ON THE WAY

Have I mentioned that I absolutely hate train rides? (Unless it’s the Orient Express, Royal Scotsman or the Blue Train!) I do, I absolutely do. I don’t know whether this is another German “red flag” like thebehated post office or whether it’s a general thing. After all, it’s been many, many years I took the train in Austria. Why I hate it so much? It annoys me no end. The waiting, the passengers, and especially the mask wearing. One hour to go to Dusseldorf airportfor my Bristol trip was bad, nearly three hours to get to Hamburg is close to unbearable. Those poor people who have to wear masks day in, day out. I’d get crazy and would be in a crappy mood all the time.

Well, yeah, even though I’m on my way to Hamburg for the first part of my vacation, my mood is – not yet – the best. The weather is typically autumn, as in, rain, rain, rain and I’m so incredibly bored despite being equipped with my MacBook, iPad and iPhone, Mick Finlay’s second Arrowood mystery and two crunchy muesli bars to tide me over. (Which I have already devoured in place of the breakfast I would have liked to enjoy instead!) Yearning to arrive in Hamburg, check into my hotel – gee, they will kick me out again, if I arrive at 9:30 am to demand my room – and finally hunt down a coffee shop for a much-deserved Latte Macchiato. I guess – being the seasoned traveller that I am – I will be able to leave my luggage at the hotel to fully enjoy my firstsightseeing day.

But until then, I still have to endure an hour on the train. We have just passed through Bremen (beautiful memories of my trips with my special friend) and I’m devoting a few minutes to some scribbling before I’m getting bored again and either switch to magazine browsing on my iPad, what’s apping with my friends or reading another chapter. (How weird is that? At home I can read for hours … on the train it bores me. And it’s not as if it weren’t a thrilling book! What a strange creature I am!)

Looking at the countryside? Well, it’s flat! Not very thrilling!

Why am I on the train when I hate it so much? Believe me, Rangey would have loved to go to Hamburg, being parked in the luxurious Atlantic garage. But, well, considering that the one day parking fee is nearly as much as I’m paying for my train ride, both ways, (by choosing very wisely the cheaper connections at awful times) I decided to bite the bullet and suffer silently. (Or more or less silently, since YOU have to suffer with me by reading my train lament!)

Yippie, only 45 more minutes to go. I should survive that! And since I don’t have a clue what else to write about … I’ll stop this boring account now! Cheerio!

P.S.: By the way, once again I was proved right! On my way back after my Hamburg stay the train was 40 minutes delayed. Due to repairs a replacement was announced – but only several minutes after it was cancelled and I was hurrying to the travel center to get information on the next available train. Well, after 40 minutes it finally arrived and we all got in waiting for our departure. Just to be told that they didn’t know when the train would be able to depart … but that we could take another train going in the same direction. (With five minutes to go to get to the other platform … bloody brilliant!) I decided to risk it and with one hour delayed departure was finally on my way to Hannover. Where another 45 minutes of waiting would await me. All in all it took me over 5 hours to get home instead of 3 …