Flensburg Here We Come

Our Scandinavian tour was coming to a close but not without one last nail biting adventure. Here was the plan: We leave Stockholm on the early morning train, change trains in Copenhagen and again in Odense, Denmark, then arrive in Flensburg, Germany in the early evening. Is it really too much to ask for things to go as planned??? Yes. All went well until Copenhagen, when the conductor announced that we would have to get off at the airport instead of the central train station because of some construction problems. We were told to take a subway to our destination. Say what?? There was no instruction about how to get to the subway or which one to take. Everyone had to get off the train and we were caught in a wave of confused tourists wondering where to go. I overheard a German man arguing with a subway conductor that he had been rerouted and shouldn't have to pay for a subway ticket. Since we were in the same boat, I stood by saying, "Yeah, same here." The conductor had no knowledge of our dilemma until he got a call on his walkie talkie that confirmed what we were trying to tell him. The German man was traveling with his wife and small kids and was very upset because he was going to miss his connecting train to Hamburg. (see, I'm not the only one! Sometimes.) Turns out we needed to take two different subways to get to our destination. We all piled onto the now overcrowded subway and I latched onto a big Danish dude who seemed very jovial. He said not to worry, he would get off with us and show us how to get to our train. He was big and tall and kind of like a Pied Piper to us confused tourists who followed him around the subway station. He rode with us to the central station and pointed us to the train tracks. Aw, the kindness of strangers... We found our track and as I stood there wondering if the train that had just arrived was ours, a nice woman came up and asked if we were going to Odense. When I said yes she said, "This is your train!" I asked how she knew because I couldn't see the train number and she said, "I ride this train every day." I thanked her and we got on board. Our ticket had a car and seat number assignment. We walked from car to car, looking for the right number. It was a very long train. In exasperation, I found a woman in a uniform, showed her our tickets and asked where our car was. She looked at my ticket and said, "Oh, you're on the wrong train." Just then the train started moving and everyone looked my way as I grabbed her arm and shrieked, "WHAT???" She looked a little frightened of me and said, "Well it still goes to Odense but this is not the train on your reservation. Go ahead and sit anywhere." She seemed a little nervous as she pulled her arm out of my grasp and backed away from me. I relaxed a little and we plunked down in the nearest available seats. Never a dull moment, right? We arrived in Odense a little earlier than planned and I was able to find a direct train that got us to Flensburg at 6 instead of 8. So you see - it all worked out for the better. I called my German "mom" and she was happy to pick us up earlier. It had been 7 years since I had seen her but the passage of time is not so noticeable when you are connected to someone. We greeted each other as if it had only been yesterday. Of course she didn't recognize Kyle, as he had been a little 9 year old boy the last time and was now a tall 16 year old with a stubble of beard. We piled into her little red sports car and drove to her lovely home. The stressful part of our trip was now officially over. From now on we would be well taken care of. We enjoyed a sunshiney afternoon in her park-like yard with her German Shephard, Quinya, and Dachshund, Bernstein. The pug in the picture is Gunther. He was just visiting. Bernstein sat at my feet licking my wounds. Ate (my German Mom) said dog saliva helps wounds heal quicker. Who knew? She said he likes me or he wouldn't be trying to heal me. Nevertheless, it was disturbing.

Please note the lovely sunshine. Sadly this was one of only a handfull of days we would see the sun for the next two weeks.