2024-12-06 51 13

Location

A meadow close to the train station in Herzberg.

Participants

Plans

Train from Berlin, short walk, next train back to Berlin.

Expedition

The Herzberg station normally sees a train every hour, alternately towards and away from Berlin. So I could expect to spend an hour there - perhaps even with a chance to visit the main part of town by bus. I plotted an 11:00 departure from Berlin, with 13:00 as a fallback.

After a slow start to my day, I worried I wouldn't be able to catch the 11:00 train. But then I got a notification: that train would be delayed by 30 minutes or so. That would work for me, plus reduce the excess time in Herzberg. So I got going and, at Berlin Hbf, acquired a wrap to serve as lunch.

By the time the train neared Herzberg, however, it was 55 minutes behind schedule, and the return train was expected on time. I'd have to be fast, and still might end up stuck there an extra two hours. I set up a screen recording and tracklog, then waited at the door.

Door open. Jog around the station building and straight out of the parking lot. Disregard a footpath on the wrong side of a barrier. Wait for a tractor to go by. Cross the main road. Down a squishy unforeseen slope. Over to a foreseen tree. Selfie! Up the slope. Back across the road. Right back to the station parking lot.

Elapsed on the tracklog: 4 minutes. But no train in sight, and still a few people waiting on the platform. I checked the status again and it now showed a 30 minute delay - seemingly DB had finally realized they would need to use the same train equipment I had been on. So much for running! I wandered over near the main road again, returning to the station just as the train was finally arriving.

(I kept an eye on the "13:00" itinerary too - it ended up with a 2 hour delay to Herzberg and a 1 hour delay back - thus different equipment - and only 5 minutes, after sunset, would have been available.)