Low-cost midlife crisis

In which we

• Get very little sleep
• Encounter our first grumpy railway employee
• Make some tight connections, but arrive as expected
• Encountered some more curiosities of the app

The train we left Copenhagen on was due to leave at 23.54, but apparently without warning this was shifted to 00.01 – that 7 minute shift was ostensibly meaningless but seemed to have some kind of weird knock on effect on the app. As it happened neither the original time nor the revised one showed up on the app even though we actually had reservations (sold to us specifically as being interrail reservations). This didn’t really matter hugely but because of the fact that the train left on August 10th rather than the 9th and because we had to manually enter our trip, it vanished from the 10/08 “show your ticket” function, which in theory is quite important as that function, which generates a QR code is in effect your actual ticket. However, the ticket collector in Denmark didn’t seem to care, presumably being used to interrailers who haven’t done everything to the letter. Less importantly it meant that the “stats” the app gives you about the number of kilometres you’ve travelled and so on are no longer accurate.

It was difficult to sleep. The whole sleeping in chairs thing is hard for me, and it doesn’t help when an announcement comes over the tannoy every 20 minutes letting you know about the next station. Once we got to Germany the volume got turned up even louder for these nuggets of info (either that or the woman making the announcements was shouting). We got woken up for a passport check too (well, some people got woken up, I was, in keeping with most of the night, not sleeping anyway).

I’m not really sure and where you get your passport checked within the Schengen zone. Are there some countries that insist and then others reciprocate? Over the years I’ve crossed into Germany from a number of different Schengen area countries and barely even noticed the border. But when we went from Germany to Denmark we were checked and then likewise the other way. Since we crossed from Romania into Hungary all those aeons ago, it is only that border at Flensburg that has apparently needed a check. Even going into Sweden there was an announcement that we were going to get checked but then nobody bothered. Are there covid era differences?

Speaking of Covid, Germany is the only country we’ve been in so far that insists on masks on trains (and other public transport). Not only that but they have to be FFP2 masks (which, fortunately, we bought a largish box of before we left home last Monday).

We had a bit of time for some breakfast in Hamburg station served by a woman who, let’s say, didn’t want to waste time on pleasantries. It was good to have a slight break though because afterwards we were about to go on one of those journeys that involved multiple changes all of which were not dawdleable.

The first of those trains – which turned out to be going all the way to Munich – was incredibly long. Our reservations turned out to be in one of the front carriages so far away from the station concourse that I wondered if they could lay on a separate train to take us there. As we trekked along the infinite platform we passed the restaurant car approximately halfway along. The idea of walking that far back within the train was too daunting to contemplate so I mentally checked off the possibility of having another coffee.

It left late, dashing a stereotype about German trains, but luckily our next change in Osnabrück was also a bit late (two late trains in Germany in a row – though only by a few minutes). That one involved a bit more of a hike between platforms but then we were soon on our way into the Netherlands (obviously no passport check). It was here that I encountered my first rude railway employee in the whole 9 days of travelling. About 15 minutes after the border, I decided to get a coffee, and headed for the relevant carriage. It was closed. I asked the guy who seemed to be the guy, when it would open and he got all annoyed with this apparently ridiculous question. We’ll be pootling about on Dutch railways for the next few days so hopefully he’s just a one off.

Anyway, we made it to our friend’s house in suburban Rotterdam, tired, hungry and somewhat unwashed. But we’ll stop here for a few days now, on the day trip system.