I took the train from Strasbourg France to Freiburg Germany. Half-way at a train station some border patrol agents got on the train and checked passports. I heard them ask questions to all the people holding non-EU passports (where are you going, for how long, when are you leaving, etc…) and was well prepared when they got to me. After a quick hallo and look at my passport, all I got was a smile and a thank you. I guess I got an honest face.
I knew at one point during my trip I had to change trains, but earlier in the day I realized I only had 4 minutes between them, arriving and departing. How was I gonna get from one train to another, in a train station I’ve never been in, 15 minutes after arriving in the country, where I don’t speak the language? Easy…run!!
As my original train pulled in, I queued at the very front door with several others. Blurbs in English about short connections to other trains. Luckily one woman who was German and appeared to know what she was doing, mentioned she was going to the same place I was, Freiburg.
So, as the train pulled into the station, the trumpet sounded with the acknowledgement that it was post time. The gates opened and we were off to the races. Out of the gate they came, running fast it was Freiburg in the lead just ahead of the Munich passengers, Baden Baden not far behind. Around the first turn it was close. I tucked in along the rail right behind my German Freiburg woman. As the clock ticked to our departure time, down the stretch they came, and finally across the finish line through the door we went. Made it.
And because of that I am sitting on the train, comfortably in my seat writing this. There is absolutely no way I would have made it without following the German woman, I would still be standing on the platform looking at the schedule screen thinking, huh? I am not sure if this is or is not the German efficiency I’ve heard so much about.
Welcome to Germany (p.s. on the train the woman admitted to me she didn’t think we’d make it).
Life is good.