightened my parents by simply crossing into Czechoslovakia underneath the chain that separated the two sides of the platform.
1983 - With 9 years of age, I have seen the Iron Curtain for the first time. I will never forget that bus tour to the border to the GDR, we passed the Bavarian Checkpoint and cruised through the Niemandsland. I saw the goggles in the GDR patrol tower and thought: "hopefully they let me out again without shooting" - and I will never forget the relief I felt after we left the Todesstreifen.
Let's come together and learn to live as friends.
And let's use more of public transport.
Ok, it's getting creepy.
I used to live near Aschaffenburg: Rewboss makes videos about that area.
I move to Regensburg: Rewboss makes videos about East-Bavaria
I visit the German-Czech border: Rewboss uploads a video about the German-Czech border the same day
... I even used this trainline three days ago
I feel followed
well... he's no stasi tho...
To be fair, the algorithms depend on your smart devices snooping on you to offer you relevant suggestions of what to watch. But if Rewboss is actually making the videos in chronological real time as your movements, then it's time to file a police report. J/k, of course, lol.
.. with 120 yrs... after I die I went to cemetary.....
Aschafferburg - a beautifull VIc. Slavic town.
I really love it when you make videos on obscure towns and railways Rewboss. I am in Australia, so I will probably never see this town, but I really enjoy getting to live vicariously through you! Thanks for giving those of us on the other side of the world an opportunity to learn about places like this :)
"I really love it when you make videos on obscure towns and railways Rewboss."
literally had the same thought and even though I'm German I'm pretty sure I will never see these towns neither 😉
👍
@@hansmeiser32 Thats what I was going to write :D I'm from Germany too.
I own a holiday flat in Bayerisch Eisenstein, and was there just this weekend, I'll gladly dedicate my next visit there to you, so you've had a virtual visit!
Let me know your address and I'll send you a post card :-)
It's an amazing area, great for hiking, and skiing in the winter, and generally just a place to get away from the stresses of life at home in the big city!
Your pronunciation of czech names is excelent. Great video!
Ano, trosicku "á" neni spravne, ale...to vyjde!👍
Oh... the famous czech Class 754 (ex. T 478.4) "Brejlovec" (Diving mask)!
I gathered from the comments here that "diving mask" is actually a German nickname - the Czech nickname has nothing to do with diving, only glasses/spectacles!
I visited this railway station in 1994 while I spent a year teaching English and German at the
Skoda automobile factory in Mlada Boleslav.
Must have changed a lot since then.🙂
The Czech train is locomotive hauled because it’s a long distance train that goes to Prague so the locomotive gets swapped to an electric one in Pilsen. It could not work with the tiny railbus DMU that Germany sends to their side, but of course they also use the same DMUs for even smaller lines
Locomotive gets swapped in Klatovy, not Pilsen.
but it could work as a push-pull train
@@Csakbetksszmok Because of swapping locomotive, the control car would have to be able control both diesel and electric locomotives.
0:13 Rew on the right gets good beer, Rew on the left gets better beer! :)
Wow that czech loco is gorgeous
Their nickname is "diving goggles" ...
The SNCB/NMBS copied that bohemian design
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS86
@@michaelburggraf2822 SNCN/NMBS class MS86 has the same nickname
Meanwhile, UK's NR 9Network Rail) is phasing out locos in favour of EMU/DMU. The Mark 3s were being towed by a loco until late 2019
@@obelic71my favorite Belgian trainset. They recently started running them in Antwerp region again I think on the line to Mol/Hamont; I can see them from my office. Used to use DMUs but the line was recently electrified.
I just watched a Tim Traveller episode without Tim.
Železna ruda in Slavic (both in Czech and Serbian at least) means simply 'iron ore'.
Polish too Żelaza ruda
In Russian "Zheleznaya ruda" too
"Bayerisch Eisenstein" means "Bavarian iron stone" and is thus simply an ancient name for iron ore. The Czech place name is an invention of the time after 1945, when countless German place names were Slavicised by simple literal translation, as was also done by the Poles and Russians.
@@maximkretsch7134 You write nonsense. Border areas mostly had names in both languages. Historically, Czech-speaking and German-speaking residents have always lived there together with varying proportions of representation. Only the Second World War changed everything. First the Germans expelled the Czechs, and then the Czechs expelled the Germans. This broke the historical continuity.
Even my grandfather could speak German as well as Czech and it was common here in Western Bohemia. I studied German at school, but I haven't used German since school.
@@lahvac3 Any Czech name in that purely German-speaking border area was an invention of the post-1918 regime.
The border going right through the middle of the station building reminds me how in Derby Line, Vermont and its neighbor Stanstead, Quebec, the border goes right through the Haskell Free Library and Opera House. The library collection and the opera stage are located in Stanstead, but the main entrance and most opera seats are located in Derby Line! Because of this, the Haskell is sometimes called the only library in the US with no books and the only opera house in the US with no stage. The building was built this way on purpose because the Haskell family wanted Canadians and Americans to have equal access and represents the special relationship between these two communities.
It also reminds me of the Hotel Arbez along the French-Swiss border! It's because of a dispute between France and Switzerland over possession of the Vallée des Dappes. Basically, it was annexed by France, returned to Switzerland, but France called for retrocession and decided in 1862 to offer a nearby section of its own territory, comparable in size, in exchange. Slightly less than 8 square kilometers changed hands, and to make use of the delay between negotiation and ratification, a Frenchman decided to quickly build a three-story structure with a grocery store on the Swiss side, bar on the French side. This then became a hotel under Jules-Jean Arbez. In two rooms, the beds themselves are the boundary!
I was looking at this area on the map the other week and was wondering how it all worked. What a change from 1989.
Indeed!
The fastest rail route between Munich and Prague goes through Linz; it takes about 7h 20m, and requires three trains. Apparently, this is one journey that is hours faster even on a bus.
The track from Prague to Plzeň is relatively reconstructed, the problem is that there is not much effort on the Bavarian side to do something about it, even though there was an agreement in the 1990s to improve the connection between the two cities. So from Plzeň to the border the line is not in good condition because there is no point in investing into it if there is no continuity on the other side of the border.
There's a direct train (RE25) several times a day from Munich to Prague via Regensburg - Furth im Wald - Pilsen that takes around 5h30min, I've never heard of anyone choosing to go via Linz!
The ALEX Trains aka RE25/"Zapadni expres", but they are terrible unreliable. @@markwoolley3672
That's not true, there is a direct train connection between Munich and Prague called "alex". I have used this service in the past.
I can still remember the fence outside and inside the building when visiting Eisenstein with my family when I was a kid in the 1980ies.
Love seeing a town I live close to in a video! Bayerisch Eisenstein is such a beautiful place, I hope you enjoyed your stay!
That portrait of Albert V of Bavaria is pure gold , the look on his face "whatever.." , not even his weirdly small dog or his seemingly hungry lion can't make him happy
That loco is nicknamed "Taucherbrille" in East Germany.
Yes, indeed, because this locomotive seems to have... "Swimming goggles"😂
Interessting information!
Hopefully the trains will run in 2025 through from Plattling to Klatovy. This would be a good inprovement, so that you can drive electric from Munich to Plattling, with one DMU from Plattling to Klatovy and an electric train to Prague.
I just thought what a great improvement it would be if both operators extended their service to the next bigger township. And how little it would cost.
A friend who lives in Bayerisch Eisenstein is eagerly awaiting the upgrade works to complete so the trains can become quicker - he commutes to Munich for a couple of days most weeks, and he'd love to do it by train.
As it is, the track closures are annoying, but will hopefully be worth it in the future.
As seen often, I doubt that this will happen as quickly and as nicely as it seems! Plattling authorities have made life difficult for infrastructure a few times and set wrong priorities in the past.
Nice greetings from Plattling!
Do you have any news of the section from Železná Ruda to Klatovy being electrified for such a thing to be possible? I just tried to look it up in Czech and found no indication that such a thing would be happening... Only news that they'll start using new motor trains there next year (presumably so that they no longer have to run the locomotive around).
Wild fact regarding 5:32, General George S Patton's nephew is Donovan Patton...who played Joe in BLUE'S CLUES! Not the same station, but on the US-Canada border, there is a Niagara Falls station on the Ontario side, and a Niagara Falls station on the New York side. The catch...is that these two stations are served by just ONE daily train in each direction (Niagara Falls, Ontario once had frequent Via service to Toronto but this was cut in 2012. It's an interesting operation! The service is on a train called the Maple Leaf that is co-operated by Via Rail and Amtrak, and it goes between NYC and Toronto. Between NYC and Niagara Falls, Canada, it has an Amtrak crew, but between there and Toronto, it switches to a Via crew! Niagara
There's also an interesting operation on the Spanish-French border at Latour-de-Carol-Enveitg on the French side. This station has THREE different gauges. The line to Toulouse-Matabiau is standard gauge; the line to Barcelona is Iberian gauge, and the Cerdagne line to Villefranche-de-Conflent is meter gauge. There's a similar thing between Irun in Spain and Hendaye in France. With their setup, both standard gauge and Iberian gauge tracks run together which allow Spanish trains to go to the French station and French trains to go to the Spanish station.
As a freelance linguist, I will say that you have pronunced both names correctly with a decent accent, so hats off for taking a time to study some pronunciation rules, which resulted in your job well done.
As a video editor, the video was bloody great! Your feel for angles and objects is great and editing skills are also great, it felt like watching a document. I do not regret watching your video!
except pronunciation of Plzen
@@janfrosty3392 Yes, that was a bit off, but he still managed to say it good enough to recognize it. Honestly, the "ň" sound is pretty exotic to some nations, even though it is natural for us Slavs.
@@RichieLarpa ano, jak jsem napsal 'except pronunciation of Plzen' jinak je to za 2 možná za 1- jakožto pro cizince
And then there's the station Konstanz D-Kreuzlingen CH with regular trains from Konstanz - Zurich - Konstanz
So close to the border everybody accepts the euro as well.
Mostly at unfriendly exchange rates though.
@@AndrejPodzimek Sometimes the rate is even hostile
As soon as you said the Czech side once contained German speakers I was like, "OMG! This must surely be in the Sudetenland, that area which us Brits learn about in history classes at school, what with our silly prime minister and his famous speech, 'I had another talk with the German Chancellor, Herr Hitler, and here is the paper which bears his name upon it as well as mine.'"
4:50 Wait a minute... Geman artist didn't (and apparently still don't) know at all what Lions looked like, how is this portrait so accurate?
After a bit of searching, the guy did have a pet lion as part of his private Zoo, which also included an Elephant gifted from the Emperor. Huh.
5:44 I laughed out very loud and holy shit that was perfect timing. thanks mr british man!
If "On the Edge" becomes a regular thing, you are bound to talk about the "Vennbahn", another wartime oddity on the other side of Germany. Looking forward to it!
The logo with the outline of Germany lets hope for many interesting visits like this one! And not necessarily railway related: Have you heard about the twin village Dinxperlo-Suderwick? It's half German, half Dutch. And about on the opposite side, seen from Bayerisch Eisenstein ;-)
I mentioned it briefly some years ago in a video I made about Monschau, but frankly @TheTimTraveller made a much better video about it than I ever could. I'm just relieved to have got this video done before Tim did.
@@rewboss I saw that one too, the trifecta of obscure but interesting locales with Rewboss, The Tim Traveller and Tom Scott is always a joy to watch. Maybe a video about the Rheinbegradigung is in the cards then? Some interesting bits in that history as well.
Nevertheless looking for the next video
@@rewboss and then Tom Scott appears out of nowhere. XD
@@RunawayTrain2502 well... his videos are numbered tho... he's kinda retiring soon... ( more like he taking an official personal holiday without thinking if i did setup the schedule for the video correctly, and maybe finally doing something fun with the boys)
Fascinating. I used to travel in Czechia -- though never in that particular part of the country -- and seeing the Czech trains I the station and on the trestle left me terribly nostalgic!
time to visit again, we need the eur... *cough cough* tourists
Do it before mid-next year, I just found out they are planning to put new motor trains on the line, so it will be bye-bye to the old locomotives... As a Czech, they make me nostalgic, too. 🙂
You're slowly but surely becoming Tim Traveller. :-) Trains everywhere, weird stuff like double-country stations...
One of my old professors is from this town! She grew up here during the iron curtain and told us stories about it. Fascinating!
The Poles crossing into the former East Germany after reunification to load up at the Grocery Warehouses were a source of amusement during 1 of our trips to Europe a good few years back also. They could get more into a clapped out Lada than you are allowed to carry on a lorry these days! 😜😁
Its amazing to see this station now and rember some childhood memories i almost forgot, we always wen´t to this station when we made a small detour on our Bavaria holiday when i was a Kid. I rember the Restaurant on top had an amazing Bohemian Gulasch, and the small shops on the 1st floor sold everything form Cigarrets to wooden kids toys.
Very cool to see this! In 2010, I was in the area for a ski race, and drove to BE and walked to ZR for lunch (my rental car wasn't allowed across the border). ZR seemed to be filled with shops and stands run by Vietnamese, but I found an authentic CZ restaurant for a good CZ beer.
Ja, da wollte ich auch schon immer mal hin!
There was also a station in Belgium/Netherlands where the border ran diagonally through the building. Although set up on a large scale, no attempts were later made to keep the line open. So the tracks (Turnhout--Tilburg) and the very long building are long gone. The line is now a bicycle path. The border goes diagonally through it, and also through the old platform. There are many bizarre borders in that region, due to many enclaves.
Yeah, you can literally sleep in one country and take a dump in the other, there are houses which has different rooms in different countries.
Baerle-Nassau/Baerle-Hertog being the most notorious and extreme case :)
I saw the German-Czech border in the 1980s. It looked a bit different.
Swiss city of basel has 2 shared train stations. One with Germany, another with france. It was convenient shopping in another country going there by bicycle or tram
Once the train arrives on the German side it has to wait for two hours so it can be late like all the other trains.
Funny thing, but on the day I was there all the German trains were on time, and most of the Czech trains were late.
@@rewboss Maybe on the way to the Czech Republic you are crossing a wormhole at that train station and on the other side the world is upside down. Otherwise I cannot explain that miracle.
I'd argue that in the city of Basel/Switzerland, the situation is even more absurd (albeit the city is much larger of course):
Basel has got railway stations of three countries - Basel Badischer Bahnhof in the north of the city, the German railway station that is situated fully in the Swiss city but belongs to Germany and Deutsche Bahn (including a "border crossing"). And Basel SSB (the Swiss railway station) as well as Bâle SNCF (the French railway station) which are kind of next to each other but still are devided and share some of the infrastructure.
For foreigners often a nightmare to figure out which train departs where, it's not always obvious (e.g. the TGV to Paris departs from the Swiss station, where as German ICEs depart often from both Swiss and German stations...).
I can barely imagine how this must've worked before Schengen!
Wow, thanks for pointing this out! I'm just baffled that this type of arrangement came to be in a non-EU country. Yes, I get it that Switzerland at least now is a Schengen participant, but still. If this arrangement had been inside the EU borders that would have made better sense (or at least less bizarre).
I've actually been there, it's a nice train station in the middle of a very nice region
The Deutsche Bahn and the Swiss Railway Company SBB has also in Schaffhausen/Switzerland together a train station. And the best thing is not directly on the boarder is about 20 Km from the boarder away. in Switzerland.
As far as I know, Delhi and Hyderabad in India have common airports for 2 or more states.
Thanks for sharing.Very interesting situation.
Nice memories! I grew up in the Bavarian Forest.
Thank You for this educational video. Next time in Europe, i will visit this area as I'm planning to also visit Czechia and Praha of course
Consider staying in czechia longer, like 2 weeks. We have like 2000 castles. Many tourists make the grave mistake of visiting only Prague city center and flying away after 2 days. Summer czechia is the best country for foot tourism or bicycling. Safe, not too hot, good beer, not expensive, a lot to see, quite a lot of camps to sleep in tent to bring the price even lower. Renting a canoe is also an option for most rivers.
Ich war zufälligerweise im August auch dort. Daher habe ich mich sehr über das Video gefreut. Warst du gar nicht im Gebäude? Da ist die Grenze im Pflaster abgebildet. Ich habe mir die Ausstellung angeschaut, die im deutschen Teil des Gebäudes beheimatet ist. Lustigerweise war der Eintrittskartenverkauf auf der tschechischen Seite, wo auch eine Tschechin kassiert hat - bezahlen konnte man wiederum nur mit Euro :D
Sehr sehenswerte Ausstellung über Fledermäuse im Kellergeschoss.
This is so surreal, i was just watching a cold war video yesterday and the overflew his yard when it was split
You might be interested in the Aš "Freedom Train" which happened relatively nearby:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_Train_(Czechoslovakia)
Just stumbled across your channel - what an excellent and interesting video - thank you for sharing!
If you like railway stations in odd locations you should check out Ostritz, halfway between Görlitz and Zittau at the border to Poland. While the town of Ostritz is in Germany, its railway station, connecting it with the next bigger cities of Görlitz or Zittau (also in Germany) is on the eastern side of the river Neiße and thus in Poland (Krzewina Zgorzelecka).
So each trip with the train starts or ends with a short walk into or from another country.. with no border controls, obviously.
I didn't know about this. I am glad you told me and everyone else.
The history lesson is defenitely an added attraction, Thank you sir.
Denmark used to have something similar during "der Kaiserzeit (Wilhelm II) the station was called Hviding on the line from Tönder to Bramming. Hviding was the border station between Germany and Denmark. Now it is a psychiatric hospital (kinda fitting), and the railroad still runs. Hviding is now a whistle stop.
Thank you, Andrew. Terrific video! As a Europe railfan, I must say that the Czech Locomotives are not very attractive at all. It is still a very scenic area. Cheers.
The Czech trains are Hellfire though!!
People: "A train is such a nice environmentally friendly means of transport!"
Also people: "Pche, they still use these old locomotives that function completely fine instead of throwing them out and unnecesarily buying a new one? Losers"
I dont understand the advantage of the two locomotives either. You get twice as complicated system for the same job. Saving 5-10 minutes dedicated to switching sides aint really worth it. Having permanently locked trains of 2 such locomotives and 5 wagons just means if there is a problem with any of them, the entire train goes to depot, as there is no replacement.
Out of 7 Pendolinos, only 4 are functional now. Majority of connections is still served by old, refurbished wagons towed by newer locomotives. 160km/h is not much, but we are a small country, highspeed connection would not serve our citizen, just passerby´s.
To be fair, electric locomotives probably are more environmentally friendly than diesel. I do not dare to guess whether it's more environmentally friendly to keep using a diesel locomotive for more than half a century or keep making and repairing electric ones, though...
I have been here twice, once in July 1997 and again in June 1998, coinciding with the late Queen Elizabeth II's 72nd birthday - there was at the time, a BBC World Service FM Station in Plzen that made a mention of this in their broadcast. In those days, rail travel on the Czech side was much cheaper by comparison.
I never really visited the village of Železná Ruda when I passed through, bit hopefully one day I might.
Thank you very much for this again amazing Trip Report!😃👍 The "Eisenstein´s" and their common Railway Station are indeed a very telling Example for Euopean History - and for Railway History.
Very cool! Unimaginable for my generation (1988) that the Iron Curtain went through this place!
When I visit my mom, she lives in southeast Bavaria and I live way up in the northwest, I often leave the train in Plattling and that's where I've seen the Waldbahn to Bayerisch Eisenstein. In four weeks I'm going back to Niederbayern, I'm already looking forward to the mountains! Funny how it often attracts southern Germans to the water and us northern Germans to the mountains 😂
My wife is from Pilsen and saw the German mountains from the other side of the Iron Curtain without being allowed to cross. We've tried to explain the situation to my kids when we've been at the border station there, but I'm not sure if it sinks in.
In their mind it's perfectly normal to cross the border to visit the Travel Free shop to grab a beer or chips/crisps in the evening and walk back again, or even to take the recycling to the bins in the Czech side of the station.
Heck I drank beer with a friend there on Sunday, and decided we needed a kebab, so our 2 families jumped into the cars and drove to the nearest kebab shop that's in Zelezna Ruda to satisfy our desire!
Yeah, beying born in 1991, I can't even imagine that. I visited other countries in 2006 for the first time and even when we were not in Schengen yet, Czech/German border was like policeman doing guest "go, go, go, go" so it was pretty much schengen already back in 2006. Only difference was when we were passing thru Switzerland, if you are white, you can go, if you look like a muslim, they will stop you and check you, I am not kidding, I actually saw that back in 2006. They just ask you if you have something which has to be taxed or something, you say "no" and you go, that was all, so I can't really imagine some long waiting and deep checks at border, it's crazy idea. In the last year, I traveld to Croatia by bus and we had to actually leave the bus at Slovenian/Croatian border for check, I was like "WTF is this?" and then I realized Croatia was not in schengen yet. We are that used to schengen now that even when they just want to see your ID card it's extremely annoying.
I traveled to Poland several times in last years, also to Austria and other countries and nobody ever wanted to see my ID card in train or bus, it's the same like you go inside of your country, you barely notice that there is a border, especially now when you have mobile data in whole Europe, only annoying thing which bothers you at border is that you lost mobile data for few minutes before it catches foreign signal, that's really annoying, poor EU should solve that somehow. 😀
Born in 1987 (end of). Can actually imagine because at some point when I was little, my family visited the border regions in South Moravia that had basically only just opened - not even the border, you know, border region - and at some point we were still climbing over wires...
ETA: It left a deep impression, and I think it was very important for my parents then. When borders opened with Schengen, father actually travelled to the Polish border to a place where, many years ago, he and his friends got in trouble with border patrols when just hiking in the mountains. Yep, at the border with _Poland,_ presumably a fellow communist country.
I can pretty good remember as I saw the station in 1975 for the first time, as the iron curtain was in the middle of the station.
Your videos are always so informative. I enjoy them all, especially when you're out and about.
wow very interesting!!!! I hope I can visit one day! Thanks, Danke and děkuji :)
You should also go to Pilsen! The city is situated at the confluences of four rivers: Mže, Úhlava, Úslava and Radbuza.
Loved your honesty when dealing with the history of the area. The post 1945 expulsions of Germans in the "wrong area" is rarely touched on.
The massacring of Czechs who oppose the Nazis neither
I would disagree. The ethnic conflicts and results following 1938 to 1945 are pretty well documented, discussed and uncontroversially established. Germany (specifically Bavarian politicians) and Austria had likewise in the past tried to use the issue (especially demands for reparations) against Czechia in the early 1990s as leverage to be able to join the EU, before signing treaties of friendships and establishing cross-border cultural cooperation that continues today. It is a sad topic that was born from ugly history, but to say it is "rarely touched on" is either being ignorant of the reconciliation that took place decades ago, or ignorant of the current region today.
I love these travelogues. Always something interesting from parts of Germany that I may never visit.
There is a similar spot in northern czechia, where train ends 8km from the other side. There used to be a railway connecting them, but it was removed. Now there is a tourist path (+ bikepath). Adam Something (youtuber) has a video dedicated it.
Leuke reportage. Ik was daar in 1981. Het station toen een desolate omgeving.
@ 8:05 Ich weiß nich warum, aber warum sieht die LOK aus wie Bender der vor Wut rot angelaufen ist?
I don't know why, but why does the locomotive look like Bender who is red in anger?
Unter Deutschen Modellbahnern heißt das Ding die 'Taucherbrille'.
I think I wouldn't believe my eyes if I saw Rewboss filming around in that area 😅 would feel so surreal
4:52 That lion behind the Duke looks so bored! 😁
I admid it, I wasn't actively watching your video when you said "relieve map" and had a completely different in picture in mind. Now I am wondering why the German word "Relief" has three syllables. 😝
Basel in Switzerland has some of it's platforms in France.
Not literally in France, but you once had to go through passport control to get to them. But the situation in Basel is actually even more complicated than that.
@@rewboss You must mean Basel Badischer Bahnhof. I remember having to show my passport to get into the station, a sort of exclave of Germany in Switzerland.
This is definetly a place I will need to visit.
Liked and subscribed. Saves me going there 👍👍.
^^ i also was once there...behind the train station you can cross the border via the street, but if you wanna cross the border on the platform they wanna see your ID card or Passport... 🤔🤯 that was around 15 years ago or so...
Never had that happen to me in the last few years, maybe you were there just before or around the start of Schengen implementation?
They did have some level of controls again during the COVID pandemic, but I never even got checked then even though we made sure to have the correct paper work with us!
Considering Czech Republic joined Schengen in 2007, that sounds about right.
I read the German part of the railway was scheduled co close in 1994. Fortunetally it didn't happen because the iron curtain fell down.
Very interesting story. I spent my holidays twice there in my childhood. In 1979 and 1980 my father rented a little house in Bayrisch Eisenstein“ for three weeks.
We played at the train station and near the border. We always have been warned not to step into the czech area in danger to be arrested… even as kids.
If I recall, the airport at Geneva is on the border, has exits in France and Switzerlan.
It does have an exit to France, but there is nothing there -- somebody has to pick you up by car. On the other hand, it has excellent connections to downtown Geneva.
It’s a bit like Basel Bad which is a Deutsche Bahn Station but on Swiss Territory… if you want to use the toilet or have a meal you technically have to go through a customs post.
The RWY station in Basel is also half in CH and half in F
yeah, over czech republic we had a lot of quite big railway station, unfortunately they started closing down few year back as now you can buy tickets in train too:(, btw - this one goes through my village :D
Excellent video!
Living 30km from Bayerisch Eisenstein and didn't know any of this
Great video!
damn, was there once and didnt even know the thing about the train station
Good to have again the border opened!😅
Never understood those shops on the czech-german border. I have also never seen anyone there. They're such an eyesore they should be immediately banned
They're a relic of the 90s when Czechia was way cheaper than Germany... not sure why they're still there now, though 😒
They’re going to be there until Germans are dumb enough to go there
@@tuetschek I doubt that they are cheaper now, but some are still used as tourist traps, but most are already gone.
They still cater to a particular market - the "Travel Free" shops are convenient and have decent prices, and a good range of spirits etc,. The casino catches people who want to gamble outside of the restrictions in place in Bavaria/Germany.
However, I never worked out who buys the gnomes and other assorted garden accessories!
The shops on the Czech border and Zelezna Ruda have had a real makeover compared to 15-20 years ago - in general everything is quite smart now.
And the main difference compared to the 1990s is the complete absence of young ladies standing at the side of the road waiting for customers. I've not seen that at any of the Czech/ Bavarian border crossings in a very long time now.
so is there a direct train connection between Prague and Munich nowadays? if so, does it run somewhere completely different?
Not to my knowledge, no.
There the direct Munich-Prague RE25 train every two hours (7 trains a day) run by Alex-Die Länderbahn on the German side and ČD on the Czech side. It runs via Regensburg, Schwandorf, Cham and Domažlice and takes about 5 and half hours
Quick research on the Deutsche Bahn website says the quickest connections between Munich and Prague are either via Nuremberg and Cheb (about 120 km north-west of Eisenstein) or via Linz in Austria (about 120 km south-east). From my personal experience, even the trip from Munich to Plattling where the line mentioned in the video starts/ends is a nightmare.
@@SimonS44 I, too, would recommend that one. It crosses the border at Furth im Wald, where I live nearby, and in fact I once used that train returning from the Czech village of Domažllice.
@@DFYX How come you view it as a nightmare? There's an hourly direct connection
Es sollte eine Prag-München Linie geben!
Gibt es, über Schwandorf und Furth im Wald.
5:29 This is a misunderstanding. During the occupation of Czechoslovakia, people could apply for citizenship in the Third Reich. The post-war removal mainly concerned these citizens, language was not decisive.
Many border stations are on the border. It is for convenience for border control.
Thank god the station is split, otherwise DB would’ve completely neglected it to rot
Five platforms makes it seem like quite a big station to me considering this is somewhere in the middle of nowhere with only 5 trains every 2 hours (though even that doesn't sound too awful for somewhere so isolated), especially given that the central station in my English city with a population of nearly 350,000 people has only 4 platforms but receives 32 passenger trains every 2 hours plus an occasional freight train. Also, it's so rare to see a foot crossing between tracks in England nowadays, what the general dangers of such things combined with the speeds and fast accelerations of modern trains and high suicide rates. And yeah, an engine that has to change ends feels positively archaic in an era that from my perspective is dominated by multiple units, the bidirectional InterCity 125 being a common staple even when I was a young child, although I don't have the experience of travelling internationally by rail often enough.
Level crossing isn't much of a problem when all trains stop there and the traffic is really low. But nowadays almost every (re)construction has under/overpass. And the reason for the old train is that the railway is electrified from Klatovy towards Plzeň so the locomotive gets switched for electric.
This is hardly in the middle of nowhere though. It also gets served hourly in Germany, which is pretty decent and normal here. it's by no means isolated either.
@@dominov You could still use Push-Pull train set where the diesel unit would be swapped for electric one. The only problem is that the driving unti would have to be able to comunicate with both types of locomotives.
@@luksus34 there are quite a few options. Even EMU with batteries or something but I don't think this line has a priority. And it doesn't really matter in terminus station anyway.
It looked more like 5 rails instead of 5 platforms. Also, if you divide the long station in halves, it means you get twice as much platforms.
This makes me think of Haskell Free Library and Opera House, which is on the USA/Canada border and shared by the towns of Derby Line in Vermont and Stanstead in Quebec, which unfortunately became the victim of tightened border controls after 9/11.
There's an incredible Train Museum less than a 100 yards away, in Germany!
It's very very informative 👍👍