Good Morning Readers! It is a balmy 17 degrees outside here (Fahrenheit) on a day on which I had planned to run some errands. I have decided instead to snuggle up with a cup of coffee and a laptop (both of which provide warmth) and spend a little time with you instead :) I’m not complaining, mind you. I actually get a HUGE kick out of the snow and the defined seasons around here. But I am a California girl by birth – so driving on potentially icy roads and navigating in these low temperatures are, I admit, a bit intimidating! PLUS – in California, weather was rarely (if ever) a good excuse for hunkering down and avoiding a To Do list outside of the house. I’m rather enjoying the new found excuse to be a homebody!
Another interesting discovery has hit my radar of late: Apparently, my husband has utterly fallen in love with public transportation. This is a completely new side of the man who could not be convinced to take an airport shuttle for the entire time that I have known him. Only time will tell if this is a personality aspect of German Hubz, or if it’s a quality that he will embody in perpetuity. I guess we will both just have to stay tuned for the answer to that one….
As a result of his new found passion, Hubz has been a great advocate of taking the train to our ultimate destinations as we make our adventures here. I am supportive, although less enthusiastic than he (I enjoy “regional shopping” and there are only so many purchases one can make with the idea of schlepping bags from station to train and from train through station to home….now that I think of it, this may be a major driver for his newfound passion…). At any rate, this desire to ride the rail has prompted us to purchase a discount pass for the German Rail System – and gives me an opportunity to tell you all about it!
DeutscheBahn is the country’s train system, which oversees regional trains as well as high speed trains that traverse through the country. So far, we have taken this train to the very southern end of the country to Garmisch (a ski area where Hubz had a work conference) and to Nuremberg (for a day trip to the Christmas Market) and most recently, to Cologne for our New Years Eve excursion (more on that later). The trains are comfortable and provide dining cars, large windows, bathrooms and even power connections for laptops and the like. By and large, we are very comfortable on them.
DeutscheBahn sells annual discount passes for train travel in three basic categories. Basically, each card allows you a perpetual discount of 25%, 50% or 100% off of your train ticket for a 12 month period. Hubz was very excited upon learning of this little tool when we arrived last summer. I, of course, was less enthusiastic. Would we really get our money’s worth? Would we even enjoy train travel? Would we be doing THAT much travel within Germany, when we have so many other neighboring countries to explore?
I assumed my role of “Killer of Hubz’s Dreams” and passed on the pass, as it were, suggesting that we hold off for awhile and investigate the situation a bit more. The cost is significant, so it was a good idea to make sure the passes would ultimately pay for themselves if we were going to buy them. However, following our trips to Garmisch and Nuremberg, we agreed that it was time to renew our research and move forward on the DB Card acquisition. Of course, this was an opportunity for me to grow as a person and gracefully endure the repeated accounting of how much money we would have saved on the previous trips had I seen the brilliance of the DB Pass plan months earlier. Ah, the glory of a lesson learned!
This is how I found myself running through a crowded train station one night, in frantic search of a photo booth. Not Kidding!! I jumped ahead a little bit for dramatic effect, so I’ll take you back a bit and fill in the middle part.
On the night we decided to get said DB passes, we met at the Hauptbahnhof (Haupt - "Main/High” bahnhof = "train station”). I came from home, armed with our passports, a VAT form and the credit card and met Hubz on his way home from work. After some triangulating via cell phone, we met at the DeutscheBahn office and took a number for service …which was 25 numbers behind the number currently being helped. We had done a little research online about the discount passes, using Google Translate to aide our plight (Sidebar: the DB website does have an English version – but since only German Residents can purchase the annual discount cards, the information page on this topic is excluded from the English website. DOH!). We had pretty much put together (meaning: guessed!) that the discount card we wanted to purchase was the 50% discount card – and we got the impression that a card for the spouse would be considerably cheaper when both cards are purchased in tandem.
The cards themselves are like ID cards, complete with photo. In some cases for cards like these, they will scan your passport and use that picture for your pass. As we took our number, I asked the young man at the information booth (who spoke excellent English) whether I needed a new photo for my pass, or if the passport would be sufficient (Hubz had photos at the ready). He assured me that the passport was fine (which is actually not a bad pic of me, so that made me happy). I’m sure that by now you know what direction this story will take.
We finally see our number come up, and we step up to the desk where an older woman is prepared to help us. From first appearance, she seems a bit surly and not at all happy to see us. But I have learned to reserve judgment….although in this case, no reservation was required! We greet her with a “Hallo” and she stared back. We asked her if she spoke English, and she stared back. We plopped down the brochure for the DBCard and our passports, which she took, and then she looked at me and said “Photo?” Ugh. I pointed to my passport photo and said: (with the international signal for question mark of raised eyebrows) “Dis Photo?” At which she (finally) smiled and triumphantly said “Nein”. Fabulous. Little Information Man had been WRONG. Too bad that 20 minute wait spent staring at a wall of German brochures hadn’t been put to better use in acquiring a photo.
So Hubz shoved me off in the direction of the door, and proceeded to get the ball rolling in getting our pass worked out. I sped out and once again encountered Little Information Man by the front door. “Where can I get the photos I need for my pass?” I asked him, hurriedly. “There is a booth by Track 16” he replied, smiling the warm smile of a person who has reached out and helped a troubled soul.
Now – I have read before that the definition of insanity is repeating a behavior in hopes of a different outcome. I understand this. I subscribe to this, in most cases. However, when you are in a foreign land, anyone who speaks the native language AND your native language naturally becomes a trusted resource of sorts. So, while in hindsight I can see that asking Little Info Man another question, after he had been so wrong just 30 minutes before, would seem a little foolhardy, I justify the action using the “English speaking equals trust” theory, with a “I was in a big dang hurry” chaser!
Of course, no photo booth was at track 16….or 15…or 14…or 13 for that matter. I DID find that little box next to track 12…after running for 10 minutes….through the crowd….in my winter coat and scarf. Resulting in the harried, rumpled and oily look one really craves when having their picture taken for a card they have to show people on a semi regular basis (see this post about getting my base ID, if you’re interested in the pattern I seem to be adapting here) .
The photo booth, by the by, has explicit instructions about what your ID photo must look like…..all in German. But – fear not – the instructions are conveyed via a 5 minute video presentation on the screen of the photo booth, before the “take my picture” button will activate. Of course, I didn’t realize that this was the case, until I had perched myself on the stool, tucked away errant wisps of hair, and practiced my smile for the camera. Had I known I’d have so much time to waste, I’d have saved the primping for the time spent watching the video (I’m a big fan of multi-tasking like that). Sooooo, I sit, primp, smile, hit the button, and then try not to scream in frustration at the time this video presentation is taking. (Images of my angry husband are running through my head. Thoughts of having to take a new number and start all over because I didn’t have pictures in time are making me cringe!). The videos instructs me NOT to smile, so I spend the last half of the preso practicing a non-smiling but pleasant expression for my picture.
FINALLY – the screen seems to indicate that it is photo op time! The screen brings up an outline of where my head should be positioned for my picture. Hmmm. I look down and see a button surrounded by arrow shaped buttons. Gotcha! Those must be camera positioning buttons. A little to the left and we’re golden! OR…….. as it turns out, the left button is actually a BACK button…..so we START THE PRESENTATION OVER AGAIN. Seriously? (counter to my new and hopeful logic, the right button does NOT frame the presentation forward any faster. I checked. I checked many times….with enthusiasm.)
Finally the encore presentation ended, and I was determined NOT to take any more time. I fixed my pleasant expression, hit the center button….and nothing… No flash. No change to the screen. Finally I noticed there was a little countdown happening at the bottom of the screen…..I noticed this at countdown number: “3”. When it clicked for me that it was counting down, we had reached countdown number: “1”. Needless to say, this is NOT a photo that I’ll be reaching for when asked to present photo ID in the future!
Long story short – I got the photos back to the DB office in time for our pass application process. Hubz had handled the arrangements beautifully. And as luck would have it, the surly counter lady had passed us off to a young and enthusiastic service person who spoke beautiful English. All was right with the world – and we are now equipped for a year of riding the rail and seeing the sites of our host nation. Even if I look like a bridge troll in my pass photo….sigh.
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