The smell of smoke from a campfire made of home-chopped wood mixes with the penetrating aroma of instant noodles.
The ones sitting together here with hot apple wine are the real bikepackers, boys and girls: a completely different group than these sparkling clean gravel bike actors in the new specialist magazine about the fashionably hip, but actually very original form of bike touring.
Not only are they all dressed up in the colorful advertising images, they also have next to nothing to transport.
The reality is sweatier, because even the most basic camping equipment with mini tarp and bivy bag, cookware and tools weighs - from case to case - more than the whole bike with its gigantic sprockets.
And what is the group gossip about?
Neither lactate nor technology, it's about the journey by train.
Hundreds of times it is written on the platform that a reservation is required to take bicycles on the ICE.
But nothing indicates whether the three ridiculous pitches are at the beginning, end, or middle of the train.
Each onboard restaurant is easier to find.
Under the reserved hooks for the front wheel, which some bikes don't even fit on, there are prams again.
And then the conductor who insists on removing panniers from the bike because they could become self-employed.
They sit rock solid and are the best impact protection for all the carbon on the bike. Beauty cases standing around and trolleys that can be walked on are much more dangerous as projectiles.
Have you ever booked a bike ticket online?
It could go on indefinitely, but for the next stage you need a hat full of sleep.