Public Transit, Evening Rush

I used to work for a company where I had to go to the Paris office from time to time. Going with the Metro every morning to the office somehow made me feel like a local. But the evening rush after work was the time when I really got connected with the people and where I felt we are all somehow the same. I've liked it a lot. Strange enough because at home in Munich I do not like the same situation at all :-)

Mignon- Agreed that they’re is absolutely zero romance in riding public transit in one’s own city!

I will have to try this trick of imagining myself to be a tourist in my own city on my evening commute home on a sure-to-be crowded, cold and wet trainride home today. Thanks for the perspective shift!

Brings to mind 6pm on the 42nd Street Shuttle , thinking about " Miss Turnstiles "

Mignon- Agreed that they’re is absolutely zero romance in riding public transit in one’s own city!

You can say THAT again ! (grumbles in Line 1)

I do that a lot and not just during rush hour. Maybe because I travel solo, I find ways to pass the time by looking at my fellow riders and wondering where they're coming from and what they're going to do that evening. I like to pretend that I'm a local and just out running an errand or picking up some food. Somehow it makes me feel more connected to a place.

Scudder, I stayed in Cologne as well and made a day trip to Aachen and loved it! Such a lovely city with an incredible cathedral. Cologne was wonderful, too - I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Enjoy the rest of your trip!

Brings to mind 6pm on the 42nd Street Shuttle

@Steven ... It's been a while (like 40 years) since I was a regular rider of the NYC subway, but seem to remember there was a shuttle was between 42nd St and 34th St Penn Station (the start of the LIRR), am I correct?

I stayed in Cologne as well and made a day trip to Aachen

@Mardee ... Going to both cities to see the Cathedrals and their Christmas Markets at the end of November ... did you take the tour of the Aachen Cathedral? ... I read the only way to see Charlemagne's throne and tomb, and choir area was to take the tour.

DQ:

did you take the tour of the Aachen Cathedral? ... I read the only way to see Charlemagne's throne and tomb, and choir area was to take the tour.

That’s right. I did the tour yesterday, which I was planning on anyway, but especially glad for when I understood those highlights are otherwise off limits.

And the 42nd Street shuttle only connects Grand Central with Times Square. It would be far more useful if it connected the two train stations. But east side access soon…

You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din.
Getting stuck in the middle of a crush of humanity is something we strive to avoid as much as possible, so your experience would have been a nightmare scenario for us.
Still - to each their own.

Riding public transit, especially subways (by whatever name), especially at rush hour, is certainly a good way to "meet" local people up close. It's not something I make a plan to do but I find it happening often on trips. Just looking at faces can be fascinating. I saw Napoleon once on the Paris Metro (out of uniform). In Mexico City I saw five guys sitting in a row, each a distinctly different color and facial type. Last week in New York, where I used to live, I rediscovered the rush-hour subway scene, barely managing to squirt out the door at West 72nd St.

Not something to build a trip around, or plan a day around, but I get what Scudder is saying. Hope you're having a good time over there.

How often have I been stuck amidst the summer rush hour crowd taking the S-Bahn, regional train, or U-Bahn in Germany, especially in the Ruhr area and in Schleswig-Holstein, tons of locals get on plus school kids, even on the ICE where one time returning from Leipzig day trip to Berlin, people, all locals, were standing in the area of the WC., almost packed like sardines. That occurrence was unusual.

And the 42nd Street shuttle only connects Grand Central with Times Square

That's right, got my train stations mixed up ... probably because I was a regular at Penn Station since it was right below Madison Square Garden where we would go for concerts ... life was awesome back then, paid $10 to see Queen ... good times.

"Workers enjoying a beverage out of a brown paper bag"

Wonder why because hiding something in a brown paper bag is having a different meaning in Germany then in the US :-) I've spent many months in Durham NC and my uncle was hiding his beer in a paper bag. In Germany usually only stuff bought in an adult shop will be hidden in a brown paper bag :-) If you are referring to alcohol on public transportation and specially the after work beer nobody would hide it because no reason to do it.