Runaway suitcase

Europe » Germany » Lower Saxony
July 14th 2018

Published: July 14th 2018

Wed late afternoon I drove to Charlotte to stay in a hotel for the night. My flight was much cheaper (like in the $700 cheaper range) to fly out of CLT over RDU. The flight didn’t leave till 4 and I didn’t want to waste a vacation day driving so I headed to Charlotte to stay in a hotel for the night. The next morning, I got up early to start my work day and about 9 my boss sent out a request for a meeting (conference call for me meeting for everyone else) for 1pm. Hum, that was the time I was going to leave the hotel. Change of plans… I left for the airport around 11, finally found a long term parking place, checked in for my flights, grabbed a lunch to go and then tried to find a relatively quiet place near the gate for the call. Well, since I arrived so much earlier for my flight there was no gate yet. I asked someone where the Delta gate were. They sent me to concourse D. Nope, they are in A. I couldn’t have been any further away. I finally found a reasonable spot and got back to work. I went thru a bunch of emails and notes to prep for the meeting.

After the hour long call, I worked a bit more before boarding for the flight. I was upgraded to first class but I knew that a few days ago. I finished my book, had a nice glass of wine and was glad to be on my way. One of my travel bloggers had told me how to sometimes score a first class seat on the long flight (overseas) but I’ve never attempted it since recently I’ve had folks with me. I got all prepped and was ready to try it. (nope I can’t tell you the trick and he told me never to publish it). The plane landed at JFK and my goodness, we stayed on the tarmac for about 45 minutes before we could get to the gate. That left me no time to grab food before the flight. I got to the gate right as they were starting to board and as I walked up, I heard my name being called. I could only guess what it was for and yep, upgraded and nope, I didn’t get to try my trick. Seems they had a lot of standby passengers and they started bumping diamonds and platinum’s. I wasn’t complaining, nope not me. I took my glass of champagne and settled in. The dinner menu was nice and I choose the shrimp scampi with roasted red pepper soup. I decided to watch a movie before dinner which was a good choice since the plane had mechanical problems and was delayed for 1.5 hours before we took off. I finished the movie just after takeoff. Dinner arrived and I got a glass of a Spanish white wine and enjoyed the meal. I passed on the desert as I wanted to attempt to sleep. I love the lie flat seats in first class. Did I sleep – not really maybe 30-45 minutes but did I rest and was I comfortable yes. As I age, it seems to get harder and harder for me to sleep on a plane.

The plane arrived in Frankfurt late so I was glad I didn’t prepurchase the train tickets beforehand. I find the train from the airport to central station and discover as I try to buy the ticket at the kiosk, that the stupid American credit cards don’t work in the kiosks unless you have a pin. Yes, I had called all the credit card companies beforehand. Luckily, I had cash and I bought this first ticket. I then arrive in central station – avoid the kiosks, find a person to get the ticket from. Nope, I don’t see anything but kiosks and I was running out of time as the trains I wanted left every hour and I didn’t want to wait another hour so I went in search of an ATM and took out a few hundred euro. Back to the kiosk and attempted to buy the ticket but now, the kiosk didn’t like my money. What. I changed kiosks, then the ticket price went up. I was getting frustrated when a nice guy came over and helped. He punched a bunch of buttons and got to exactly the same place I was on the first kiosk luckily this one liked my money and I had a ticket. I handed the guy some of my change and said THANKS.

I headed off the the track. One train was there but it wasn’t mine. It left. Lots of folks were lining up but there was no ICE train. One pulls into the track beside but it’s not the one I want, the train information disappears from the information, I’m getting worried. Luckily there was a UK couple nearby and I asked them what was up, did I miss an announcement. They just said, “nope, the train is late, it will be here shortly”. Thanks!!! The train arrived about 10 minutes late, we all boarded and off we went. Oh my it was hot in the car, everyone was fanning themselves, we closed all the window shades to keep out the sun and it cooled a bit but it was still warm. That’s when some of the train workers came and started moving us. Seems the AC was out in my car and they had extra seats on the train. They put me in the next car down. It had some of the 6 people compartments and I got the 6^th seat in the first compartment. Unfortunately, there was no room for my suitcase. The attendant stored it in the hall by the bathroom and said it would be ok there. I closed my eyes and try to sleep. About 10 minutes later, the train stops suddenly, I opened my eyes to see a pink suitcase rolling down the hallway at a good clip. I jumped up, open the door and see the suitcase finally fall over, 1 second before it would have slammed into the attendant that put it by the bathroom. It would have knocked her over it was going so fast. So, we put suitcase back but this time lay it down so that it can take off on its own anymore. Sleep – nope – adrenaline – yep. I did close my eyes and rest for a bit but never slide back into sleep mode. I get off the train in Hanover to catch my train to Dorfmark. I finally find some food (a multigrain sandwich) at the station. I was getting hungry as all I had eaten for the day was a granola bar and an ice crème pop cycle on the last train. The local train arrives and I get on. Now sleep was really wanting to take over but I needed to make sure I didn’t sleep thru my stop. I did fall asleep for about 15 minutes but I did wake in time for my stop.

Oh so all along on this trip, I kept trying to use my phone. I had signed up for the Europe service and it worked great last year when I was here, this time, nope. It took forever to connect, text messages sometimes went, what’s app chats, never. I could log into internet at the airports and could send out the what’s app then but still I was having difficulties trying to get up with Susan and the gang already in Dorfmark. Finally the ice train had good internet and I connected up with them to let them know when I was getting in. Even if it hadn’t been able to connect, Dennis only lives 500 meters from the station and I had it mapped out so I could have gotten there.

Instead Dennis’s father and Susan met me and drove me to the house. I was good seeing everyone especially Dennis and Venessa. We hung at the house for a bit, then Susan and I walked to the park with the kids (Susan’s grand kids and Dennis’s niece) and watched them play. The niece kept talking to use in German, we didn’t know what she was saying – luckily a lady at the park did a translation or two. Ha.

Dinner was at the house and again it was great just seeing everyone and talking. I survived until 10 and then I decided to crash. It took me all of 5 minutes to fall asleep.

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