The joys of traveling in Europe in the summer: beware!

[DFW]

Corona is still around, but people are acting as if it were not.

Exhibit 1:
Last Saturday, I was finishing up in Barcelona, and returning to my home in Düsseldorf. Only--the 7:45PM flight, which runs Monday to Friday, does not fly on weekends. So, I booked a 6PM flight to Frankfurt, with a connection by train to Düsseldorf, usually an hour and 25 minutes, and the train leaves from right beneath the airport. We got to Frankfurt a little late, but still with over an hour to get my luggage and train. At baggage claim, my suitcase was not there. I asked where Lufthansa baggage service was. I was given four different answers, none of which were correct. Finally, an Indian flight attendant in an LH uniform offered to help me, and finally, at the check-in counter, I got a suggestion to ask the LH office in the train station part of the airport. I went there, and there was my bag from Barcelona. Ah, OK. Oops, not OK. The train to Düsseldorf had been canceled, and the ones after it were delayed by an hour or more. After vegetating in the Frankfurt airport for more time than it took me to get there from Spain, a train to Düsseldorf FINALLY showed up. I got to Düsseldorf at 11:15PM. The last train to my town was gone, so I treated myself to a taxi for €40. Home just before midnight.

Exhibit 2:
On Wednesday, I was in Brussels, and deluged with work. I was hoping to get the 4:22 train back to Germany, but just couldn't get everything done in time. So, that left the 6:25 PM train as last chance gulch. It arrived 40 minutes late from Germany, and so left 40 minutes late as well. At the German border (Aachen), came an announcement that thieves had cutz and stolen huge pieces of the copper electrical cables that power the trains up to Köln. Therefore, the train had to make a huge detour via the small town of Rheydt, and then over to Köln. This was a huge detour for me, as Rheydt was already halfway to Düsseldorf on another local route. So I got off at Rheydt to see about a a direct train to Düsseldorf. Sure. it would come--someday. No one knew where it was or when it would get there. In resignation, I wandered back to the wayward train from Brussels, but it had finally been given the go-ahead to continue about 30 seconds before I got back to it. So, here I am, stuck in Rheydt at 9 PM, a time when I should already have been home. The place looked pretty deserted, but there was ONE taxi there. I asked him if he was willing to take a fare to Düsseldorf. He said sure, if I was willing to handle the fare (about $110). I was still on company time, so to speak, so I said sure, çok iyi (very good--he was Turkish) ! Again, I got home at around 11:15 PM, about three hours later than usual. I had to get up at 5:00 the next morning to be at my office near Utrecht the next morning.

Exhibit 3:
The next morning, I was up at 5, so I could drive to the Düsseldorf Airport train station, which had a direct (if frequently stopping) train to Arnhem in the Netherlands. From there, it was a quick 40 minute train on to Utrecht. Only--Thursday was a holiday in our part of Germany, so half of Germany was underway to Holland for shopping. It was standing room only all the way, and I had three pieces of luggage with me. It was still 40 minutes, but they didn't seem to go by so quickly this time, standing up in an un-air conditioned sardine can, listening mostly to German tourists complaining in German about the crowding, and Dutch locals complaining in Dutch about the Germans causing the crowding.

Oh, and some of you are thinking of coming over here for the summer? You might want to switch to Lake Champlain instead! In ten days, we are heading for the outer tip of Cape Cod, MA. We checked, and they are going to charge $90 a pound for lobster meat this year (!!!). Fortunately, we have made, just in time, the exciting discovery that there are different things to eat in Cape Cod BESIDES lobster!

[mgardener]

1. Crossing Lake Champlain on the ferry now

It is beautiful here!

Come Visit!

This is where I live.

[dem4decades]

2. Love Champlain, great fishing and views. North Hero ferry?

[DFW]

9. I was there MANY years ago with my parents.

Howard keeps telling me how nice it is, even today. He has visited me here in Düsseldorf, so I guess I'm a bit overdue to return the favor.

[paleotn]

17. That it is. Any time of year.

I'm typing this a bit south of you. The lake is a 5 minute drive. South of Mt. Independence and Ti.

[IronLionZion]

19. Looks amazing, and driving distance from DC

I might come up there and check it out. I've never been to Vermont

[Tomconroy]

3. A lobster roll is running 35-40. A luxury, but worth it.

Enjoy Provincetown and environs. It's great!

Supposedly all sorts of flights are being cancelled over here.

[DFW]

10. I just hope I can get to Boston in ten days.

If I can't get a flight to DC in late July, I'll take a train if I have to. After that, I'll just have to see what's available. This year, I have only 3 domestic flights in the summer, so maybe I'll get lucky.

[Tomconroy]

34. The cape is a long drive from DC but it could be done in a day.

My travel agent tells me rental cars are in short supply though.

[DFW]

41. We heard the same thing about rental cars

It was touch and go last year, and we reserved ours this year far in advance.

[3Hotdogs]

4. I don't remember.... Are Germany, Spain and Holland

on Trump's list of shit-hole countries? From your description, they should be added if they are not already there.


















Yes, Mary, it's sarcasm.

[DFW]

11. I'm sure they are

Right behind Massachusetts and California!

[CurtEastPoint]

5. But I would live there in a heartbeat. France. My love.

[DFW]

13. Better get yourself a house "avec la clim."

It's 37° (just scratching 100°F) here today in northwestern Germany, so down in France, it's probably hotter. Houses with air conditioning (climatisation) are rare in this part of Europe, so if you move here, be prepared. The summers here have been getting hotter by the year.

[CurtEastPoint]

16. Yep. I have friends in Paris right now and they are kvetching.

[DFW]

21. I'm there once a week for work. I know all too well.

Since I'll be gone for a while, I have to be there for two days next week.

After that--Adieu, Paris, jusquà la fin août.

[GoneOffShore]

51. It was 38 here in Aix yesterday - No humidity though. 25 at 8AM today.

We don't have 'clim', but two ceiling fans, and some floor fans. Hoping it breaks a bit today.

MeteoFrance and MeteoBlue are predicting a high of 34° - still hot, so the cat still gets her own icepack under the table and cubes in her water.

[DFW]

52. I haven't been to Aix-en-P in over 40 years

But even then, it could get pretty hot in the summer. At least, now is the season of the best apricots. Some friends of the family I stayed with on my first visit (1968) owned an apricot orchard, and we used to pick them ripe off the trees and eat them right there. That alone was worth the trip.

[GoneOffShore]

53. The apricots haven't been bad, but the cherries have been wonderful.

And Aix has changed a lot. Especially the surrounding area.

[DFW]

54. I'm sure it has.

There are many places I visited last when I was 40-50 years younger. I would like to see many of them again, but I still work for a living, and there isn't a thirteenth month out of the year in which to do it.

[Alice Kramden]

6. Brutal schedule!

Hope your vacation is relaxing

[DFW]

15. That makes two of us!!

Family have signaled their "intention" to pay us a visit while we are there, and aside from my brother, who is the best houseguest in the world, all are somewhat mid-to-high maintenance.

[Alice Kramden]

32. Politely suggest a nearby hotel

After all, it's YOUR vacation

[DFW]

33. That has met with varying degress of success

My brother, as I said, is always welcome. Our daughter, who lives in NYC, can only stay a week, anyway. Our other daughter, who is coming with her S.O., their two daughters and his three sons, have rented a place of their own. My sister and her husband complicate matters since the house we have this year has one less bedroom than the one we had for the last few years. They are also the most financially challenged of the clan, so I don't want to give them the impression they are a burden.

If we didn't love the Cape so much, I think we'd secretly go back to the Seychelles and not tell anyone we were there!

[lanlady]

7. things are seriously wrong with the world

when German trains don't run on time. I lived in Munich many years ago. Getting around by the U- and S-bahn was a dream, and the longer-haul trains were a pleasure. Always on time, always clean and safe.

I do hope the rest of your summer is less stressful!

[DFW]

8. German trains haven't run on time for many years now.

Forget it. No matter what the schedule says, if they are running at all, they'll be late.

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. Forget lobster. Try the hot dogs -or anything- at the great snack shack at Herring

Cove, Provincelands beaches, National seashore.

Enjoy your annual U.S. visit!

-FTC

(P. S. Please don't tell anyone else, though, the concession stand can get a bit crowded!)

[DFW]

18. They will get no competition from me.

Although I sometimes cheat on my prescribed diet, I do not do red meat at all. We rarely go out to Herring Cove, anyway. Usually the Bay side north of Pamet, or else Long Nook, which is one of the most beautiful beaches in North America (PS--please keep that to yourself, too. No one else knows).

It's too bad that homicide is a criminal offense in Massachusetts, because there is always one idiot a day at Long Nook Beach who:

1). smokes on the beach
2.) brings a ghetto blaster and plays it at high volume
3.) runs down the face of the dune instead of the side paths, thus accelerating erosion of the dune as well as endangering their life, or, worse, that of their small children that they encourage to do it, even though there are big signs there explaining that it is forbidden, and why.

[unc70]

14. Stealing the copper cable over the tracks

That seems surprising in Germany.

Just spent a couple of weeks in Europe. Nowhere near your frantic pace. But we did experience more travel issues than in the past, made worse by all of us being older. (I was the only one who could still wrangle suitcases onto a train.)

I am used to the vagaries of travel: a strike here; a cancellation there; a missing rental car. There seemed to be more of that this year most everywhere, from a strike including the vaporetti in Venice to canceled flights and trains. With lots of places understaffed, there is just not much slack in the system.

[DFW]

26. It has been going on here for years.

It is not something you can just pick from someone's pocket. To make it worthwhile, tons must be stolen at a time, so organized crime is always involved. Bribes to security and threats of serious harm to the families of the inspectors scheduled to be at the location have to be arranged in advance. But the price of copper started skyrocketing a few years ago, and it is apparently quite worth the effort if the organization is in place.

About ten years ago already, I was on my way to Brussels, and we were off-loaded from the train from Germany to Brussels because thieves had stolen the copper cable from the train route from Aachen to Liège in Belgium. That time, they organized busses.

[SharonClark]

20. Why all the country hopping? Can't you work from home?

[DFW]

23. No, I cannot work from my home!

Certain things can not be done remotely, and my job is most definitely one of them.

I have had this job, with increasing degrees of rank and responsibility, but same field, and same outfit, for 47 years. I know what can be done from afar, and that is just about nothing, outside of the paperwork.

[BlueMTexpat]

22. I am bound for Berlin

later this month to meet some friends from the US for a bike and barge tour together.

The only trains we'll be taking are those between Berlin and the airport and within Berlin. Hopefully things will work well.

Have a blast in Cape Cod, lobster or not!

The good news for travel to the US from Europe is that the CDC has now scrapped the negative Covid test within 24 hours requirement. Hallelujah!

[DFW]

27. We saw that about the CDC

We were VERY relieved! The lines for such a test in the summer were bound to be long, and in the current heat, not pleasant.

The area around Berlin is as tranquil as Berlin is not, some nice countryside. Bring bug spray!

I have never flown into the new BER. Let me know how it is!

[BlueMTexpat]

40. I've only been to Berlin once

before (2002) and that was before the new airport was opened, so I flew into historic Tempelhof!

I'll let you know! And yes, I am bringing bug spray!

[DFW]

42. Templehof!! Those WERE the days!

When the "true existing socialism" faded, the railways of east and west were consolidated. New tracks were laid between the old death strip and the Polish border. The 7 hour trip from here (Rhein/Ruhr area) to Berlin became 4, and it became worthwhile to take the train and ditch flying into Tegel, which is in the far northwest of the city. Berlin Hbf. is a 2 minute commuter train ride from Potsdamer Platz, where we usually stay. The trains there leave every 15 or 20 minutes from the underground tracks, so we haven't flown in or out of Berlin in 20 years or more.

[paleotn]

24. The joys of travel, even in countries with good infrastructure....

The Dutch complaining about their "Summer complains" from Germany. Sounds like us and ours from MA, NJ and CT. People are people the world over.

[DFW]

28. The Germans invade Holland every summer, especially for the North Sea Beaches.

A friend of mine from Noordwijk aan Zee gets very frustrated when he goes grocery shopping in the summer, because the cashiers always automatically address him in German. He reminds them, Nee, spreek nederlands, ik ben van hier (No, speak Dutch, I'm from here)! But they are so programmed to expect everyone to be a German tourist that they just don't hear his Dutch, and still speak to him in German.

[malthaussen]

25. Sometimes it seems your life is one long re-run of "The Out of Towners." n/t

[DFW]

29. You wouldn't be far off the mark with that comment!

I probably should have taken the film as an omen...........

[malthaussen]

30. Not much chance of having your flight home hijacked to Cuba...

... or maybe I shouldn't temp Fate for you that way!

-- Mal

[DFW]

31. With my luck, probably Albania.

Or Somalia or some such place.

Besides, the last time I was in Cuba, it was at the invitation of their government. In was in January 1982, and the trip back was on Cubana airlines on an old Soviet Ilyushin 62, which was already a poor copy of the old British VC-10. That was a similar trip, let me tell you!! After the second attempt to fly to Montréal ended with the plane returning to Martí, I asked how long it would take to fix the plane THIS time? The Cubana people told me we were lucky to make it back alive, and that they would let us know when another plane could be found. It took another 8 hours, and we finally got to Montréal at 4 AM instead of the scheduled 6 PM the day before.

[tavernier]

35. Wellfleet oysters and clams are the best in the world

https://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/the-wellfleet-oyster-a-brief-history-of-the-precious-mollusk/

[NNadir]

36. When my kids were small I had a job traveling, all over the US and parts of Europe, 70% of the time.

I thought when I took the job - I was a lab rat up until that time - the travel would be romantic and fun.

In short, I was clueless.

I also worked for a French company, and when my French colleagues came to the US - they could never come for more than a week, although they expected me to spend weeks in France - they always assumed that the United States was the size of France.

Try going to LA from NJ in the morning, ending up in Denver in the Evening after having a meeting in Chicago in winter, with sprints across terminals at O'Hare.

It sucked.

The traveling life is very hard; I was often surprised when things didn't go the way you describe. I once got home at 4 in the morning, went home, took a shower, and picked a colleague up at his hotel to go to a 9:00 meeting in hurricane meeting. (The person I was due to meet didn't show up at work, but my colleague insisted we go.)

I once spent five hours in the Detroit airport on the day before Thanksgiving waiting for Northwest to change a lightbulb on a wing. It wasn't clear at any point that they were ever going to change the lightbulb, and I made calls to my wife telling her my attendance at Thanksgiving Dinner was a long shot.

I was young then. Even young, it sucked. I'm too old for that kind of stuff now.

[wryter2000]

37. I can't speak for the rest of it, but

The employees at the Frankfurt airport are rude.

[Lonestarblue]

38. The best lobster roll I've had is at the Friendly Fisherman in Eastham.

And fried clams at Moby Dick’s. Yum! What’s your favorite place for lobster rolls?

[BMW2020RT]

39. I am sorry to hear about your transportation delays.

I am traveling by automobile or motorcycle this summer, avoiding popular holidays. Since I am semi-retired from commercial aviation I have a flexible timetable with which to work that bit of magic.😎

The last time we were in Europe we had a train delay for stolen copper too. We were traveling to the sea from Brussels. One of our fellow passengers told us about the theft. We changed trains on Ghent, I think, to avoid a circuitous routing through Spain.😆 The passengers in our car didn't seem greatly annoyed. I think many of them were on holiday including a party of German women happily sipping champagne.🥳

[DFW]

43. You must have met a "Kegelklub."

"Kegelklubs" are literally and theoretically "bowling clubs" of middle aged German women that take short vacations for (fill in the purpose). They are made up of "bowling" enthusiasts that shre this as a common interest. They are easily identified by their number (usually betweem five and ten), age (45-60 is typical) and volume, as they often travel by train and consume lots of alcohol along the way. Usually jovial, always very loud. Whatever happens on those trips stays there. The penalty for exposing behavior that might not please one of the husbands is worse than the penalty for outing a CIA agent.

The first time I/we encountered one, I had no clue what was going on, but my wife, who is German, filled me in. After she explained to me what was going on, I recognized them easily going forward.

[OnDoutside]

44. Thanks, you've reminded me why I'm so lucky to now work from home !!!

Sorry you had to go through that, it really sounds horrible and would take its toll if you had to do that every week for months.

We're taking our first family holiday for 3 years on Tuesday when we are flying to Alicante. We're flying Ryanair and are so far, lucky to be dodging the scheduled industrial action. Two weeks in West Cork would almost be preferable at this stage !

[DFW]

45. Every week for months?

I've been doing this every week for decades!

It's just usually not this bad this often.

Although it's less than a 2 hours flight from here, we've never been to Ireland. One of these days!

[OnDoutside]

46. I don't know how you could do that ! I did it for 10 years and I was

completely burnt out from it. I left contracting in 2019 and haven't looked back.

If you do visit Ireland, please ask me and I can give you advice. Actually you can fly from Frankfurt Hahn to Kerry, which is a very easy flight.

[DFW]

47. I could do it for several reasons

First, I was just not cut out to sit behind a desk from 9 to 5 every day. It's just not in my DNA.

Second, though not without its little dangers and perils, I like the people and places I visit, and I speak the languages of ALL the countries I work in (plus a few others, obviously). This means I don't just go see Herr this or Monsieur that, or Señor whatever. I spend most of my time with friends. I don't even know what contracting would be like, but I'm sure it's nothing like what I do.

Third, it keeps me on my toes. Awareness is everything, and knowledge is power, as they say. I never stop learning, even now after 47 years after recruitment. The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know. If there's one thing I've learned after nearly 50 years on this job, it's that. A Jewish friend in Belgium learned Aramaïc just so he could read the Torah. When he nearly through it, I asked him what he would do next. He said he would go back to the beginning, and read it through again. I asked what in the world for? He said, "to catch all the things I missed the first time through." Friends like that humble me, but they are always stimulating.

Hahn is out in the middle of nowhere from here. I live a 16 minute drive from the Düsseldorf airport, and only on rare occasions do I begin or end an airplane trip from another airport. But there are enough flights from here to Ireland if that ever becomes imminent. We'll let you know. Maybe we'll go to County Cork to make a pilgrimmage to the birthplace of Pizza Patrick.

[OnDoutside]

50. Speaking the language makes such a difference without a doubt.

My son is studying German in his secondary school and I hope he becomes fluent eventually. He also will be doing Economics, Accounting and Applied Mathematics so hopefully that will best him for a business career.

Contracting can be a seat of the pants occupation, at the whim of the economic cycle. I'm much happier to have left that behind, although I wouldn't mind going back to it before I retire.

You are so right in continuing to learn, but it does help to love what you do. My wife will be leaving her job in an American pharma company at the end of the year, after 33 years, and can't wait to go. It's poisonous, with all the politics, headcount reductions and constant pressure.

Hard to argue with a 16 minute drive ! There used to be Cork Dusseldorf flights many years ago, Dublin is the only connection to Dusseldorf now...not that I'd recommend going to Dublin anyway, but then I'm from Cork Please do let me know if you come to Cork.

[highplainsdem]

48. Sorry to hear about all the travel woes. And the price of lobster --

wow. Since that's out of the question, what about fried clams?

[DFW]

49. Clams, scallops, cod, almost anything caught in the Atlantic

They have small fresh fish shops in most towns, and the fishing boats come in every day, leave off their catch, and it's the freshest there is. My wife is also a gourmet chef, so not only do we have the best ingredients, we (I, really) also have the best chef to prepare it.

Though I am supposed to avoid fried anything, the fried clam strips and the fried scallops are SO good there that I make an exception while on Cape Cod. A jumbo portion of fried scallops with cocktail sauce--if it kills me, what a way to go!

By the way, for our European friends, "cocktail sauce" in the USA is NOT the same as §cocktail sauce" in Europe. What is served as "cocktail sauce" in Europe is called "Russian dressing" in the USA, and tastes horrible with seafood. American cocktail sauce is made with tomatoes, horseradish and lemon. Most brands use High Fructose Corn Syrup, which is a red alert, no go for people (like me) with cancer in the family, but a few brands don't use it--notably the Legal Seafood house brand, which is sold in some stores. For that matter, Smuckers, a mass-produced marmalade and jelly brand, also uses (or used to ) HFCS. Stay away from anything containing that stuff unless you are pretty sure you will never get cancer. Unfortunately, mass-marketed brands like Crosse&Blackwell, as well as Bookbinders, DO use it, so check the ingredients!!

[Shrek]

55. I just returned from two weeks in the UK

Somehow every flight and train was on time, and it was dry and mild except for one day when the rain was finished by lunch.

I feel very fortunate.

[DFW]

56. The UK is not the EU

I haven't been over there in ten years, even though it's only a 50 minute flight from here to London.

Either you got lucky, or the UK takes its public transportation more seriously than the EU does. The EU used to be the model for public transportation, but let the bureaucrats take over, and expand the bureaucracy, and you have the secret formula for things to go wrong. For a while, one guy named Hartmut Mehdorn ran the German railways. Repairs were neglected (they cost money!), and delays and cancellations became the norm. He then left to run a (previously) successful air line, Air Berlin. It was a great airline, usually on time, and offering great service along with fabulous routes and schedules. Within a few years of Mehdorn's "leadership," Air Berlin was bankrupt, and sold off all its planes and routes to Eurowings, a no-frills Lufthansa subidiary. Eurowings offered some of the same routes, but charging for everything, right down to three euros for a glass of water to keep passengers from dehydrating. For a short while, Air Berlin even had nonstops from Düsseldorf to Boston, which was an answer to a prayer for us. These days, even the nonstops between Düsseldorf and Atlanta on Delta have been phased out, and that route ALWAYS flew full.

[Shrek]

57. It was just luck

Airports were chronically understaffed and the local news had daily stories about cancelled flights and ruined travel plans.

There was also a rail strike that ended right before our trip from Edinburgh to London, and another one is scheduled for this week now that we're back home.

Very fortunate to have missed all of that.

[DFW]

58. You dodged a lot of inconvenient bullets

I live here, so when there's anything going wrong somewhere, I have a better than even chance of being affected. This coming week I was supposed to go down to France on Wednesday, but the Thalys trains are all being worked on except on Tuesday. They go as far as Paris to Brussels, but not onward to Germany or Holland. I called my usual hotel in Brussels to see if I could get a room for both Tuesday and Wednesday nights. My usual hotel in Paris was just about fully booked, and their website said €1007 for a night. If I want to get fired after 47 years with my employer, booking a hotel room for €1007 for one night should do the trick. My hotel in Brussels listed their last room at €861 per night on the website, but I know the management there, and they gave me 75% off of the listed price when I asked for help. Now THAT I could justify. So, I'll commute on Tuesday evening up to Brussels, down again to Paris Wednesday morning, back up to Brussels Wednesday night, get my work done in Brussels Thursday, and get the evening train home Thursday night--I hope!!

[Wonder Why]

59. Try taking long distance on Amtrak in the U.S.

They think arriving on the day they are due to arrive is "on time". That's of course if the only train of the day wasn't cancelled. And some trains only run 3 times a week - and that was even BEFORE Covid! They probably believe that if you didn't want to arrive on the day you were supposed to, you don't care what day you have to leave.

[DFW]

60. I have never done that

But since the Republicans in Congress never want to help build up our infrastructure, uncluding Amtrak, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Here in Europe, the delays often exceed the amount of time the whole trip was supposed to take.