We had been standing at the train platform in Füssen for two or three minutes when we heard an announcement over the loud speaker – completely in German – followed by a mass exodus of people from the platform. Michael and I looked at each other in utter confusion. As everyone was rushing away from the platform, we went to the station to get some answers.
We decided to divide and conquer; we stood in different lines, not know which one was moving faster. The attendant inside the station spoke very good English, and I found out from him that the train was not coming. Instead, we would have to take a replacement bus to another station 20 minutes away. I grabbed Michael, and we ran to the bus. Unfortunately, it had taken us so long to figure out what was happening that the bus was completely full. Michael and I tried to squeeze on, but he ended up on the wrong side of the partition – standing right next to the driver.
About that time the driver came onto the bus and said something in German. While Michael and I are still giving each other that clueless look, the man in front of me spoke in German, and then made gestures until I finally realized that he wanted us to move so he could get off the bus. In order to let him off, we both had to get off as well. As we got off we realized that other people were getting off as well. The man from the bus realized we were American and began to speak to us in English (thank goodness, or we might still be standing in that parking lot!). He translated what the bus driver had said – another bus was coming, because there wasn’t enough room on the first bus.
Travel Tip: It’s a good idea to know even a few words in the local language when you’re vacationing in a foreign country. It makes it much easier to get to the right place if you know some basic words for train, plane, airport, bus, north, south, etc. Knowing the words for some of your favorite (of least favorite) foods might mean being able to order something in a restaurant that you’ll actually enjoy eating. Of course, if you don’t know much about the language, then it’s a good idea to stick to the popular tourist locations – you’ll be more likely to find someone who speaks English, and restaurants with English menus.
So we got on the next bus. It was still crowded, but it was better than the first. There was also a large group of Americans traveling together – with one very annoying woman as their self-appointed leader. She was trying to corral everyone and kept announcing (yelling would be more accurate), “We’re going to be on this bus for two hours! Everyone find a seat!” I turned to Michael, who was sitting behind me, and told him that she was mistaken. The station attendant told me that the bus was only taking us to another station up the track – about 20 minutes away. She heard me explaining this and then felt the need to yell this information to the rest of the bus.
Once we were on our way our driver was speaking on a two-way radio, when several other passengers started chuckling at something he said. The nice man from the previous bus was sitting in front of me and was nice enough to translate again. Apparently the other driver didn’t take the right route out of town, and when he told our driver that we was running behind, our driver responded very helpfully by saying, “Well, drive faster!”
As we neared our final destination by bus, our driver took a wrong turn and had to turn around. Just so you know, when you’re on a bus and the driver proceeds to make a K-turn on a highway overpass, it’s a good time to worry. Just as he got us straightened out I heard honking and a collective gasp at the back of the bus. I turned in my seat just in time to see a semi truck that had to pull into the other lane – driving side by side with the bus – in order not to rear-end us. It’s a good thing no there was no traffic from the other direction, so that could have been a catastrophe!
A few minutes later we finally made it to the train. Whew! What a relief! Of course once we were one the train we had to figure out where we were so that we knew when to switch trains. We didn’t know exactly how far up the track we had gone, and we were hoping that we hadn’t already missed our connection. Michael used his cell to look up the rail map on the internet so that we could figure out where to change.
We made it to the right station, and made our connection without any difficulty. The rest of the trip was uneventful – thankfully. We chatted, snacked on our pretzels, and laughed about the bus ride! We arrived at the main train depot in Zurich, and grabbed a quick dinner before finding a taxi to take us to the hotel.
It was a long, but interesting day, but we both enjoyed ourselves. At least the next day was supposed to be a relaxing day, but with our luck you never know…
