Readers of the first few entries that discussed Brussels (1, 2, 3) will have seen a plethora of negative commentary about the city with a few notable bright spots. Having learned from the prior visits, a third, brief trip through the city was a vastly-improved experience. Part of that was due to arriving late and being gone the next afternoon before most of the residents flooded into the streets and trains from their places of work.

Though Brussels itself was pleasant, the last entry left off in Bern, and getting from one to the other isn’t so convenient. The schedule called for two trains, with 80 minutes to transfer in Frankfurt and a total travel time of around 8 hours.

Frankfurt

There’s not much to say after less than an hour of walking through the city. It was fine, but judging from a tiny, urban section, it’s a generic city that doesn’t encourage further exploration.

Traveling Is (Sometimes) Terrible

Exploring new places is almost universally rewarding, but traveling, as in the act of getting from point A to point B, can be a nightmare. This time around, there was no missed connection or delayed train. The pasta from Vapiano was gobbled up while seated comfortably on a train toward Brussels. After going from the central station to the airport, an announcement came over the loudspeaker that received a strong reaction from the German-speaking passengers. It took several minutes before someone followed up in English to say that the train had been cancelled. Instead of a direct train to Brussels, passengers were instructed to go to track 6 or 7 to take three trains connecting in Cologne and Achen.

This left some questions: What does track 6 or 7 mean? Is there a reason to prefer one or the other? Which trains at which times for the two connections?

Going to the platform didn’t help much as marquees didn’t seem to have accurate details about the trains parked there. A trip to the information desk was almost helpful. Take the train at platform 6? No problem!

At platform 6, three staff members turned people away. That train was cancelled too. Thanks, (dis)information desk. Was track 7 still an option?

Tickets from Bern to Brussels had been booked through the Belgian train service, and with no intended travel inside Germany, there was no reason to have the Deutsche Bahn app installed. Belgium’s app didn’t seem to have updated information about incoming trains, so the German counterpart got installed in a hurry. At least their own app had more information, but it was disappointing to read about countless cancellations due to “an object on the tracks outside Frankfurt Airport.” Since trains from many platforms often converge onto one track, did that mean that everything was cancelled? The information desk had no idea what was cancelled, but said that the train still parked at platform 7 should be fine.

Meanwhile, looking at the stops on the marquee and app for this train presented a problem. There was no stop in Cologne. After some frustration and disagreement about whether to trust the information desk or not, a Google Maps search for each of the stops on the recommended train to find any possible route to Belgium revealed that Cologne is written as “Köln” in German. Sometimes ignorance hurts. With this revelation, there was a bit of relief. The cars were extremely overloaded due to people from several cancelled trains packing in, and there was still a long wait, but eventually it started moving.

Eavesdropping on a man from London and one from Berlin suggested that delays are frequent, but that this situation, especially the lack of information provided to passengers, was extremely unusual. The Londoner was himself running eight hours behind schedule, suggesting that the whole train system had been backed up by some chain reaction of cancellations and delays.

Despite being a few hours late and feeling battered by a long, stressful day, it worked out.

Brussels, Again, Finally

Knowing the area from prior trips allowed for a curated tour to the most picturesque locations. There are only two photos to share from the evening though. It was time to play tour guide, and night photos around Grand Place and other popular locations already appeared in earlier posts.

Autoworld