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I was a little behind adding up the number of miles I've logged, but I was pleased to find that I have now just passed the distance around the equator (which is slightly less than 25,000 miles). I can only hope that my frequent flier miles will also reflect this accomplishment.
Yesterday turned out to be a little less dull than I expected...but the excitement was somewhat undesired. After dropping Mom off at the airport, I went back to our hotel to grab my bags and check that her flight had left on-time before leaving Amsterdam. I had planned on traveling to Hamburg, but I changed my plans to go to Frankfurt instead. After looking at all the travel time to and from Hamburg and my return flight in Luxembourg, I realized I wanted to take my last week of traveling a little easier. Also, I was looking for a break from being surrounded by tourists after Prague, and Frankfurt seemed like less of a tourist destination. Frankfurt is also much closer to Luxembourg.
I had until 11am, when Mom's flight left, and 1.30pm to kill some time in a very rainy Amsterdam before catching a 5-hour train to Frankfurt.
After boarding the train, I grabbed a spot in first class (which my rail ticket specifies) and settled in for what I thought would be an uneventful ride. Although first class was mostly empty, in the seats directly in front of me was a group of four guys who looked like they were in their early twenties and most likely American. The guys quickly spread their belongings across their train table, set up their laptops with iTunes movies quickly turned to play-mode, and had thrown down enough groceries that they appeared ready for a large buffet lunch momentarily. Overall though, they were well-behaved and I didn't mind sitting behind them.
About an hour passed before a train conductor arrived to check our tickets. The conductor glanced at my rail pass and passport, said welcome, and then moved on to the boys. I was just replacing my iPod earphones when I heard the train conductor say to the guys with a huge load of condescension, "this is a nice train, isn't it?" (The boys agreed wholeheartedly). Train conductor's response: "yeah, well, you're in first class and your tickets are for second class. You can't stay here. You have to move." I saw the guys' look around the nearly empty first class car and look up with an expression that said "really??...." But the conductor clearly showed she wasn't going to budge, and the guys gathered up their spread of stuff to head towards a car in the back.
About half an hour after the guys had been kicked out, I decided to switch sides of the train to get out of the sun that was pouring through my window. I was then sitting directly opposite of where the boys had been sitting. I continued to enjoy my tranquil ride with my "mellow favs" iPod playlist accompanying the now calmly passing German countryside until a group of three casually dressed passengers, two men and one woman, entered my train car. As they approached my seat, one of the men flashed an official badge and stated "Paßkontrolle." Assuming I was dealing with little more than German Immigration, I handed over my passport thinking this was no big deal. After the man asked me if I spoke German (in German), I responded that I only spoke English. He then asked me where my bags were. I pointed my dufflebag in the overhead rack across the aisle and a seat behind me. Of course, I hadn't moved my larger bag when I switched seats, and my bag was a bit awkwardly far from my new seat. His next response was, "well, what about these?," while indicating to a large suitcase directly above me and another one directly across from me. The boys apparently had decided to leave a couple of their larger bags behind after they got bumped to second class. As I tried to explain, "there was a group of men here that moved to second class...they went that way..." The only response I got from the three German undercover patrol agents was a collective look that clearly conveyed a message of "how could you be so ignorant as to be sitting next to two unidentified and unclaimed large suitcases?" I didn't have a good responsive facial expression to throw back beyond, "don't know? Didn't think it was a big deal?"...but I could feel a label of "SUSPICIOUS" growing on my forehead. Clearly, I should have remembered that the Netherlands' and Germany's drug policies are not exactly compatible and been more careful.
So then the plastic gloves were broken out, first by the badge-flashing undercover officer to search the boys' mystery bags, and second by the female officer (who interestingly was wearing a Maui Hawaii fleece) to search my bags. While I was feeling fully confident on my contents of my luggage, I started to realize that if one of the boys had decided to take some of Amsterdam's finest into Germany as a souvenir I could be looking at a very long afternoon. While the bags were being inspected, the hereto uninvolved but much larger undercover male officer assumed a stance in front of my aisle that could only have been interpreted as "you're not going anywhere for a moment." After a thorough search, the officers seemed satisfied, but took the two boys' bags and paged them at the next stop - they must have had their names included on their bags. The boys came rushing after the page to grab their luggage, and were scolded for leaving their bags unattended. I figured all was well, got back to the mellow iPod playlist, and felt confident that the rest of the trip would be a smooth ride.
Twenty minutes later my train car was boarded by a drug sniffing dog team. The German Shepherd went up and down the corridor, and the team stopped to pull aside and sniff out my bag - maybe the officers had been tipped off to "check out the girl with the matching pink and white duffle-bags." After the dog seemed more interested in some food mashed into the train's carpet than in my bag, I was given a very polite "Guten Tag, enjoy your visit," and the team moved on. The suspicious label had been cleared from my forehead.
The experience really wasn't scary, and I was actually very impressed at the thoroughness of the process. I can respect that Germany would like to prevent the Netherlands' more tolerant drug policies from leaking past the German border. The other interesting outcome of the experience was that I realized I now understand far more German than I thought. Granted, I can barely speak more than five words, but I was able to follow what was going on and respond to several German questions without thinking too hard. I wish I could have learned more while I was here, but at least it's a start.
I arrived in Frankfurt at 6.30pm, and checked into my hostel which was right next to the train station...and the red light district. After the hostel took 60 minutes to stand in line and check in, I paid for one evening and cancelled my reservation for the following two nights. The hostel's services did not offset its location.
I didn't spend much time touring Frankfurt last night, but instead took advantage of the hostel's wifi to finish some blogging and picture uploading. Frankfurt is more relaxed and peaceful than I expected from Germany's banking capital, and at first glance seems like a good place to take a break for a few nights. More on Frankfurt soon!
Franfurt:
Phew!
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