June 14, 2024
Back to Ottweiler
Train travel, it ain’t restful. SNCF pulled one last one on me.
My ticket made me confident that I’d have an easy day, only one transfer, no stairs, etc. Ahahahaha. The train went only as far as a town about 35 miles away, then there was a bus to Saareguemines, then another train to Saarbrücken.
I missed the connection in Saareguemines of course, because the bus was a little late and I had to fuss with the bike. Next one in an hour. No stairs involved though.
Train to Saarbrücken really operated as a local tram. A couple of minutes after leaving Saarguemines we crossed the Saar and were in Germany. All of a sudden I could understand a word or two of what people were saying. The tram stopped at every town and, once within Saarbrücken, at every corner. Or so it seemed.
When I got to the Saarbrücken station, the departure boards were offline. The info desk people were giving out platform info by looking things up on their phones. An elevator up to the platform.
I got off in Neunkirchen because that station has ramps and the Ottweiler station has stairs. It’s only 5 miles away. It rained. Not very hard.
Brian and Petra were away when I arrived, but they’d hidden a key. I had to go up and around several buildings, cross a garden, go down some steps, go around a wall, more steps, another wall, and look under a thing that was near a thing.
I could not get the door unlocked, probably operator error because I had not been able to use a toilet since I left the hotel hours earlier and was a little impatient. Ran around to another door and crisis averted.
Rolled Big Red into her cow shed. Tour officially over.
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Today's ride: 8 km (5 miles)
Total: 541 km (336 miles)
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