Just when we thought our travel problems were over, they got even worse.
Breakfast, a banana and half of an enormous pretzel each at the train station. Up at 5, arriving at the station before 6, all was well. The high speed train came on time and we were off to Brussels where we had three hours to catch our flight to Madrid, Spain.
20 minutes out of Frankfort this was our view out the train window. The problem was, it was our view for the next 2 1/2 hours. As the Germans might say, our train was kaput. Given travel time we would only have 30 minutes to get from the the train station in Brussels to the airport, check-in and board the plane. There was no way that was going to happen, and even if by a miracle it did, there was no way our luggage would make it. Bahn solved that problem by announcing the train, when it would finally get going, was only going as far as Köln (Cologne). We received an unexpected kindness when two fellow German passengers told us in English all that was happening and even got us the required documentation that would allow us to receive a refund on a portion of our ticket. They also told us to follow them and they were getting of at this station and catching the next train back to Frankfurt.
It looks fast and goes fast, when it goes.
Hooked up to the “tow train”. We waited about an hour for the next train back to Frankfurt, then went to the ticket office to get our refund processed. Finally we boarded an S-Bahn train for the two minute trip back to where the hotel we had stayed last night was located. Then it was a two minute walk from the S-Bahn station to the hotel. As we were checking in I noted it was a little over 6 hours since we had check out. We now have a flight out of Frankfurt to Toulouse that should allow us to be in Castelnaudry, France around noon tomorrow, just in time for our canal boat trip to begin in the afternoon. The way things are going, don’t be surprised if you read on these pages about something happening to our canal boat, lol. Could we be like Pig Pen in the Peanuts comic strip with a dark cloud over our heads? Surely not. I hope.
