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November 17, 2005
The trains do not run on time...
in Germany. Id like to thank the German train system for giving me the 2nd worst travelling experience Ive had - and that was only due to a massive Christas Eve snowstorm - an act of God rather than an act of incompetence.
First my flight from Nantes to Paris was cancelled, so I had to reroute through Lyons. I only had about 20 minutes there so I figured my bag would be late again but it was there in Frankfurt. Spent the night there and hung out downtown Wednesday. Then the fun began!
The train from Frankfurt to Stuttgart was late and as a result, I missed my train out of Stuttgart. I went to the ticket counter to get another train and there was one - leaving in 4 minutes. I make it and discover that this one will get me to my destination only 6 minutes later than the other, so Lucy would not be waiting for me too long in the cold. I have one more change in a town called Plochingen. Apparently, they changed the platform of my train out of there and only made the announcement in German. I wasnt the only one standing there waiting an extra 20 minutes either - they never changed the sign above my platform which said that that was the platform from which the train I wanted would be leaving. This station is so small that there was noone working any more at the booth so I had to try and figure things out myself. When I finally managed to, I found another train that would get me in about 50 min late, and at the wrong station, about a few miles from where I wanted to be. I took it and managed to find the only person in Germany who actually does not speak a word of German more than "one" and "yes" when I tried to confirm the train went where I was going.
Oh, did I mention it was cold? And I was wearing a fleece over a t-shirt. And I had a bit of an upset stomache because of travelling so frequent trips to the WC were necessary.
Anzwaz - oh yeah, on the keyboards in Germany, the z and y keys are switched, so once again, typing is driving me crazy - I get the bus info I need from Lu and get to the busstop. 4 busses stop there and in Germany, they have electronic signs above every stop that say when the next bus will arrive. There are 3 busses listed, and you guessed it, the one missing is the one I want. A few minutes later it comes up arriving at 2147. I look at my watch: 2122. But Im going to the last stop and I get there... finally.
The trip really was not that long - about 4 hours, but it should have only taken a little under 2. The cold and repeated asininity of the situation made it worse. Even telling myself that "at least Im not in Baghdad" didnt help much.
Oh and if "asininity" isnt a word, my sister the English teacher will let me know below :)
Posted by TJ at November 17, 2005 10:11 PM
Comments
Even if its not in the dictionary, everyone knows what it means. :) 5 points for creativity.
Posted by: mom at November 19, 2005 09:04 PM
Sorry to hear about the train stuff, I think they pull this in Plochingen and Esslingen (the stop before) all the time - they would announce it in the last second that the platform has changed! Happened to me the one and only time I got on in Esslingen. The quality of the train service went absolutely downhill when they cut off layed off older workers but had to pay lots of money for pensions. Now it's even worse with the punctuality because of the construction/repairs for soccer world cup in 2006.
Anyway, I hope you had or still have a great time here!
Thoroughly enjoyed reading your site, definitely one of the best milblogs.
Posted by: Andreas M. at November 21, 2005 05:30 PM
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