Unwetter

14. Unwetter das [stormy weather]: a traveler’s enemy, especially when using Deutsche Bahn; the weather that has hampered southern Germany for months now, despite being unwelcomed.

The weather here has been so disappointing for pretty much the past three or four months. Freiburg boasts of being the “sunniest city” in all of Germany. In theory, yes, Freiburg is. That’s why this region makes the most dangerously delicious wine, especially their white Rieslings. But this year, God must be very angry at something, because to have a completely sunny, hot day seems like a delicacy here. It seems like the days that I have a little more free time, the weather does not celebrate with me, but instead chooses to rain and be cold. I am still just as pasty white as I was in the winter and feel as if I blend into the plain, white walls in my student dorm.

Inside the model of the Hindenburg airship

Despite the dreary, United-Kingdom-like weather (the top reason why I would never choose to study in the UK), I decided to make myself happy by treating myself to a first class ticket to travel to Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance, which borders Germany and Switzerland last Saturday. Friedrichshafen claims to be a harbor town with a Mediterranean flair, but all I cared about was the fact that this town had the Zeppelin Airship Museum. My freshman year in college, I wrote an elaborate research paper on the Zeppelin Company, with a focus on how the Hindenburg disaster could have been prevented, had the company not flourished during the Nazi time period.  The paper was a success and I was honored to be selected to present my work at a Symposium. I have decided to integrate this topic into a senior thesis paper, so going to the town where the airships originated excited me greatly.

Models of airship designs

Anyway, I was estatic that I finally finished and survived my week of hell (finals week) and then also the first full week of my full-time internship at the city hall, so I bought that first-class ticket and enjoyed a relaxing, quiet, scenic trip to Friedrichshafen.  And please note that this was my trip absolutely alone. I would be traveling on my own, touring a city alone, and coming back alone, which made the trip all the more exciting. I finally arrived at the harbor part of Friedrichshafen around noon and grabbed a quick coffee and pretzel at a cheap bakery by the harbor and museum. I gave myself fifteen minutes to just relax and take in the beautiful Bodensee, before I started my tour of the museum.

I didn’t know what to expect with the Zeppelin Museum, but I think that staying there for five hours explains quite enough. Finally, I was united with my Zeppelin Airship Company. For hours and hours, I had closely studied newspaper articles, pictures, correspondence papers, and books on the company, and I just gobbled up as much information the museum provided.  With my camera, note book, and audio guide in check, I was ready to start my adventure. The first part of the museum was very visual. They recreated a life-size model of the LZ 129 Hindenburg airship, so you could get a feel for the huge size and what it was like to be a passenger. I climbed up the ladder to enter the airship and toured the bathroom, dining hall, reading room, and cabins. After reading so much about it, it was so cool to actually go inside the Hindenburg. The rest of the museum explained the technical process of creating the airship and gave airship history. I was there for over five hours, soaking up all of the information and I was like a little kid in a candy store at the museum’s gift shop. For the remainder of the afternoon, I wandered through the city and had the most delicious dinner at an Italian Restaurant right by the Bodensee. At 7:00 I headed to the train station, completely oblivious to what was to come…

It was an absolutely beautiful day in Friedrichshafen

About a half hour in, the adventure began. Who thought that getting home on a train was more of an adventure than touring a city for the first time alone!? I was the only person in first class, besides a man who worked for Deutsche Bahn. I had an amazing view of the Bodensee and absorbed the beautiful view of storm clouds ahead. It was an eerie navy  blue color with a green tint and there were frequent flashes of lightning. It looked magnificent off the reflection on the Bodensee. But then we got into the middle of the storm. The train slowed down as the tracks directly paralleled the Bodensee. The flashes of lightning doubled and the strong winds shook the train cars. Thuds and clinking of tree branches and leaves became nonstop against the windows and roofs. And then we came to a complete stop. Outside my window were the harsh waves crashing nearly against the tracks. The wind’s pace quickened along with the thunder and rain and debris from the trees pelted against the train car. The train just sat there helplessly relying on mother nature to get her anger out of her system. The conductor finally went on the loud speaker and said that because of the storm, the train could no longer continue going forward. I don’t know how fast or how slow the time went by, maybe an hour, but then the train backtracked to a small train station at Überling and everyone got out to get fresh air. The storm passed, but it was significantly cooler. The sweat from the ninety degree day dried on my skin and as time went by, I got colder and colder. The Deutsche Bahn man was nice and tried to help out, but no one knew what was going on. We assumed that the train would soon go on. People started to get worried and upset and out came the cell phones. Oh, how I wish I had my smart phone from the US!

There were about 70 passengers in the train. The Deutsche Bahn man said that the train will go back to Friedrichshafen empty and we were to wait for a bus. A man recognized my accent and spoke a broken English to me. I will call him “Bob,” because I never got his name and he plays an important role for the rest of my adventure. We quickly transferred back to speaking German, but Bob said that he was also going toward Basel and the Freiburg area. The Deutsche Bahn man offered for me to stay at his place, which was nice, but you never know, right? I then stuck around Bob and called a friend back in Freiburg to tell her what was up. I then called Carola, a friend of the family who I visited twice while being here to ask her for advice and she said to just find a group and constantly ask for updates from Deutsche Bahn workers and that’s exactly what I did. A train came later on, which everyone took. We had no idea really where and what to do after that, but it took us about a half an hour further west, which was good. I sat down next to Bob, which was a comfort, but still had the self-alerts on inside me. Once we reached Radolfzell, I then joined allegiances with a nice looking young man who was also going to Basel Bad. I will call him Charlie, just because.

The 70 of us passengers (about 25 being a middle school class) were then stuck at the outdoor station in Radolfzell, where ever that is and the time clicked by. The school group called the police to get involved, so they came and helped calm everyone down.

Stormy weather outside my window

It was amazing, however, that NOTHING was organized for us. No extra train or bus or boat or airship, whatever. That, I learned, is a major fault of the German Deutsche Bahn system. They have a structure and cannot break it up. This means disorganization and no help. I am so glad that my German is good now and that I befriended Bob and Charlie.

We then went inside another random train for another half hour to Singen. There we were once again stuck in the middle of no where. No trains went to Basel, although the majority of people needed to get there. I tried to find other Freiburg people, but no luck. My new plan was to just reach Basel and spend the night there and then leave Sunday afternoon for Freiburg. We waited and waited. And waited. And thought that maybe a bus was going to pick us up, so we all went to the bus stop, right next to the train station. After about a half hour, we gave up hope for a bus, although a number of empty buses and trains passed by us, almost mocking us. Stupid, stupid system…

I was still too cold and too tired to panic or be scared. Then we discovered a taxi service next to the bus stop. The school teachers called the taxis for their students, with the help of the Singen police. Slowly, the mass of middle school students decreased, along with the noise. Bob called a taxi for us and around 1am, we finally got into one. Charlie was in the front and I was in the back with Bob and another random woman who also needed to get to Basel. The woman offered for me to stay with her in Basel, which was so nice, but I denied. They were hard to sometimes understand with their various dialects, but I managed just fine. Along the way, another storm brewed and we at times had ice rain and lightning. It felt like the movie “The Day After Tomorrow.” We figured we would get to Basel around 2:30am, so my hotel plan had to be thrown out. The earliest train that went from Basel to Freiburg was at 5am, so my new plan was to just wait for that train. The taxi driver dropped us off at Basel Bad finally around 2:30am.

Charlie went to his parked car and drove home to Lörrach, leaving Bob and myself alone. I was still guarded, but my instincts told me I could trust him. We had to pee really, really bad and that was another adventure. Inside the Basel Bad train station, we discovered the bathrooms were closed from 12-4:30am. Signs led us to the tram station and discovered that they were out of order. Frantically, we crossed the street to McDonalds. Although they were closed, a man was inside and he tried to get us inside, but the door was stuck. Of course.  We walked (more like power walked) a few more blocks and found a ritzy hotel. The bathrooms by the front desk were of course also out of order, but the kind man at the desk led us to bathrooms on the 7^th floor. It was the longest trip to the seventh floor of my life.

After we, ahem, relieved ourselves, we walked back to the train station and sat inside and waited for two hours until our trains arrived. I paced in the huge Jugendstil room to stay awake, just until the big hand reached the 40 (4:40, that is). Then, I sluggishly trudged to Gleis 4 and saw two young Deutsche Bahn workers ouside the ICE train, smoking their last cigarette with their coffee-to-go in hand. I was actually thankful to look exhausted and probably dirty too, just to prove my exhausting day. I explained my situation, and begged them to let me take the ICE train back to Freiburg. With the ICE train, there would be no stops, meaning it would be a short trip home. Theoretically, my ticket expired, so if I just showed my ticket in the train, it wouldn’t be valid. But those two nice workers were understanding and nudged me into the nearest car door. Relieved and exhausted, I collapsed into the nearest seat and fought my droopy eyelids for about a half hour, until I reached Freiburg.

I never thought that I would get the know the Basel Bad train station that well. And notice the time...

Freiburg. Never had I been so happy to climb into my hard, bed-frame-less bed. It was already light outside, but I finally closed the blinds and my eyelids at 6am- only 8 hours longer than I thought.

So just to clarify. My train was supposed to arrive in Freiburg at 10pm on Saturday. I got home at 5:30am the next morning.

I think I will watch the movie from my childhood “Homeward Bound,” so I can sympathize with the poor animals.