Germany Doesn't Suck

24 May started when my alarm went off at 5h – unreasonably early for a Saturday but it was for a good cause. After getting ready, I hopped on my bike and pedalled off to the train station, arriving just a few minutes before my 6h06 train left. Due to the fact that I had moved to Old Town, I wasn’t sure how long it’d take for me to ride to the station and I just barley made it.

While I was walking to the track, two guys in their 20s who appeared to have been up all night were walking to theirs and after one confirmed the time of departure with the other, the other said, ‘But don’t forget, Deutsche Bahn is always late,’ to which I chuckled and said to them, ‘Very true.’

The route of my first train begins in my town, so it left on time. The sun had just peeked over the mountain, bathing the rivers and our medieval fortress in sunlight as the train glided across the bridge that links the centre of my city with a northern district. Sunlight, warmish weather and classical music on the Ipod – I knew it was going to be a great day.

My first change of trains was in Düsseldorf, where I left IC 2212 for RE 9008 – both of which were on time. So far, so good.

Other than RE9008, that is.

That train was so old and decrepit that it’s an embarrassment on wheels to Deutsche Bahn.

Despite Deutsche Bahn’s extortionate prices and inexcusably frequent tardiness, I still love travelling by train. Unlike cars, you don’t have to sit in traffic. Unlike planes, there’s plenty of room. Unlike busses, you can get up and stretch your legs.

8:57 saw me at the Venlo train station, just across the non-existent border on The Netherlands side, for a twenty minute stopover and train change to IC 1932 – a Dutch train. If anyone ever says that the Dutch don’t have a sense of humour, the orange and blue trains with purple interiors of the Dutch rail system should be able to convince them otherwise.

Even though it was an InterCity train, it was nothing like (most) Deutsche Bahn IC trains (and not only because it was on time). It was about the same as DB’s double-decker RE/RB trains. Even though I have been known to complain about DB’s prices and punctuality, I have rarely complained about the quality of he trains. My DB train of preference is the saloon cars of the IC trains – comfortable seats, big picture windows and also laptop plugins – the Dutch train only had the first of those (and quite narrow ones at that), I did ask the ticket inspector about laptop plugins and he told me, ‘The new trains will have connections, but only in first class.’

What?

‘New’ trains that don’t even meet the technological needs of the year 2000?

Why even get new trains then?

They also didn’t have luggage racks – either at the end of the carriages or overhead. As far as the people go, there was a noticeable lack of alcohol and people listening to mp3 payers and eating – all of which are normal on German trains.

Moving on, I happened to notice he name of the town we were passing through at 9:33: America.

One of the things I noticed about The Netherlands was that it partially reminded me of England (the same with Belgium) by the style of the connected houses with very small driveways in front of them.

I arrived at my destination on time at 11:35 and I departed the train and headed towards the terminal, where I was met by the smiling faces of my American friend D and her Dutch boyfriend, M – part the reason for my visit.

This was the first time I had met D, but we have been chartroom friends for a couple years. She met M in the same chatroom a few years ago and moved to the Netherlands o be with him about a year ago. The chatroom we know each other from has a big Meet once a year at various locations in the US, so D and I though it’d be fun to organise a EuroMeet, and we did. It was supposed to be in the late summer or early autumn until our mutual friend got ill, so we moved it up.

We were too late, though.

However, we decided to still stick to the date we had arranged, and off I went.

While making plans, we exchanged photos in order to make it easier to find each other at the station, she said, ‘Look for the 5’2” blond woman and the 6’7” guy,’ – a description that made it very easy to find them.

D, M and I exited the station and they took me on a tour of The Hague – M is a native and knew all the ins-and-outs and also added some of his own comments (‘That new building is a waste of money,’). Quite frankly, I had never considered visiting their city before I met D, and can see why. It’s a far cry from many historical cities I’ve seen in Europe. I have to admit that I hadn’t done any research on their city and had no idea what to expect, so I wasn’t disappointed – just surprised at how modern it was

After stopping at a place called Florencia for ice cream (FYI: cinnamon ice cream is to die for), we hopped on bus 25 and went back to their place near Zuiderpark (South Park – that spawned many jokes). Not surprisingly, S was waiting for us in front of their building (we were 20 minutes late) and we all exchanged cordialities and went in. Our EuroMeet group was complete.

A Meet-Up with only four people? Yes. A few other Europeans had expressed interest, but when the date was moved up, it wasn’t convenient for them so they couldn’t attend. Actually, the chatroom is 99.9% North Americans and there weren’t many us in the area the first place (offhand I can only think of three others in Europe), so four is a decent number.

They live in a small but very nice flat that is beautifully decorated (I wonder what it looked like before she moved there.lol) and very comfortable. I really do hope that mine will be that comfy some day but highly doubt it. We went about doing what people at Meet-Ups do – getting to know each other better and also learning more about the city we were in while, be served coffee and diet Pepsi.

After a bit of a rest, we headed outside for a stroll in the previously mentioned park for a couple hours and strolled around most of it, visited a petting zoo, watching a mini-train club operating their handmade, steam-powered locomotives and enjoying the unusually sunny weather and each other’s camaraderie – the best part of Meet-Ups for me.

At 18h30, S and I bade our farewells to D and then M walked us to the tram stop to get us back to Den Haag Centraal station. After one unscheduled tram change (S is Dutch and understood the announcement, but they didn’t say why), we arrived and said our goodbyes and parted ways (he was going north and I was going east).

I stopped at a kiosk to get a bottle of water and asked the young shop assistant if he spoke English or German, and he pointed to his colleague, who said that she spoke German, so she sold me my overpriced bottle of water in our common language. It did surprise m e that the guy I asked didn’t speak English, as I know that most people in the Netherlands do speak English.

Despite the Deutsche Bahn timetable saying that the train left at 19h26, the actual scheduled time was 19h21. Had I missed that because of DB’s in competency, I would have missed three more trains and probably have had to spend he night at the Venlo train station (due to the fact that the last train out of there towards Germany was at 22h04).

I don’t think I need to tell you how much of a rant that would have produced.

Something else that made IC 1973 a bit difficult to find was the fact that the train numbers aren’t on the signs at The Hague Centraal station – so I asked an employee of the railway if it was the correct train – and he confirmed that it was.

The train was packed full and I found myself sitting on the lower level until we got to Eindhoven, where I deeded to look for a space with a table so I could use my laptop. I managed to find a well integrated Dutchman, because when I asked if he seat was free, he told me that it was and then looked at me in disgust and gave me the German Fuck Off Sigh when I mentioned that I’d like to use he table (he wasn’t’ using it). Eventually he started talking and it turned out that out that he’s been living in Germany for 5 years.

We arrived on time in Venlo and then I had a 20 minute wait before hopping on RE9039 for a 31 minute ride. The train was as dilapidated as RE9008 was, but something else happened.

RE9039 is the kind of train that has compartments, not saloon cars (is that English?). I walked into one of the empty cars and as I was deciding where I wanted to sit, a shifty looking guy (about 18) walked by me. Then another. Using my American street smarts, I decided that it’d be best no to sit in a car alone so I walked forward to a wagon that had people in it, passing a third young man walking towards me along the way. As the train pulled out, my suspicions that they were up to no good became stronger when they stepped off the train just before it left the platform.

The ride was uneventful, but I was still nervous due to the fact that DB is usually late and I only had a five minute connection in Mönchengladbach, otherwise I’d be spending the night at the train station there.

Luckily, the train was on time, so I ran down the stairs and up those of the other platform (which was at the other end of the station) and managed to get on RE 11379 about ten seconds before the doors shut, for a fifty-five minute ride to Cologne. 11379 was an acceptable DB train – the kind that is one long saloon car (no compartments) and was filled with very tired looking people.

I wondered where they were going or where they were coming from. Had they been on a day trip to meet some new people like I had, or had they been visiting family? Had they had delicious cinnamon ice cream like I had or had they been to a barbeque? Were they going home or going out for an evening on the town?

We arrived in Cologne on time and that’s where I had to make my final change of trains (one extra train on the return trip was required due to the time of the day). I was quite surprised and a bit impressed that all the trains I had used had been on time.

Until the last one.

ICE 809 was running 10 minutes late according to the sign on the platform and we arrived in my town 15 minutes late. Oh well, at least it was the last train and I hadn’t missed my connections. I arrived home at 01:10.

The long train trip home was sort of a blur to me because I spent it reflecting on the brilliant time I was returning from. What great people I had met and what fun we had had.

Click here for pics.