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TRIP REPORT – To Stuttgart and Schwabisch Hall – Off to Schwabisch Hall, qubixx Stattmitte Hotel 

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Off to Schwabisch Hall, qubixx Stattmitte Hotel 
To Stuttgart and Schwabisch Hall

Stuttgart -Recaro trip report header

Off to Schwäbisch Hall

After a disappointing night at the Novum Hotel Rieker, I headed out and crossed the road to the Hauptbahnhof.

a woman walking on a sidewalk with a red sign and a bicycle
This way, please. 

Now, Stuttgart station is in a state of flux as it is upgraded for Stuttgart 21 (a programme that has annoyed a lot of people as far as I can see). I navigated my way through, with the clock ticking.

a red and white sign on a wall

a man with luggage in a building
Work in progress

a large building with people walking in it
Can you guess what it is, yet? 

I made it to the platform in time – but had no ticket.

Thankfully, there are ticket machines. Sadly, they’re the DB ones that have a mind of their own when it comes to payment types and how to process tickets.

In the end, I managed to bully the ticket machine into selling me a ticket to Schwäbisch Hall and jumped aboard the train.

It was good timing too – as the train was departing within a minute.

Now, this train was different to me. Not because it was a Bombardier Talent 2 Electric multiple units, but because it wasn’t wearing DB’s Regio Traffic red – rather the colours of BW – the local transport agency.

seats in a train with seats
Where is the DB Blue fabric? 

The train made speed through the local stations, with it going into the black forest region, taking an hour to get to Schwäbisch Hall

inside a train with seats and a window
That’s a lot of cycle/baby buggy space

a white sign with black text and yellow dots on it
Routes. 

The train had onboard wifi- – whilst not high speed, it was good enough to push out an article with one of the laptops I was carrying with me, as well as catch up on a few things (like local transport options – something that would bite me when I arrived).

Arriving at Schwabisch Hall, I got off the train. Sadly, there are no dot matrix indicators on the station – making it difficult to guess which train I needed next. Unsurprisingly, the train took off in front of me.

a metal railing on a staircase
Not an expensive mod to allow bicycles to go up and down stairs at all.

a train station with a train track and power lines

Sigh.

a yellow sign with black text

Dear DB. INVEST IN SOME DMI’s please in your regional stations!

I then decided the bus would be a good idea. And some idiot boy didn’t turn on Google Translate when running through the web pages didn’t he?

a pink and blue text
I invented new swear words that day. 

The buses were on strike too, which made travel more difficult than it needed to be.

Walking from Hessle to Schwäbisch Hall town centre would have taken the best part of an hour plus (and required a change as I was in “Work-wear” already). Thankfully, Wandering Arman was in the area and kindly offered to rescue me.

It’s good to have friends occasionally.

He kindly dropped me at my hotel for the remainder of this trip – I made it a priority to get more cash out to fund taxi trips if needed.

Qubixx stadtmitte hotel, Schwäbisch Hall

a building with a lot of windows

I arrived early at the hotel but was greeted and allowed to check in. there was some confusion about my booking, which required me to fish out my booking.com reservation.

a room with a colorful carpet and a bar with stools a door to a bar a room with pink couches and a patterned carpet

Once that was shown the rest of the process went smoothly.

I completed any remaining paperwork including covid passes and issued a keycard for the room. I would be located on the first floor.

I headed up, this time armed with an RFID keycard.

a close up of a metal box

The room itself was spacious and modern – a welcome sight after the hotel I stayed in the night before. Someone even left a folded duvet on the bed.

a bed with a colorful wall behind it

a bed with a pillow and a blanket

Seriously people. This is an epic improvement.

a room with a bed and a table a shoe on the floor

a white device with a card in it a door swinger with a picture of a hotel

The bed itself was reasonably firm, whilst the view outside… was onto the main road.

Thankfully there were controls for the blinds to allow for some privacy as needed.

a window with a view of a road and houses

There were outlets galore (a sight to be welcomed these days), as well as USB outlets – a welcome thing to see (and perfect for charging power banks and camera batteries.

a white rectangular object on a white surface

The bathroom was modern, with a shower in it. Alas, guess who forgot to take pictures this time of the bathroom. Yes, yours truly.

The rate I had also included breakfast, This would be a typical continental style breakfast, with the usual mix of pieces of bread, meats, salad items, yoghurts, and all the fun things that make a continental breakfast… well… continental.

a table with plates and forks a group of silver containers on a counter a group of silver containers on a white table a buffet with different food items a trays of food on a counter a group of cereals in containers on a counter a machine on a counter a table with different items on it a coffee machine and cups on a counter

The items were of reasonable quality, with masks being worn around and people sitting distanced from each other.

a room with pink couches and a patterned carpet

The bed was made up on the night I stayed over – a welcome thing to see a hotel actually doing proper housekeeping in these times.

Check out was pretty simple, with the keycard dropped off and reception informed. They were also kind enough to call a taxi for me to return to the train station.

Overall

Compared to the previous night’s hotel – absolute luxury. Compared to others, it’s business-friendly and more than passable for a few nights to be working, or to be exploring this region of Germany.

Certainly, it’s up-to-date and passable, even if German Hotel Wi-Fi speeds exist in it.

Put it like this, if I was in the area again on business, I would make this my first stop.

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Comments

    • Kevincm says

      Sadly, the depths of the night didn’t help on the first night (nor the flight delay… else I would had…).

  2. CraigTPA says

    A definite improvement over the last hotel!

    I’ll never understand the European love for cold cuts at breakfast, though. It;’s right up there with their passionate love of remote stands and buses…we have them in the US, they’re just pretty rare, for smaller aircraft you just walk to the plane. They’re even rarer in Canada, but that’s because of the polar bears, ice weasels, and (in Toronto) packs of raccoons that’ll beat you up and take your Timbits.

    On the other hand, I had to stay in a hotel last month and our breakfast was a microwavable sausage sandwich of sadness, some sort of flavorless carbohydrate pastry thingie, and a bottle of water. So the bologna looks pretty good. I miss the Before Times.