My last post was about revisiting Berlin after a five-year pandemic-related pause. In that post I promised to later write about Munich, our next destination, and I will. But today my subject is Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the “adventure” of rail travel in Germany these days.

Despite being punctual, our rail journey was not without its problems. Although I am grateful we arrived pünktlich (on time) in the Bavarian capital, this was the second time in a row my wife and I have been thrown a curve by DB when traveling by ICE from Berlin’s main station.

The German Way advises rail passengers in Germany to know about and use the much vaunted Wagenstandanzeiger. It is a graphic that tells travelers where their particular rail coach will stop along the platform. It’s supposed to help you avoid trekking through the length of your train with your luggage in tow trying to find your car and reserved seat. It’s great in theory, but once again this feature proved to be a bad prank played on us by DB. The last time (en route to Leipzig), our train pulled in along the platform – with the car numbers running in the opposite direction of the car location indicator. That caused most of us to dash along the platform with our bags to the other end, attempting to find the right car number. Nice trick, DB. Thanks a lot.

Wine and laptops in first class ICE. The wine helped us cope with our seating problems. And I even got some work done. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

But at least we found our car. This time, the DB folks had something even more diabolical up their sleeve. We are standing in the section the indicator shows, and where a DB agent had also told us where our car would be. (Having been burned once, we wanted to double check.) Then what seems to be our ICE to Munich approaches our platform. But the overhead sign reads “Zugverkehr” rather than “München”! Basically “train traffic.” What? Although I would later realize what that meant, at the time it was just plain confusing. We began looking for the big number 1 indicating a first class car, since we had first class tickets. Normally, the first class car is close to the engine in front, but the numbers were in the thirties, and our car was No. 29. No twenties in sight. Maybe farther down, like last time, at the wrong end? But the 30 numbers were going up, not down. I knew something wasn’t right, but what?

By now people were rushing to board the (half) train. Our Berlin friends who were seeing us off were just as confused as we were. Thank the lord for rolling luggage, but I really don’t need this extra workout. Finally we see the large number 1 – but the car number (38) is wrong. Not wanting to miss the train, we climb aboard the first class car and find our seat numbers (64 and 66, side by side), where thankfully no one is sitting. The Waggon is almost full already, so we sit down in the right seat numbers, knowing however that we’re in the wrong car. At least we’re near the luggage rack, if we have to move.

A lady sitting across the aisle from us in a single seat already had to relocate because someone else claimed that reserved seat. Would we be next? From the platform our friends inform us that a second section of our train has been added at the other end, and that’s where our car is probably located. Seriously? But at that point I had no intention of walking through most of the now complete, and now departing train with our bags! We’re not going anywhere unless we absolutely have to. So far no one has claimed our seats, but what about at the next stop?

On my way to get some wine in the Bistro car. The screen on the right says our next stop is Nürnberg at 20:56, about an hour away from our final destination. The train will only be at the station for four minutes. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

Later, at the first stop outside Berlin no one shows up wanting our seats. But the train isn’t even a fourth of the way to Munich, and we haven’t yet seen any sign of a train conductor either. Yes, you can check yourself in with the DB Navigator app, but not if you’re in the wrong car! It’s time for me to seek him/her out and try to clarify the awkward situation. We can’t be on pins and needles for the remainder of the trip to Munich. So off I go to find a Zugbegleiter:in, with my iPhone and my digital ticket purchased online before we ever left the States.

I hadn’t gone more than two or three cars before I found, yes, the same DB guy who had (correctly) told us where our car would be located on the platform in Berlin. (I said nothing about that. Keep it simple! He probably didn’t remember me anyway.) After showing him our ticket on my phone, I explained (in German) our confusion caused by the two train sections, and the fact that we know we’re in the wrong car, but with the correct seat numbers. Could he please check to see if our seats are reserved by someone else. If not, we’d like to stay where we are.

He calls someone on his Handy, and then tells me our seats are indeed free. We can stay where we are for the rest of the journey to Munich. He’s friendly and I think slightly amused by the situation. Which is why I refrained from telling him how dumb I thought it was for DB to assemble our train only after the first half had already pulled up to the platform. (And he could have mentioned that fact, but didn’t!) I was just happy we could now relax and enjoy the ride. It was, as the Germans say, “Glück im Unglück” (a silver lining, “good luck in misfortune”).

We left Berlin at 6:00 pm and arrived at Munich’s main station promptly at 10:00 pm. The time was chosen in part because it was cheaper than other times. PHOTO: Hyde Flippo

Frankly, I hope the third time will be the charm for DB. I really do enjoy taking the German high-speed trains instead of flying within Germany. Not only do we help save the planet, but the time saved by going from city center to city center rather than from airport to airport actually means the time advantage of flying isn’t as much as one might think. I haven’t recently compared the price difference, but our first class one way rail ticket only cost €158 per person. A business or first class flight costs more than that. When we arrived at Munich’s main station, we simply walked across the street to our very nice hotel (breakfast included), past all the taxis waiting outside the station (which is currently an under-construction mess). No need for the 45-minute S-Bahn trip from the Munich airport to the city center. And we had another scheduled regional rail journey from Munich in a few days.

In my next post I’ll tell you about some of the new sights we saw while we were in Munich this time.

– HF