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On Aug. 12th I wrote about my trip to Europe in 1981, and promised to write about my train trip from England to Piene, Germany - near Hamburg, in northern Germany (photo of train station in Hamburg)
With a change in plans due to an airlines strike, I had to revise my travel plans to return from a weekend in London, to Peine, where I was staying with a Germany family during a Friendship Force Exchange visit for 2 weeks. It was like the "slow train to China" with our old East German train cars often being bumped and left sitting on a side track until another train would come along and take us along for awhile and "dump" us again. I really don't know how long I was on that train travelling from Belgium to the East Germany border.
I shared a compartment with 2 punks from Berlin. One had lime green hair and the other hot pink hair. They had their radios/cassette players and loved heavy metal music. I knew enough German to have a brief dialogue with them. They were from Berlin and had been to London on a holiday. They started drinking beer soon after the train pulled out from Belgium and before long both were sleeping. I was afraid to go to sleep! All of the signs, etc. on the train were written in Russian language. I couldn't read a word. I was supposed to get off at the last stop (Hamburg) before the train crossed the East German border. With some side stops along the way, the train was several hours late. I was glad that I called my host family and told them I would take a taxi from Hamburg to Peine.
I arrived at the train station at 2 A.M. Just as the train was pulling into the station, the conductor came through calling the name of the stop and when he said Hamburg, I jumped up and gathered my bag (only had 1 carry-on) and when the trained stopped, I turned the handle on the door to get off and it wouldn't open!! I didn't know what to do, so I ran down to another compartment, and was prepared to start kicking if I couldn't get that door open. I turned the handle and it opened wide and I fell out on the sidewalk with my little bag! Nobody was in sight at 2 a.m. and as soon as I got up and looked around, the train was leaving. I got off just in time.I walked thru the long tunnel to get upstairs and the big waiting room was almost empty.
I walked outside to get a taxi. Several were parked there and I went up to one and was trying to tell him in German where I wanted to go. He answered me and said he spoke English. I was so happy. I hopped in the car and away we went out into the countryside, thru asparagus fields, to the little village of Peine. He got out of the cab and escorted me to the door and knocked and waited for my host family to open the door. They spoke in German briefly, I paid him, and off he went. She said he told her that I was a nice American and very brave!
I walked outside to get a taxi. Several were parked there and I went up to one and was trying to tell him in German where I wanted to go. He answered me and said he spoke English. I was so happy. I hopped in the car and away we went out into the countryside, thru asparagus fields, to the little village of Peine. He got out of the cab and escorted me to the door and knocked and waited for my host family to open the door. They spoke in German briefly, I paid him, and off he went. She said he told her that I was a nice American and very brave!
I spent a few more days with my host family and then it was time to go to the marketplatz in Peine and board the bus, along with other Americans on the trip, to travel through East Germany to Berlin. This was a very depressing ride and I was a little uneasy when we had to cross the border. We stopped at the entrance to East Germany and the bus driver told us to sit still and not talk to the guards. They got on the bus and asked us to show them our passports. When they saw mine they took it and left the bus and went inside the guard house. We waited and waited and they came back and handed it to the driver and spoke a few words to him, and then motioned us to move along. The driver said they had not seen the new computer coded passports and thought mine was illegal. I was glad they didn't make me get off the bus. We were very happy to see the Brandenburg gate in Berlin once again after a long trip through Est Germany, and we boarded the plane to come back to Winston Salem, NC.
Other than these experiences, the trip was a great experience and the good out-weighed the bad many times. We were treated royally and dined and fested all week in and around the big city of Hamburg. Spaceship Columbia landed one week-end while I was there (in April) and all the Germans gathered around their TV sets to watch this big event and cheered loudly when Columbia landed safely.
Germany was much different from the post-war days we spent there in 1954-55. I'm glad I had an opportunity to go back almost 30 years later.
