A Mini Jaunt…Paris to Berlin.

Well that was almost a complete fuck up…the trip from Paris to Cologne was great.A few minutes late but I had 90 mins(+ injury time) to spare so wasn’t bothered.Went and had a smoke in the shadow of the cathedral then grabbed a sarnie.All good…luckily I checked the departure board and my train wasn’t on there but I gave it a few minutes just in case,after about ten minutes nothing appeared and I went to the information desk… 

First thing the fella did was a bit of tappy tappy on the keyboard then said “oh” which I didn’t need translating,he then did that thing we all dread and took control of my phone.Like most people I have nothing on there that I shouldn’t but anyone else thumbing through gives me the heebeegeebies.Anyway more tappy tappy,a consultation with a workmate and I was wondering where I could get a cheap hotel in Cologne and bin Berlin off all together…

Turns out my train doesn’t exist,whether this is the fault of Trainline or DB I don’t know.He said the next train is an hour later and asked if I still wanted it & if I did he’d print me off a ticket on a piece of A4…how quickly we go from Space age phone shit to relying on office stationary eh? 

So I’m on a later train anyway…mind you hasn’t actually arrived yet so…update;it’s at least half hour later.Luckily I know where the hotel in Berlin is and they’ve left me instructions on how to get access if I arrive after the reception has gone out clubbing.It’s all going terribly well…

At last I’m on my way,only two hours later! One Berlin train scheduled an hour later left  before ours and even a Flick train did too, a bloody flick train! I would say 85% of the trains leaving Cologne were late today.Christ know’s what’s happening to German trains but they’re mess…the actual trains are nice,far better than ours and the toilets work too but man alive they have major problems with punctuality which is the most un German thing ever…now I have to hope my hand printed ticket is  valid…thank god I’m allowed to smoke on the platform otherwise I’d be a nervous wreck…

I wasn’t planning on doing anything tonight except hang around the hotel cos’ I knew I’d be pooped but Deutscherbahn have made sure that any plans are stymied anyways.“thinking of going out having fun? Not on our watch sunshine “

Managed to get to the hotel & self check in at midnight.Not a bad journey despite the delays.Talking to a British couple who’s daughter is in the Berlin choir.We discussed world politics etc but of course mostly football and of course he told me he was beaten up in Wolves when we played Shrewsbury in 1979( I was there but didn’t beat anyone up) so a bit awkward.We laughed about it though…

Never did get my ticket checked…