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Man, I am done with the German rail system.
After closing up my apartment and (hopefully) collecting everything into my suitcase and backpack, I was able to catch a train from Köln West to Köln Central without problem. (Was it the proper one or some train that was 20-30 minutes late? I don't know, because it pulled up just as I got there, so I just hopped on.)
But then we stalled out for five minutes, just a few hundred meters short of Köln Central, and while there I got a notification from my German train app ("DB Navigator") telling me that my ICE 13 train to Frankfurt had been cancelled.
I headed straight to information when my train finally pulled into Köln Central, to ask what I should do, and the clerk was concerned for a bit, and then she said, no problem, there was a replacement train that would show up at the same platform at the same time. I was able to find it on DB Navigator: ICE 2913.
I was a bit less than an hour early, and I'd planned to spend that relaxing out in the platz, but now I needed to get up to the platform to make sure that everything looked OK. So I ended up instead sitting on the crowded, loud, chaotic platform. After a time, ICE 2923 showed up on the board, going to Frankfurt at the appropriate time, and then a 2913 too. It was said to be much shorter, with just a single second-class cabin, forcing me to walk the long, crowded length of the platform to get to the right place.
And then the scheduled time for the train came and went, and DB Navigator now showed it was running 20 minutes late.
Across the platform some sort of dirty red "Eurotrain" pulled up, blasting music, with people hanging out all the windows and singing at the top of their voices. I'd thought the platform was loud before!
About 20 or 25 minutes on, a train finally pulled up: ICE 13. Yep, running the original numbers and as far as I could tell the original size of the original train (and thus perhaps the original train). I was way far away from my reserved seats, so I just hopped on and got what I got, which turned out to be a comfy table, though I had to heft my luggage up above where it barely fit (my reserved seat had a luggage rack right next to it).
Oh, and the train was running a sign inside that said it was the final stop and everyone should get off. No one else seemed to be getting off.
So we sat there for an additional 10 minutes and finally the train headed off, in the correct direction, full of people. I figured this had to be the proper train to Frankfurt, but it was yet another installment in German-trains-are-awful, the series.
My train got me to Frankfurt Flughafen around 40 minutes late, after one more extended halt because there was "a train stalled on the tracks".
==
In other fun travel news, Delta still seems unable to check you in to your flights electronically if your first leg is with a partner airline (here, KLM). I had this problem last year, and I just can't understand why it's a problem in this world of heavily partnered flights.
Exactly like last year, Delta tells me to go check-in with KLM, and KLM says it doesn't know who I am. At least this time around it doesn't stress me out.
(Mostly.)
==
When I arrived in Frankfurt, it was easy enough to find the regional train system because I'd passed by it on my way to the long-haul trains last Friday (and remarkably I remembered it all correctly, but I guess things got groggier by the time I got out to Köln and later toward the evening).
I also knew what ticket to get (probably: German train tickets are full of obscure, non-defined terms for what they offer).
So, it just took a few minutes to get ready and then I was able to easily catch my train in to the Holiday Inn.
==
My plan was to just drop my bag at the Holiday Inn. But the clerk said, "Wait, let me check your room" and then "Oh, you're a such and such premium member". I had no idea what she was talking about, since I don't think I'm a Holiday Inn premium member, but maybe it has to do with my credit card or my Costco card or some miles I have somewhere, so I just nodded sagely.
And voila! They let me into my room almost 3 hours early.
Now growing up, I took Holiday Inn as a synonym for low-quality hotels. (Oddly, Kimberly says she doesn't have the same connection.) But my room here is quite nice and slightly larger than usual. It also has a great walk-in shower that's about 3 foot by 6 and laid out as a wet room. Wunderbar!
==
I just had a few hours in Frankfurt, which I hadn't really realized was the case when I laid out this trip. But with help from my friend F., I knew to go out to the Dom/Römer station.
This is the recently revived Old Town of Frankfurt which is quite beautiful, including a cathedral of its own, which I enjoyed for its gothic work and its beautiful coloring. (The whole Old Town was great though, but very touristy in a way that almost nothing in Cologne was.)
I also wandered back and forth across the Main on a few bridges, which was fun.
A quick visit to Frankfurt, but better than just seeing the airport, as on my last few visits.
==
I met F. at a cafe a mile and a half or so from Dom/Römer.
He's an old friend, from RuneQuest days, who nowadays is running the Kraken gaming convention out here. Besides working together (most recently with my submission of a few histories for his Kraken chapbook series, coming soon), we've also met a few times previously, once at Chaosium, once at Convulsion 3-D, which means not in almost 30 years(!!).
Anyway, we had a nice talk for a while out in what's apparently one of the nicer parts of Frankfurt.
(Overall, seemed a nice city, very different from Cologne.)
And then he drove(!) me back to a metro station so I could catch a train back to my airport hotel.
I had no idea that people in Europe had cars!
==
Tomorrow is the travel day, at the end of which I will be home.
Hopefully.
(There's a lot of room for error in a trip that long, with three legs, and I have come to feel that public transit is not super reliable this last week on German trains.)
Fingers crossed.
After closing up my apartment and (hopefully) collecting everything into my suitcase and backpack, I was able to catch a train from Köln West to Köln Central without problem. (Was it the proper one or some train that was 20-30 minutes late? I don't know, because it pulled up just as I got there, so I just hopped on.)
But then we stalled out for five minutes, just a few hundred meters short of Köln Central, and while there I got a notification from my German train app ("DB Navigator") telling me that my ICE 13 train to Frankfurt had been cancelled.
I headed straight to information when my train finally pulled into Köln Central, to ask what I should do, and the clerk was concerned for a bit, and then she said, no problem, there was a replacement train that would show up at the same platform at the same time. I was able to find it on DB Navigator: ICE 2913.
I was a bit less than an hour early, and I'd planned to spend that relaxing out in the platz, but now I needed to get up to the platform to make sure that everything looked OK. So I ended up instead sitting on the crowded, loud, chaotic platform. After a time, ICE 2923 showed up on the board, going to Frankfurt at the appropriate time, and then a 2913 too. It was said to be much shorter, with just a single second-class cabin, forcing me to walk the long, crowded length of the platform to get to the right place.
And then the scheduled time for the train came and went, and DB Navigator now showed it was running 20 minutes late.
Across the platform some sort of dirty red "Eurotrain" pulled up, blasting music, with people hanging out all the windows and singing at the top of their voices. I'd thought the platform was loud before!
About 20 or 25 minutes on, a train finally pulled up: ICE 13. Yep, running the original numbers and as far as I could tell the original size of the original train (and thus perhaps the original train). I was way far away from my reserved seats, so I just hopped on and got what I got, which turned out to be a comfy table, though I had to heft my luggage up above where it barely fit (my reserved seat had a luggage rack right next to it).
Oh, and the train was running a sign inside that said it was the final stop and everyone should get off. No one else seemed to be getting off.
So we sat there for an additional 10 minutes and finally the train headed off, in the correct direction, full of people. I figured this had to be the proper train to Frankfurt, but it was yet another installment in German-trains-are-awful, the series.
My train got me to Frankfurt Flughafen around 40 minutes late, after one more extended halt because there was "a train stalled on the tracks".
==
In other fun travel news, Delta still seems unable to check you in to your flights electronically if your first leg is with a partner airline (here, KLM). I had this problem last year, and I just can't understand why it's a problem in this world of heavily partnered flights.
Exactly like last year, Delta tells me to go check-in with KLM, and KLM says it doesn't know who I am. At least this time around it doesn't stress me out.
(Mostly.)
==
When I arrived in Frankfurt, it was easy enough to find the regional train system because I'd passed by it on my way to the long-haul trains last Friday (and remarkably I remembered it all correctly, but I guess things got groggier by the time I got out to Köln and later toward the evening).
I also knew what ticket to get (probably: German train tickets are full of obscure, non-defined terms for what they offer).
So, it just took a few minutes to get ready and then I was able to easily catch my train in to the Holiday Inn.
==
My plan was to just drop my bag at the Holiday Inn. But the clerk said, "Wait, let me check your room" and then "Oh, you're a such and such premium member". I had no idea what she was talking about, since I don't think I'm a Holiday Inn premium member, but maybe it has to do with my credit card or my Costco card or some miles I have somewhere, so I just nodded sagely.
And voila! They let me into my room almost 3 hours early.
Now growing up, I took Holiday Inn as a synonym for low-quality hotels. (Oddly, Kimberly says she doesn't have the same connection.) But my room here is quite nice and slightly larger than usual. It also has a great walk-in shower that's about 3 foot by 6 and laid out as a wet room. Wunderbar!
==
I just had a few hours in Frankfurt, which I hadn't really realized was the case when I laid out this trip. But with help from my friend F., I knew to go out to the Dom/Römer station.
This is the recently revived Old Town of Frankfurt which is quite beautiful, including a cathedral of its own, which I enjoyed for its gothic work and its beautiful coloring. (The whole Old Town was great though, but very touristy in a way that almost nothing in Cologne was.)
I also wandered back and forth across the Main on a few bridges, which was fun.
A quick visit to Frankfurt, but better than just seeing the airport, as on my last few visits.
==
I met F. at a cafe a mile and a half or so from Dom/Römer.
He's an old friend, from RuneQuest days, who nowadays is running the Kraken gaming convention out here. Besides working together (most recently with my submission of a few histories for his Kraken chapbook series, coming soon), we've also met a few times previously, once at Chaosium, once at Convulsion 3-D, which means not in almost 30 years(!!).
Anyway, we had a nice talk for a while out in what's apparently one of the nicer parts of Frankfurt.
(Overall, seemed a nice city, very different from Cologne.)
And then he drove(!) me back to a metro station so I could catch a train back to my airport hotel.
I had no idea that people in Europe had cars!
==
Tomorrow is the travel day, at the end of which I will be home.
Hopefully.
(There's a lot of room for error in a trip that long, with three legs, and I have come to feel that public transit is not super reliable this last week on German trains.)
Fingers crossed.