Frankly, I just wanted to have uneventful travels for my sailing trip from Eckenförde to Wismar. However, just the story about my trip there is sufficiently long to warrant it’s own telling.

Frankfurt to Eckenförde

The trip was supposed to have two fixed points: departing from Eckenförde and Arrival in Wismar, everything else was not yet determined. Regardless, that was enough to book train tickets. Now since I wanted to be in Eckenförde on Saturday the 23rd at 12pm, it wouldn’t be easy to travel there from Frankfurt in a single day. Instead, I decided to visit a friend in Hamburg on my way there - travel there on Friday, head out early on Saturday, all peachy.

Frankfurt to Hamburg

I was booking a couple of trains at the same time and had collected enough ‘Bahn Bonus’ points for a free trip - which I decided to use for the one from Frankfurt -> Hamburg, which I would’ve taken with a much less convenient timing or paid a lot more for otherwise. I remember it would’ve been >50€ at the time of booking (which wasn’t super early but also not late yet … oh well). Well, this train ended up being delayed … a lot. I was supposed to arrive at 17:14. I received the notification that I wasn’t bound to that train when I left my house, about 30min before it was supposed to depart (this happens when it’s predicted to arrive at the destination with >20min delay). My train was already scheduled to depart >30min later. For a while, it was predicted to be the next fastest option to Hamburg, but then it got delayed further and I actually took a different train - with a theoretical arrival of 18:15, and while we collected some delays, we passed Hamburg-Harburg (the station just before Hamburg Hbf) at 18:27. However, then we stopped a couple hundred meters before the main train station - apparently there was an issue with the overhead power line, and eventually the train just went back to Hamburg Harburg for a bit of a break before actually making it to Hamburg hbf at 8pm - an extra delay of 90min for a distance I would’ve walked, given the option.

My original train made it to Hamburg about an hour later.

Fun fact: one of my friends (also sleeping over at the friend in Hamburg) travelled from Freiburg. This train went over Frankfurt Airport instead of main train station - and I could not reach it in time. It arrived at Hamburg Hbf at 18:14, 42 minutes after it was supposed to and just minutes before the train I was in was supposed to pass the last segment.

Well, I made it to Hamburg eventually.

Hamburg to Eckenförde

Since we wanted to go sailing, a friend recommended Sailing gloves from Decathlon. I didn’t order them since I was gonna bring my regular gloves - which. I then didn’t, because they are usually in jacket when it’s in winter configuration, and I had already switched over to the summer configuration.

So, our plan for Saturday morning was the following: take the S-Bahn four stations further than the main station to the decathlon there, and take it back to Hamburg Altona from which the regional train will leave to Kiel (from where another one goes to Eckenförde). Decathlon would only open at nine, and to reach the train in time that we could make it to Eckenförde by 12 (remember, we were expected before 12pm) we had to leave from that station by 9:18 so that we could comfortably make the train at 9:46 from Altona.

So, our plan was:

  • Get up early

  • be at Decathlon a few minutes before 9am

  • be out of Decathlon and back at the station before 9:18am

  • be at Hamburg Altona in the train to kiel at 9:46

And we fully succeeded. we got there so early, that a rolling fence was blocking the entrance to Decathlon at 8:55 - which means we had enough time to get some classic Franzbrötchen from the Rewe bakery next door, after which we rushed through the decathlon and made it back to the S-Bahn station at 9:05, early enough that we could take an S-Bahn 10mins earlier to Altona. As a fallback, we considered it to be still safe to arrive by 1pm - we needed to get these sailing gloves.

After which we found and sat in the regional train to Kiel, which was supposed to leave at 9:46am. However, 9:46am came and went, and the train made no indication of moving soon. Apparently it was because there were people on the tracks spotted in a section ahead, and thus this section had to be confirmed to be clear again.

Ultimately, the train did not start (similarly, the train from the other direction didn’t come either) and they decided to instead have our train move as the 10:46 train instead. Which then came and went as well - we finally got moving at 11:15. This went well for a while, until at some point we seemed to hit something, and it looked like stones were flying around.

So, we did an emergency break, and … pretty quickly we heard the announcement that we hit … a person. It took about 2h until we could continue after.

So, we were already WAY past to arrive before 12 (remember that plan?) - and the caption requested that everyone be on the ship by 14:30 at the latest. It seemed quickly that even that is going to be more and more difficult - we were not moving at all. at some point, people from rescue services showed up and walked along the train. After waiting for 90min they also distributed some water - at least the AC was still running, it was 28°C outside. Then, after an additional 2h delay, we got moving again, and ultimately made it to the ship at 15:30. There was little concern of the ship leaving without us, more than half the crew was on our train, and they wouldn’t be the minimal crew needed.

If you want to know how the sailing trip went, continue reading there.