Porters waiting for customers, Apolonia station, Lisbon, 1987

José, porter at Apolonia station, Lisbon, 1987

Statue of the Virgin Mary at the Senora do Monte viewpoint high above Lisbon, 1987

Breakfast on the roof terrace of our hotel: the first diary entry before departure from Lisbon to Hong Kong, 1987

Rossio station, hidden behind the façade of a city palace, Lisbon, 1987

Feared until the Carnation Revolution: Secret police PIDE, barracks in Rua Antonio Maria Cardoso, Lisbon1987

The Castel de Vide train station impresses with its azulejos tiles, 1987

Portuguese boy beaming happily into the camera, 1987

A small bar in the Alfama serves as a living room for men ..., Lisbon

Departure in Portugal - times when there were still luggage racks and no rolling suitcases

71 Tage, 18 Städte und 20 Züge nahmen wir uns Zeit, um diese 17.343 Eisenbahnkilometer zu bewältigen

Atocha Central Station in Madrid, 1987

Fahrpläne, Fahrkarten Quittungen - 1987 alles noch analog und schwer zu organisieren

The Spanish stationmaster shortly before the departure of our train, 1987

Meet Eduardo - a true Madrilenian, 1987

The Gare du Nord in Paris is a terminus, a terminal, the start or end point of a rail journey, 1987

It's colorful at the Gare du Nord, Paris, 1987

In the Gare du Nord, the café tables almost reach the platform, 1987

Madame Vacheret in Café in the Gare d'Austerlitz, 1987

The train manager of the Intercity Parsifal to Cologne, 1987

Relaxed travel through Europe on the Intercity, what counts more

Cologne Central Station, departure of the Bavarian jesters after the Rose Monday parade, 1987

Border at Helmstedt, eating in the on-board restaurant of the transit train in the west and arriving in the east, 1987

The Berlin Wall still stood at Potsdamer Platz, 1987

In the International Trade Center at Friedrichstrasse station - secret snapshot, photography prohibited, 1987

Ice sailors on the frozen Müggelsee, Berlin GDR, 1987

Rostbratwurst and meat skewer in spicy sauce, Bahnhofsimbiß, West Berlin 1987

View from a restaurant on the rebuilt Old Town Square in Warsaw, 1987

Polish "WARS" buffet car on the East-West Express to Warsaw, 1987

Settlement in the dining car of the East-West Express to Warsaw, 1987

Sleeping car attendant,

Station concourse in Brest, waiting for the "Polonez" to Moscow, 1987

Which connection do you want? Janina on the East-West Express to Warsaw, 1987

Arrival at the Belorussian Railway Station, Moscow, 1987

View from the Moskva Hotel to the Kremlin and Alexander Garden, 1987

soviet "Mercedes Star", Moscow

Smoked fish canapés with caviar in the "Ogri Moskwi" café, 1987

Red Square with St. Basil's Cathedral, 1987

A chat on a bench in All-Union Park Moscow, 1987

We made ourselves comfortable in our 2-bed compartment in the "Rossija" for the journey through Siberia

At every stop, queues form in front of the respective platform kiosk

Tea was served from the samovar, in decorated Transsib glasses and with sugar cubes

The chefs in the "Rossija" conjure up good, hearty food in the rocking dining car, 1987

Novosibirsk - boarding the "Rossija" 1987

Lunch break for the kitchen team in the dining car of the "Rossija" 1987

Animal market in Novosibirsk, an immersion heater regulates the temperature of the water in the aquarium every hour, 1987

Animal market in Novosibirsk

Pet market in Novosibirsk, the elegant lady cost 30 roubles

Temperatures of minus 21° keep heavy weights frozen in Lake Baikal for months

Trucks weighing several tons cross the 1.80 metre thick ice of Lake Baikal

Olga, the good spirit in the dining car of the "Rossija", 1987

Ludmilla, our carriage attendant: "You know photographs - njet"

Hot solyanka on the Transsib ...

.... and bread, sausage, cheese and lots of vodka for breakfast at our neighbors next door

Busy times in the local kolkhoz store

Light luggage for three months on the rails: including lots of film canisters and some historical pre-war brochures

A beautiful steam locomotive pulled us from the Mongolian-Chinese border to Datong

Steam locomotive wheels awaken dreams of rail travel, Datong, China, 1987

From Ulan Bator, visit to a model yurt for us tourists, 1987

Encounter with a steppe dweller in the Terelje Valley, Mongolia, 1987

Farewell at Ulan Bator railroad station

Our Mongolian sleeping car conductor

The bogies are changed in Erlian (Mongolia), from Russian to Chinese standard gauge

in 1987, the last steam locomotive factory in the world was still producing in Datong

"Worker" employee of the tourist office of Datong, China, 1987

Somewhere in Datong, kids waiting for daddy

Encounter: View into a long-distance train standing on the siding

Jackie is beaming, we managed to get all our exposed films to China in one piece

Badaling, short stop at the foot of the Great Wall

The railroad is the long-distance means of transportation in China, with maintenance everywhere

Arrival in Beijing: our backpacks simply won't fit in the cab

We discover this TV idyll in a private restaurant behind the station

Waiting room for hard-seat passengers (3rd class) in Nanjing

The green seats in the hard seat class are too - hard!

Relaxed rail travel .... and search for motifs ...

Vendor for food vouchers, which will be brought to the square later, Hard Seat class in Nanjing Express

Bicycle with side-car ??

Bus driver in a suburb of Beijing

There are plenty of motifs everywhere, Tiananmen Square, Beijing

The waiting rooms (here Hard Seat) at Beijing Central Station are among the largest in the world

Mr Li, one of our neighbors in the hard seat class, China

The fight for train tickets is tough and is monitored by a "referee", Nanjing Central Station

Good and sumptuous food is served in the first-class dining car of the Nanjing Express

Peking duck to go on the platform

We preferred to travel in the open compartments of the hard bed class in China

South of the "heating border", the Yangtze River, it actually gets hotter, Hard Bed class

Soft Bed class with four berths is considered 2nd class

Chance meeting on a platform in Shanghai, Mr. Wang worked in Karl's tiny birthplace

Traffic policeman in front of Shanghai Central Station

Riding a bike in China was fun back then, almost without traffic, 1987

A plantain avenue in Nanjing as a one-way cycle lane

Somewhere on the roadside, a game of Chinese chess is being played

Huxingting teahouse, where tea is served and newspapers read from 5 a.m., Shanghai

Huxingting teahouse, tea and gossip from 5 o'clock, Shanghai

Chinese dumplings, jiaotze

We reached our destination: Hong Kong border crossing - and didn't miss a single train

Street sweeper on Shanghai Road in the Mangkok district

The Hong Kong district of Mangkok is considered one of the most densely populated areas in the world