Friday started out well for me. Jason had warned me that the connection to Weimar was running late when he went on Tuesday, so I made sure to catch the earlier train to Weimar. I arrived 30 minutes before my next connection and had the overwhelming desire to get breakfast at McDonalds in the Weimar train station. I resisted the urge (I haven't eaten there in several years), and grabbed breakfast from the bakery, then headed back up to the platform (2, not 9 3/4). It was COLD! But luckily, my train was running on time, so we arrived in Frankfurt with no delays. The Frankfurt station is much larger than those in Jena and Weimar, so I had a wide range of lunch options. Knowing that the food wouldn't be any better than that in Jena, I settled on Asian food. The tables were large, so I joined another woman sitting at a table for 6. Another couple sat down next to our table, and as it turned out, we all spoke English. The woman was from Austria, and was in Germany on business. For the first time in her life, she had missed her connecting train, and unfortunately that also meant she would not be able to use the tickets she had for the theater that night. Bummer. The couple was originally from the US, but had spent the last 10 years living in Africa, most recently Namibia. The were moving back to Washington, D.C., but having a hard time dealing with the snow in Frankfurt, which was not good since this was the same weekend as the snowpocalypse in DC. We had a lovely lunch, and then I went to check on my train. I still had thirty minutes before it arrived, but I wanted to make sure it was running on time. It wasn't.
My train was listed as delayed 50 minutes. Since train stations are open, they aren't heated, so I wandered into the book store (which was heated). Compared to the book stores in Jena, it had a huge English section, but only in paperback, so I was unable to find Barbara Kingsolver's new book. I couldn't actually spend 80 minutes in a book store only filled with pop fiction, so I ended up finding a nice place to stand until the train arrived. It was an additional 15 minutes late. That put our train running 65 minutes behind by the time we pulled out of Frankfurt. Yuck. But, that does mean I get 25% of the money back from my ticket to Zürich (you get 50% if your train is more than 2 hours delayed). Small consolation, I know, but I'll take it. About an hour into our journey, we stopped... the train just sat there for about 15 minutes. When the conductor came over the intercom after we started moving again, we were 83 minutes delayed. About 20 minutes before we arrived in Switzerland, the conductor come over the intercom again: the train was now 90 minutes delayed and the Zürich train station would not be able to accommodate the our train. Our train would stop in Basel and would not go on to Zürich. Crap. They gave us the information for a train that would be going to Zürich, platform 9, leaving at 6:33. We pulled into Basel around 6:05, but I noticed not everyone was getting off the train... What? I eventually asked someone if she spoke English, and she was able to help me out. Apparently there are two Basel train stations, but from the static and accent and mumbling, I was unable to get that from what the conductor had said. We finally started moving again at 6:20 (how the crap was I going to catch a 6:33 train at another station)! We pulled into the Basel stop at platform 5, and the train arrived just as I was walking down the stairs to platform 9. I was on, and the train was off. Phew.
I arrived in Zürich at 7:29, which means that catching another train did not slow me down any more, which was nice. Jason met me (thank goodness for our iPhones), and took me back to the hotel so I could put my stuff down. By this time my lunch was long gone, so we went searching for food. We finally found a cute little Italian place that we felt like we could afford (prices started at 20 CHF or 15EUR or $20 instead of 40CHF like many other places we saw). After paying way too much for decent food, Jason took me to a bar he had found that served a Brooklyn IPA! My first IPA in 6 months! Heaven. Smoky bar heaven, but still delicious! So delicious, I had to take a picture... with my iPhone... in a dark smoky bar with no flash...
Tabs was kind enough to edit it for me so you can see the bottle a bit better.
6 comments:
Wow...sounds like that was quite the adventure!
Good old Swiss are quite proud of being punctual. I think it is cool that they are willing to give you some of your money back if they are delayed for a long time. We had some train trouble coming to visit you this winter and I had never had problems like that before in Europe. I have to say though, that I would take train troubles if it actually meant having trains to travel on in the US.
@ Helen: It was the German train that will the money back. And I have to admit that I didn't hate the day... the day was long, but I still got there! We ran into troubles coming back from Cologne too, but all these issues have been snow related, so they were somewhat expected. My guess is that trains run a bit more smoothly during the rest of the year.
I'd much rather have trains too!
It sounds like their train stations are more like a U.S. airport than a U.S. train station. Even in Boston the train stations weren't dressed up. I went to the St. Louis ones alone some but they kept police at the rougher stops. Did you feel safe?
@Tabs: Oh yes, the train stations here are very much like airports in the US. They are full of restaurants and tourist shops and most even have a small grocery store. The one I mainly use in Jena is quite small and only has a subway and a flower shop. But Zuerich and Frankfurt (and Cologne for that matter) have very impressive (and crowded) train stations. I always felt quite safe.
My once shy little girl is now traveling through Europe all by herself, eating lunch with strangers, and drinking beer in dark, smokey bars! My times have changed!
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