After spending the last 6 days in the Netherlands, I became accustomed to their rail system. Though not everything was labeled clearly, I still could figure out how to get around the country relatively easily. Then we hit Germany. Our scheduled trip was from Delft to Venlo, and then get a connection in Düsseldorf that would finally bring us to Nürnberg in a little less than eight hours later. Simple enough. I had all of the connecting trains written down, along with arrival and departure times; I’m more comfortable when I’m prepared and organized. Little did I know that on our train from Düsseldorf, most people were more prepared than I and already had reservations.
We had been sitting for maybe 30 seconds before we were asked to move from our initial seats. Let’s try again. Finding another set of seats that could house two 35+ pound day packs, 2 day packs, and two humans was a bit tricky, but we managed. Then we noticed a small black rectangle above each seat with two cities stated – the first being the scheduled arrival of the man or woman who reserved the seat and then their departing city. I then began the countdown of when we were getting kicked out. We were currently in Köln and had until Frankfurt until we got kicked with das boot*. We prepared by looking up how to say “I’m sorry” in German (“es tut mir leid”) and I did my best to not look nervous/anxious. Oh, I forgot to mention, our Eurail passes are for First Class, so we’re surrounded by fancy Germans wearing suits, cufflinks, and highly polished dress shoes while I sit in a ripped fleece, a dirty shirt, and muddy hiking shoes. I don’t fit in.
So long story short, we do indeed get kicked out of our seats one more time by a very nice businessman, but we also discovered the magic of unreserved seats. Remember those black rectangles I talked about earlier? As we walked further down the train, we stumbled upon two seats with blank rectangles. Unreserved seats! Wunderbar**!
*Kevin informed me that “boot” translates to “boat”, but you get it.
**Another great thing - they give out free chocolate bars in first class.
We had been sitting for maybe 30 seconds before we were asked to move from our initial seats. Let’s try again. Finding another set of seats that could house two 35+ pound day packs, 2 day packs, and two humans was a bit tricky, but we managed. Then we noticed a small black rectangle above each seat with two cities stated – the first being the scheduled arrival of the man or woman who reserved the seat and then their departing city. I then began the countdown of when we were getting kicked out. We were currently in Köln and had until Frankfurt until we got kicked with das boot*. We prepared by looking up how to say “I’m sorry” in German (“es tut mir leid”) and I did my best to not look nervous/anxious. Oh, I forgot to mention, our Eurail passes are for First Class, so we’re surrounded by fancy Germans wearing suits, cufflinks, and highly polished dress shoes while I sit in a ripped fleece, a dirty shirt, and muddy hiking shoes. I don’t fit in.
So long story short, we do indeed get kicked out of our seats one more time by a very nice businessman, but we also discovered the magic of unreserved seats. Remember those black rectangles I talked about earlier? As we walked further down the train, we stumbled upon two seats with blank rectangles. Unreserved seats! Wunderbar**!
*Kevin informed me that “boot” translates to “boat”, but you get it.
**Another great thing - they give out free chocolate bars in first class.
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