the worst journey ever
Monday, November 6th, 2006So first I checked the train timetables on the internet leave at 7pm arrive at 9.30am. SO get there at 6pl but find out that it doesn’t leave until 10pm. A bit annoyed because could have gone out for tea with people from the night before but not too bad found a cool noodle bar and had another walk around town. So this train ride is OK, as good as it can be for an over-nighter, supposed to change trains at 7am in Frankfurt and it gets to about 6.50 and I’m hoping we are getting close. But no, train keeps randomly stopping, its around 7.30am in some place called Wurzburg and we have been stopped for the last 20mins when they tell us all to get off the train and another one is going to Frankfurt. So stumble sleepily off the first train and bump into this American guy who I meet in the thermal baths in Budapest, he lives in Amsterdam so we both jumped on this super flash high speed train going to Frankfurt. We workout that iff we don’t get off at Frankfurt we can get off at another place further on and make a 11am connection to Amsterdam. Perfect. Until the conductor tells me that being a high speed train I have to pay 21 euros to go any further the Frankfurt, 21 euros!!!! What’s the point in having a rail pass….so I refuse to pay and decide to get off at Frankfurt and try get a normal train from there. Say goodbye to my American friend who stays on the train and find information. “Quick, jump on this train to the other Frankfurt station and there’s a train leaving at 9am to Amsterdam, you should just make it” great, apart from the first train was late and I miss the Amsterdam one by about 3 mins. So back to information and he prints off a list of 5 trains I have to get to get there by 3….great so it will be a train tour of Germany. Right so I get on the first train, it’s a high speed one again and the conductor tells me I have to pay a surcharge…surely it cant be that much, but its 21 euros again!!!! Have to pay it so really could have stayed on the first train! So this train is late which means I miss the next connection. By this time I’m pretty pissed off as every train I’ve taken has been late! And haven’t slept properly for about 2 days now. I go and start half yelling half almost crying at the ticket lady about useless trains and paying surcharges. I think she felt sorry for me because I obviously looked awful so she said I could wait 4 hours and get a direct high speed train to Amsterdam and she’d exempt me from the surcharge…so that worked out OK, still had 4 hours to kill in Cologne so checked out a cool church and just mucked around. Finally arrived in Amsterdam at 5pm…22 hours after my original plan of leaving Prague at 7pm…worst journey ever, who ever said German trains were efficient?
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