Story of the month
When one does a journey...
„Läuft dein Leben stets nach Plan, fährst du selten Deutsche Bahn“ (“If your life always goes according to plan, you rarely travel Deutsche Bahn”) goes a German proverb. Unfortunately, I have to underline this statement again and even expand on it: „Heißt‘s auch auf langen Strecken mit der Zeit gelingt‘s, fliegst du niemals Eurowings“ (If your life also goes well on long journeys, you never fly Eurowings).
But let me start from the beginning…
Working for a young company also means traveling often. Be it to meet new partners or to maintain old acquaintances. I was able to enjoy a mix of both at the Roskilde Festival in Copenhagen. Together with our partner Sebastian Kamm, I was invited to Copenhagen by MeyerSound. We were shown the latest sound technology from the American acoustic manufacturer and were able to enjoy the special Roskilde Festival.
Super days, if it wasn’t for the return journey…
On Thursday, it should go after the event day directly at 20.10 o’clock with Eurowings from Copenhagen to Düsseldorf. So I sat punctually with my backpack in front of the gate and waited for boarding. But that did not come. It became 21 o’clock, 21:30 and 22 o’clock. Nobody knew anything, but it was only to delay everything. At 22:30 then came the message via app “Your flight to Düsseldorf has been canceled. Eurowings will get back to you shortly with more information.” Small spoiler alert: the info didn’t come until today.
Now there I was, with a retired doctor couple who had just visited their daughter in Copenhagen and a twenty-something who had already posted everything on Instagram but, like us, had no idea how to get home.
Also a quick search at other airlines revealed: The next possible flight would be on Monday for 623 euros with Lufthansa – no thanks.
So we had only the alternative with the train. 00:10 clock drove a train from Copenhagen to Flensburg. Quickly bought tickets via a Danish train app to Flensburg. The menu was only in Danish. Therefore, here the small edge info: Book this train connection is called “Vælg denne togforbindelse” in Danish.
The train trip starts
With an incredibly friendly conductor, we then went to Flensburg. Arrived at 3 o’clock in the morning, we had to take the train to Hamburg. Means changing from the Danish train to the German train. Means from the service oasis to the service desert.
Route Flensburg- Hamburg: 3 o’clock to 6 o’clock at night. All seats occupied and we sat on the floor in the middle of the aisle. To my left was the doctor couple, who proudly told me about their children, to my left quiet snoring, interrupted by the always scolding conductor, who stumbled over us every 20 minutes.
From Hamburg, we took the express train to Düsseldorf. Express meant that we didn’t stop at any station, but were still 1:40 hours late. “That’s the magic of Deutsche Bahn”.
At 10:40 a.m. I was finally back at my car in Düsseldorf – dog-tired, but glad to finally be home.
At the end I would have liked to make a joke about Deutsche Bahn, but it would not have arrived.
