[20] Cologne (Koln)

[20]

We’ve had a strange week. It started in Lubeck and ended up in Berlin which sounds simple enough, but the tale of what happened between the two towns makes our heads spin. You know we went to Osnabruck where I lost my wallet. The next day - Wednesday - we made it to Mechelen to Ralph and Ria’s. A safe haven. We were there to pick up the new Inogen but it wasn’t to be delivered until Thursday (between 9 and 5) so we waited until nearly 4:00 pm (that’s (16:00 on the world clock) for the package. It came, REB plugged it in, it worked, we called a taxi and grabbed our bags in a race to the train station. If we could get to Brussels in time to catch the 17:28 (5:28) or even the 19:28 (7:28) train to Cologne, we’d be okay. I’d made hotel reservations for Thursday night in Cologne and Friday in Berlin.

At the Brussels-Zuid (or Midi - it’s the south station) we gave a quick check to the schedule boards and ran to platform 5B. Nobody but us. Then we saw across the tracks on 4B the sign for the Cologne train. Down the escalator and over to a special area for trains, up the special escalator and on the platform 4B. Just in time, the train was getting ready to board. We knew we had no reservations but we’d done that before with our Eurailpass and it had been all right. We looked for the 1^st class car and jumped on.

[Now "jumped" is a word I use to keep the story moving. When we get on or off a train, we have a system. I get on first and REB hands up the first bag. Our bags are not too large, but they are heavy. I pull the bag away from the door and he hands up the second bag. They he boards with the oxygen concentrator. When we get off, it’s the same procedure in reverse, with me staying on the train until the bags are on the platform. Doing it this way is the easiest for us, but it does hold up traffic in and out of the car for a moment. We used to worry about that but after you’ve been bowled over by a 75-year-old lady with a rolling suitcase, a carpet bag and leading a dog, you realize it’s every man for himself.]

We checked the cars in both directions and all the seats were full, so we somewhat settled in the passageway that connects the cars. There’s a luggage hold there and a few jump seats that fold down from the wall. Cologne was 2:17 hour ride but we’d make it. Then the conductor arrives for tickets, we show our Eurailpass which always gets a polite nod and big smile, but now he asks if we have reservations. "No," we say, "we don’t have reservations for Cologne." Now, he’s perplexed and calls his colleague. "We go to Amsterdam. We don’t go to Cologne. Not this car. You must get off in Antwerp and go back to Brussels before you go to Cologne."

"But, wait," I said, "the sign said Cologne, how can this be for Amsterdam?"

"You must get off in Antwerp and go back to Brussels before you go to Cologne." (Repetition is best with foreigners, they understand so much better if you tell them the same thing three times.)

Now he draws a diagram on the cover of our Eurailpass that shows to train cars coming splitting and going separate ways. Apparently, we got on the front half of the train that goes to Amsterdam while the back half went to Cologne. So now we sit for nearly an hour while the train speeds along in the opposite direction we want to go. In Antwerp, we jump off the train and down the beautiful escalator (can you imagine how we must look when there are only stairs?) to the platform showing the first train back to Brussels. But the first train is not always the fastest and we’ve chosen the Local which stops at each village in Belgium. The conductor and some of the people on this train figure out our plight, probably from my wailing ("We were on the wrong train! We’ll never make it now!"),they tell us that if we get off in Mechelen, we can catch the intercity train that is faster. It may give us the fifteen minutes we need to catch the last train to Cologne at 19:28 (7:28). So we switch, and three hours after we began, we are standing and the same track in Mechelen waiting for the train to Brussels. Humorous, yes? Not much laughing at this point. Arriving at the Brussels station we again jump from the train and make a mad dash to platform 4B only to have missed the train by five minutes.

One more shot, we try to make a reservation on the night train to Berlin (that’s our final destination, after all) but no go. You have to do that much earlier in the day. We can’t make a reservation for tomorrow because by this time it’s after 8:00 and the windows are closed. So REB says, "That’s it. I want a hotel with a big, soft bed and a pile of pillows. I want room service, an elevator and air conditioning, and I want WiFi available."

I go to the traveler’s help kiosk in the station where the man tells me, "Next time, you must come earlier so my colleague can make a reservation for you." Right, the next time I’m stuck in the Brussels train station, I’ll come earlier. REB doesn’t care. We go out the front door to the taxi line and tell the guy to take us to the nearest Marriott. Walking in the room, he says, "I"m never leaving this room. Come get me in two months."

We have a good dinner from room service, don’t get online because the connection wasn’t working but have a wonderful night’s sleep in cushiony comfort. REB’s new Inogen works great (if a little louder than the old one.) The next day, we rise, have breakfast and get to the train station where we make leisurely reservations on a train to Cologne. As you can see from the pictures, it was worth it to take our time. Had we arrived the night before, it would have been too late to go inside the cathedral. It was amazing to have this building right outside our room. We went for a long, slow walk inside and out. REB managed to wander inside twice more during his errands for water and such.

Our hotel was right in the train station (which was an entire city in itself) so the next day we simply got on the train to Berlin and four and a half hours later we were here. What did we learn?

Always, always ask if the train you are boarding is going where you want to go. It may get you a few funny faces, but it’s well worth the trouble.

We want to thank Ralph and Ria for all they’ve done for us and helping us through this latest crisis and also thanks to Christina of Inogen for her ability to move international mountains.

More from Berlin later, love to all,

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