part deux: the beginning of the end
so you've heard my rant about the deutsche post. now it's time to turn our attention to the deutsche bahn. i feel the need to preface this by saying that i'm a huge fan of the german train system. the idea of it, at least. but that said, i have something of a love-hate relationship with the deutsche bahn.
i mean, they've got some 1.5 million people riding their trains everyday, and who even knows how many trains to keep track of... and although stats and probability was never my best subject, it just seems statistically impossible that everything would run smoothly all of the time, right? but on the other hand, shouldn't it be just as unlikely that something goes wrong EVERY TIME i take the train??
for example, when alicia was here visiting, we took the train to berlin. i looked online, purchased the tickets and printed out the itinerary. because i live so in the middle of nowhere and we don't have a train station in kuenzelsau, we have to take a bus. two buses, actually. one from ingelfingen to kuenzelsau. then one from kuenzelsau to the train station in bad mergentheim. according to the good folk at the deutsche bahn, there was supposed to be a bus in ingelfingen at 9:46 on sunday morning, which we were to take to kuenzelsau. NO SUCH BUS EXISTS. so in order to make the connecting bus, alicia and i had the pleasure of trudging the 3-4 kilometers to kuenzelsau through the snow, carrying our provisions for a week and half of travel. good times. fortunately, we made the bus to bad mergentheim, and amazingly enough, had no trouble with the train to wuerzburg. in wuerzburg, however, where we were supposed to take the ICE to goettingen and then transfer to the ICE to berlin, they put on us on some other train with absolutely no explanation--with incredibly rude people no less, and while i realize the DB has no control over who rides its trains, it really just doesn't help their reputation when their customers are absolute assholes.
alicia and i are traveling on the same ticket but not sitting together because the train is that crowded, so after the conductor-lady comes along and figures out the ticket situation, she tells me that because this train isn't an ICE, it can't go fast enough to make our connection in goettingen and we're going to have to get off at the next stop and take the ICE from there to berlin instead. ok. so i go to let alicia know we're going to have to get off soon--all the while being glared at by the world's biggest asshole sitting across from her. seriously, there are some things i will never understand. and about 3 minutes before we get off the train, they announce that those of us heading to berlin should all get off at the next station and take the next ICE to berlin...BUT that train is, unfortunately, going to be delayed--by an HOUR. greeeeaaaaat. (i'm going to take this opportunity to point out, that i had considered flying to berlin because it cost about the same, but decided on taking the train, because the only flight i could find would have gotten us to berlin later than i wanted to get there.) so we get off the train, and since it's waaaay to cold to hang out on the platform for an hour, we find somewhere to sit inside and get some coffee. and wait. and wait. and wait some more. some 50 minutes later, we head back to the platform. it's going to be another half an hour. lovely. by now there's quite the crowd gathered on the platform, as everyone is apparently trying to get to berlin on this particular sunday afternoon.
after about 30 different announcements over the PA, most of us on the platform are thoroughly confused. eventually it's been determined that our train will be the next one, and that it is now going to arrive on the opposite side of the platform. a mad scramble to get to the other side ensues. old ladies wielding their suitcases like weapons shove their way to the front, giving reproachful out-of-my-way-i'm-an-old-lady-have-you-no-decency?! looks to anyone and everyone in the way. somehow, we make it onto the train. of course, since this is apparently the first train headed towards to berlin to actually make it this far north, it's FULL to the max. alicia and i make ourselves comfortable on the floor between piles of luggage stowed outside the actual seating compartments and settle in for a loooooong ride. other than having to get up and shift to one side or the other every time we stopped and they opened the doors, we pretty much stayed camped out there until the last 45 min. of the journey, when a few seats opened up.
the rest of the trip to berlin--at least the train-related portions--were uneventful. and the rest of our travels during the week were via MFG, so there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity for the DB to redeem itself.
while that was a rather extreme example of the DB drama, it's still not unusual. in fact, alicia was only here for two weeks, and of the 4 train trips taken that time period, exactly ONE was without drama. the first train we took from the airport was mysteriously delayed for 45 minutes. the next one was the uneventful one. then there was the berlin adventure. then when alicia was heading back to the airport, we had another complete BS itinerary from the deutsche bahn, which resulted in a missed bus and a great deal of stress and running around, trying to figure out how to get alicia to the airport on time. this is where my frustration with the deutsche bahn turns to appreciation, however, because i had to pack alicia off on a bus and run into the school to make it to my first class, HOPING she would be able to get a new ticket and make the string of trains i had just jotted down for her as a makeshift itinerary in the few minutes we had between realizing the info we had was wrong and when the next bus to a different train station was coming, and the very nice DB people took care of her and helped her figure everything out and went out of their way to make sure she made it to the right platforms, etc. good job, DB people!!
i've had plenty of DB drama without alicia though, but i'll spare you the gory details. but bahn drama aside, as a rule, i prefer to travel with MFGs--they're just cheaper, faster and way more fun.
but when my MFG for the return trip from salzburg didn't work out, i turned to the deutsche bahn... i promise, i'll finish the story tomorrow.
i mean, they've got some 1.5 million people riding their trains everyday, and who even knows how many trains to keep track of... and although stats and probability was never my best subject, it just seems statistically impossible that everything would run smoothly all of the time, right? but on the other hand, shouldn't it be just as unlikely that something goes wrong EVERY TIME i take the train??
for example, when alicia was here visiting, we took the train to berlin. i looked online, purchased the tickets and printed out the itinerary. because i live so in the middle of nowhere and we don't have a train station in kuenzelsau, we have to take a bus. two buses, actually. one from ingelfingen to kuenzelsau. then one from kuenzelsau to the train station in bad mergentheim. according to the good folk at the deutsche bahn, there was supposed to be a bus in ingelfingen at 9:46 on sunday morning, which we were to take to kuenzelsau. NO SUCH BUS EXISTS. so in order to make the connecting bus, alicia and i had the pleasure of trudging the 3-4 kilometers to kuenzelsau through the snow, carrying our provisions for a week and half of travel. good times. fortunately, we made the bus to bad mergentheim, and amazingly enough, had no trouble with the train to wuerzburg. in wuerzburg, however, where we were supposed to take the ICE to goettingen and then transfer to the ICE to berlin, they put on us on some other train with absolutely no explanation--with incredibly rude people no less, and while i realize the DB has no control over who rides its trains, it really just doesn't help their reputation when their customers are absolute assholes.
alicia and i are traveling on the same ticket but not sitting together because the train is that crowded, so after the conductor-lady comes along and figures out the ticket situation, she tells me that because this train isn't an ICE, it can't go fast enough to make our connection in goettingen and we're going to have to get off at the next stop and take the ICE from there to berlin instead. ok. so i go to let alicia know we're going to have to get off soon--all the while being glared at by the world's biggest asshole sitting across from her. seriously, there are some things i will never understand. and about 3 minutes before we get off the train, they announce that those of us heading to berlin should all get off at the next station and take the next ICE to berlin...BUT that train is, unfortunately, going to be delayed--by an HOUR. greeeeaaaaat. (i'm going to take this opportunity to point out, that i had considered flying to berlin because it cost about the same, but decided on taking the train, because the only flight i could find would have gotten us to berlin later than i wanted to get there.) so we get off the train, and since it's waaaay to cold to hang out on the platform for an hour, we find somewhere to sit inside and get some coffee. and wait. and wait. and wait some more. some 50 minutes later, we head back to the platform. it's going to be another half an hour. lovely. by now there's quite the crowd gathered on the platform, as everyone is apparently trying to get to berlin on this particular sunday afternoon.
after about 30 different announcements over the PA, most of us on the platform are thoroughly confused. eventually it's been determined that our train will be the next one, and that it is now going to arrive on the opposite side of the platform. a mad scramble to get to the other side ensues. old ladies wielding their suitcases like weapons shove their way to the front, giving reproachful out-of-my-way-i'm-an-old-lady-have-you-no-decency?! looks to anyone and everyone in the way. somehow, we make it onto the train. of course, since this is apparently the first train headed towards to berlin to actually make it this far north, it's FULL to the max. alicia and i make ourselves comfortable on the floor between piles of luggage stowed outside the actual seating compartments and settle in for a loooooong ride. other than having to get up and shift to one side or the other every time we stopped and they opened the doors, we pretty much stayed camped out there until the last 45 min. of the journey, when a few seats opened up.
the rest of the trip to berlin--at least the train-related portions--were uneventful. and the rest of our travels during the week were via MFG, so there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity for the DB to redeem itself.
while that was a rather extreme example of the DB drama, it's still not unusual. in fact, alicia was only here for two weeks, and of the 4 train trips taken that time period, exactly ONE was without drama. the first train we took from the airport was mysteriously delayed for 45 minutes. the next one was the uneventful one. then there was the berlin adventure. then when alicia was heading back to the airport, we had another complete BS itinerary from the deutsche bahn, which resulted in a missed bus and a great deal of stress and running around, trying to figure out how to get alicia to the airport on time. this is where my frustration with the deutsche bahn turns to appreciation, however, because i had to pack alicia off on a bus and run into the school to make it to my first class, HOPING she would be able to get a new ticket and make the string of trains i had just jotted down for her as a makeshift itinerary in the few minutes we had between realizing the info we had was wrong and when the next bus to a different train station was coming, and the very nice DB people took care of her and helped her figure everything out and went out of their way to make sure she made it to the right platforms, etc. good job, DB people!!
i've had plenty of DB drama without alicia though, but i'll spare you the gory details. but bahn drama aside, as a rule, i prefer to travel with MFGs--they're just cheaper, faster and way more fun.
but when my MFG for the return trip from salzburg didn't work out, i turned to the deutsche bahn... i promise, i'll finish the story tomorrow.
posted by be at 10:37 PM
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