So, I survived my first real travel mishap in Europe. I went to Copenhagen for the weekend to sight-see and meet up with Nancy, and had a well-planned return trip. I have made the train trip to Copenhagen before (on my way to Sweden and back), so I thought this was fool-proof–the connections are tight, but worked out well before. However, the train across Denmark was running really late this time and I missed my connecting train south to Tonder, where there is a weird little train that runs across the Danish/German border–a 24 minute train ride, with a little extra time built into the schedule in case there is a cow on the tracks or somthing. Well, the train people piled us into cabs to race towards Tonder and I just hopped on, not thinking that they would send us to Tonder without making arrangements for the connection. But instead I ended up in Tonder after the last connection, and cabs will not take you across the border. So I was stuck on a chilly Sunday night in a dark, tiny town where I didn’t speak the language. I was weighing the options of sleeping at the train station (locked for the night, so it would have meant sleeping outside) and walking to Germany (not really ideal, since it would mean trekking through cowfields in the dark). I decided to walk into town, and happened on a little motel; there was a sign on the door in Danish, German and English that said the phone to the right of the door would connect to a receptionist 24 hours a day, so I decided to pick it up. Luckily the woman who answered spoke English, and said they had one room left for the night. She drove over from her house (in her pajamas) and checked me into the last available room, so I slept in Tonder for the night and caught the first train to Germany in the morning, arriving at work only 40 minutes late…but exhausted, and mildly hungry, since all I had had to eat since Copenhagen was a granola bar and an apple.
Not exactly the relaxing end to the journey I had anticipated, but at least I didn’t freeze sleeping in the train station nor did I get lost wandering around cow pastures in the no-man’s-land between Denmark and Germany on a chilly autumn night…
More on Copenhagen plus pictures to come (once I have slept).
