I knew something was wrong yesterday when I got to the main station in Hamburg for my train ride back to Bonn, normally a 4.5 hour trip.

The train was supposed to leave at 6:46 p.m., so when I got to the station about 45 minutes early after church services in Hamburg, I thought I might even have time for a good German beer before boarding the train. Then I saw all the people milling around in front of the station. Police cars were arriving one after another, sirens blaring, so I thought maybe there had been an accident in front of the station. When I made my way through the crowd with my luggage, a fellow near the entrance said, "You’re not going in there, friend. The station has been evacuated because of a bomb threat." After I had waited around for about 30 minutes with the displaced Pizza Hut staff, Chinese food vendors, other station shopkeepers and plenty of curious would-be travelers like myself, the police began cordoning off the whole area. So we were not allowed to wait in front of the station while it was being searched. 2 hours later the all clear was given and I was able to leave on my train. Since so many trains had been delayed, local tickets were valid on my express train for the trip to Bremen, the first stop after Hamburg on the way to Bonn. The train was packed with people standing in the aisles. I tried to talk the conductor into giving us free beer from the dining car as consolation for the delay and inconvenience, but being a female conductor she did not understand the importance of my request. I finally got to Bonn after 1 a.m. and made it to my apartment before 2 a.m. Funny thing is, Saturday morning I had heard that German police had sealed off the train station in Kiel (north of Hamburg) to make an arrest. After hearing that, I wondered whether my trip home in the evening would be disrupted by anything similar. Maybe I should stop wondering such things to avoid self-fulfilling prophecies in the future!