People get ready, there's a train coming

Well, great. My very first day on public transport trying to get from our sleepy little commuter town to university in Tübingen and presto, the Deutsche Bahn is dishing up a spicy potpourri from it’s limitless repertoire of possible glitches. Now, of course you hear about such things all the time when talking to train-riding commuter friends here in Germany, but I happen to be half-British, which by default makes me a bit of an eternal optimist. Also, the fact that Germans love few things as much as an excuse (ANY excuse) for a bit of a moan has made me, let’s say, a little suspicious of the overbearingly negative view people seem to take of our train system.

(this little beauty NOT courtesy of Deutsche Bahn. www.fraenkische-schweiz.com is a steaming hot site, obviously)

Soooo… I got there early (a good start). Then, the ticket machine wasn’t having any of my money and kept telling me the note I was trying to use was not a quantity it accepted. Irritatingly, this message was accompanied by a flashing arrow pointing me towards a sign that said the machine would accept exactly the type of note I was holding. Anyway… I made it to a second machine, then up onto the platform with a minute or two to spare. I dare say I was surprised at the amount of people milling about there (we’re only a small town after all). This was explained when I finally realised that the subtle whispering noises emitting from a loudspeaker were in fact announcements to tell everyone that all trains this morning were expected to have about 20 minutes’ delay “or more”. Yay! Dig it! Fortunately, I had been wary enough to leave myself over an hour’s buffer time in the journey, meaning that I’m now on my connection train which, though also late, will deliver me to my destination with just enough time left for me to pedal frantically to uni on my 80-year old (yes, really!) pushbike. Woot! Standing around in the freezing cold earlier, I have to say thoughts of “grrr… take the car again tomorrow” did flit through my mind. However, these have been banished on the grounds of wanting to protect the environment and not spend a whole wad of cash on my selfish indulgence every morning. Rest assured that I will take any (ANY) excuse to make exceptions to my self-inflicted rule, though… Tübingen, here I come! Chugga, chugga, chugga…