Can DB Make Us Cry?

 Tickets were booked from Augsburg Germany to Basel Switzerland. The travel time seemed pretty reasonable. It hadn't snowed for days. Surely a 16.26 arrival for an expected check in of 18.00 would be more than adequate.

Cue Hollow Lafter.

Our first train was jolly late, so late we got the message we could now use any conection to reach our destination. But I'd paid extra to book seats on both legs as demand was high. WOULD we make the connection?

No...our train was late.

Yes...the connection was also late.

I confess I was worried when we arrived in Mannheim quite late even though the connection was also late. Imagine our surprise when it pulled in to the other side of the platform before we'd even got off our service! We raced to change trains and fought our way through the press of bodies only to have to request someone to please move as despite the sign not being on we had booked the seats they were in. Not being too confident with my German I even had our tickets out that showed the car and seat numbers.

After our bags were stashed and I was connected to the on train wifi, breathing had returned to normal and I'd spread out our picnic on the table between our window seats I started to pay attention to our surrounds including where the bar was, the loos, and the information sign our our service and the ETA to various stops.

View from the train - grape vine terraces.

As I soon discovered, in fact, we were not on our booked train. We were another train to the same destination (a later service than our late running one that was less late). On this occassion I decided discretion actually WAS a good thing and didn't tell anyone, especially the people we'd booted. 

Suddenly there was no more snow! 

The adventure wasn't over yet. Much like Queensland only allowing the XPT in at certain times Switzerland is very strict with Germany about when they're allowed in. On this case they were not going to let us go all the way and one more change was in store. Still our destination was reached only about 2 hours late and we did get there while wine was still being offered and before dinner was finished.