I set out Monday morning to Perros-Guirec, a village at the west coast of France, west from St-Malo. We have an important meeting with MySQL customer and I had to be there. Everything was carefully planned, I had my tickets and I knew when to leave.. on time..
Well, it didn’t go the way I expected..
So I set out at 05:30 to the train station of Aschaffenburg to Darmstadt. Train was at 06:06 and would arrive like 06:52 just in time to take the train to Paris at 07:02. I managed to stay awake, but when lots of people got on train I got distracted and a bit dreaming away. I heard the speaker say ‘Darmstadt’ and I get out. But something was wrong. This was not a big train station: this was ‘Darmstadt Nord’! As I turned around to get back in the train it closed its doors. ‘Damn! $%&^$%^’ It’s 06:46 and I kind of panicked.
I ran out the station to look for a taxi, none there. Asked around and got a telephone number from the wall. Great! Called; got me a taxi; told I had like 2 to 4 minutes to get to the main train station. Of course, we didn’t manage. 07:03 and my direct train to Paris just left. Damn!
Ok, first thing, getting yourself together; next second, find the information booth and ask for next train. Great, there was next one around 11:00 but I would be like midnight at destination. Damn! Ok, I went to the ticketing service and I said: ‘Get me to Paris, now, or any time you can rebook my tickets’.
And unbelievable: the guy got me a route out of the system which would lead me to the train I have to take in Paris Montparnasse to Guingamp. ‘It would cost you like 170 EUR more though’, he said, ‘OK! Just get me there!’. The route was: Darmstadt to Frankfurt, then ICE train to Brussels followed by a Thalys to Paris Nord. Holy Smoke! Perfect!
Trains are wonderful when it all works out, and it was all working out until in Frankfurt: “Our ICE to Brussels will leave 10 minutes later to meet some correspondence”. I stayed calm.
Getting in Aachen with the ICE to Brussels they got the 10 minute delay already solved. They can do that by driving a bit faster. Pretty cool! But in Aachen: “Due to works between Liege and Aachen we expect 10 minutes delay. Sorry for that.” Owkay. Time for a small panic and ask if we made it in time for the Thaleys to Paris. “Should be no problem,” the train manager says, “they waited for us yesterday, the week before, so.. we will let you know.”
Entering Brussels: the ICE managed to get the delay again down to 1 minute! Thaleys waited for us, and there I was: going to Paris, fetching my other train. The rest of the travel went pretty great and relaxed. I met with my colleague Jimmy at the trainstation of Guingamp and checked in perfectly in time in the hotel.
Dinner was ended with a big, giant icecream called ‘Pink Panther’.. it caused some laughter in the restaurant when it got served to me and some pictures were taken.
Ah, yes, we worked some hour on the meeting after dinner. Honest! Now to bed to visit the beach at Perros-Guirec in the morning (right).