My legs are starting to wobble and the heat in the packed train carriage is stifling as we finally pull into our destination after two hours of standing.
Standing on a train is a widely shared experience amongst Scottish rail commuters.
Busy routes from the Central Belt to Dundee and the Fife Circle often experience a shortage of carriages
ScotRail are not operating this train though and we are nowhere near Tayside.
Instead, we are pulling into Würzburg Hauptbahnhof in Germany.
Würzburg has been twinned with Dundee since 1962.
Both cities share similar population sizes of around 147,000 and 130,000 respectively.
And both are well connected to their nearest major cities – Frankfurt Am Main and Nuremburg opposed to Edinburgh and Glasgow – by road and rail.
But how else does the slightly larger Dundee compare to the Bavarian city?
What is Würzburg like?
When we step out of the station building and into Würzburg it is clear that the journey into the heart of Germany has been well worth it.
To the north and south of the city are rows of grapevines.
And atop a hill on the southside of the River Main is the Fortress Marienberg, which was built in medieval times.
The city is also picturesque and its city centre is mostly pedestrianised.
Cobbled and paved streets take visitors through beautiful city centre buildings constructed between the 16th and 18th centuries.
The old town was heavily bombed during WW2 and then rebuilt.
Five tram routes also carry passengers across the city.
This is not something we have seen in Dundee since 1956.
It is worth noting that Dundee does have an airport though.
Standing room only from Frankfurt to Würzburg
But what was our rail experience like?
We boarded a packed Deutsche Bahn (DB) train in Frankfurt.
No seats were forthcoming along the 2-hour journey and we stopped at nearly 20 stations in the Main Valley.
We could and maybe should have got the more direct ICE high speed train.
Cost was a big factor though and saving over 50€ felt worthwhile on a tight holiday budget.
German trains have long been held up as a bastion of high quality European rail travel.
But in recent years their star has waned, with a report suggesting that DB has had to change its timetables between 2-3 million times this year.
The issues causing the disruption might sound familiar to Dundonian rail travellers.
Last month the government announced that it was going to reintroduce peak rail fare prices on its ScotRail services here in Scotland.
The operator has also been running services on a reduced timetable.
Meanwhile in Germany, train breakdowns, cancellations, delays and a lack of investment in an ageing rail network are causing issues.
When Germany’s trains work, they work well
However, there are less challenges on our return journey to Frankfurt.
Plenty of seats were available on the double-decker train.
And a top deck seat give us scenic views of rolling hills and thick forest.
This isn’t our only experience of using trains.
The thrill of traversing the German countryside on an ICE train at speeds of over 150 mph between Frankfurt and Berlin was also a highlight of the holiday.
And the network of overground and underground rail options when we arrive in the capital is impressive.
Our holiday comes to an end by travelling direct from the city centre to a station built into the basement of Berlin Brandenburg Airport.
Buses and trams needed to supplement onward journeys to Edinburgh and Glasgow’s airports.
The famous Tay Bridge crossing into Dundee is hard to look past though when it comes to city arrivals.
It is worth remembering sometimes that Germany’s railways are also far from perfect.
Conversation