DB Deutsche Bahn First Class

Sounds very nice, if not for delayed German regionals: Sydney Morning Herald

I believe the writer is quoting Australian Dollars. American would likely be about $22.

$33 for an upgrade to first class? Europe’s trains are incredible
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The class
First class. When the Deutsche Bahn website (bahn.de) points out the small extra fee – €20 ($33) – to upgrade to a first-class ticket, I leap at it like the doors are about to close.
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Food + drink
Peering through the glass doors into first class it always looks so quiet and clean and I can happily confirm it is. Plus, there’s seat service. That’s the biggie, no doing the moving-train-disco-dance back to your seat with a hot kaffee mit milch. Travelling with small children I have exactly five times more snacks than required so don’t order from the bistro – where the food looks unhealthy and average in any case.
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I think Ms. Byrnes' experience pretty well matches mine Munich-Nurenberg last August. The DB ICE does get up to 256 klicks, but not everywhere on the route (Acela, volks?).

It seems as if to buy a €9,00 subway pass in Nurenberg, the slot machine gave me my change in € 0,05 pieces - twenty of 'em, and neither the Trials Museum nor the transport museum (with its mockup and photos of Hitler's Breitspurbahn "monster train" running on 3m gauge track) would take them as part of my admission.

However, on my ICE return to Munich, I had a perfectly adequate pork cutlet dinner along with a 250ml bottle of a dry Reisling for €20,00. The waitress was happy to take those "nickels" as part of my check and even as part of her tip. So thank you DB.

"Not exactly thanking you DB" for being late, and as the Australian travel writer notes, "Hold for late connection" is not part of any European road's lexicon. So I missed out on my First Class Rail Jet back to Salzburg, and had to accept Second Class standing room only on a Bayern Regional.

All told, I think I see where Ms. Byrnes is coming from where she raves about DB. Australia is no longer on any kind of my bucket list (family issues), but from what I understand, away from the private sector "luxotrains", their East Coast Brisbane- Sydney-Melbourne intercity trains make Amtrak "shine".