these guys used to be daring adventurers with goggles and swag and now the pilots have to wear a button down and the airlines squeeze every penny out of you and every drop of fun or joy or magic or adventure out of the experience.
in the 20s it was a great adventure! in the 60s people wore suits and got proper meals! now we just get xrayed and told we can’t bring in water! i love starting my vacation being treated as a terrorist!
Welcome to Germany, where driving a car through the entire country for 8 hours is still a better experience than trying to go anywhere with Deutsche Bahn. 🤮
Fun fact: i had to take a train through Switzerland and change trains in Germany, on the day a major swiss tunnel collapsed.
I made it to Frankfurt perfectly on time despite having to go around a fucking mountain instead of through it, and still accrued 3 hours of total delay on the remainder, 2 of which were just the train being stuck at the station in Frankfurt itself.
I’ve taken to calling them Scheiße Bahn.
International trains are fun though. They’re also DB, but they get privilige. I was stuck in Utrecht (NL) once, heading to Arnhem, because a tree fell on the tracks. No trains could go to Arnhem. Until the ICE came. I got to take a detour via S’ Hertogen Bosch. A train taking a detour is pretty unique, but the ICE get’s the privilege to do that. I was 2 hours delayed, but at least I got home.
American who visited Germany last year:
The DB was insanely good compared to what we get. The app even worked! The twins even arrived generally when they were supposed to!