Yesterday’s trip to Hamburg was an interesting experience, thanks to Kyrill.

My train was supposed to leave the Bonn station at 6:45 a.m. A train did leave the station at that time, but it wasn’t mine. Instead, it was a substitute train to bring Bonn passengers to Cologne, where the regular Koblenz-Hamburg train had its starting point as an exception because of conditions following Hurricane Kyrill. Upon boarding the train in Cologne, we were told that all seat reservations were canceled, since we were on a substitute train. For me it didn’t matter, because I got a good seat. But I did waste 1.50 € on my seat reservation. (You can get in line at the station to get a refund, but you wind up waiting so long that it costs you more than 1.50 € in time. Extra income for the deficit-plagued "Deutsche Bahn"!)

The first 90 minutes of our trip we skipped the Bochum and Essen stations since the route through those cities to Dormund was still closed. Instead, we were routed through Gelsenkirchen. From there we should have gone straight to Münster, but since that section of track was also closed we were routed through Hamm, a slight detour. About 200 yards from the Hamm station, our train came to a halt. We were informed that the detour line from Hamm to Münster was now blocked by a fallen tree. We sat there for about 30 minutes. Then the train was allowed to enter the Hamm station, so we made two stops in Hamm. There we waited another 30 minutes or so before we got the green light. After a six hour trip, I made it to Hamburg two hours late, but with enough time left to conduct our church service, even though we started late.

Since I was on an "Ersatz"-train, there was no dining car and nothing to eat. Boy, was I hungry by the time I got to Hamburg. For those who know German: Hamm, Hamm! 🙂