German Adventures: Lessons Learned, Part 3

In Part 1 and Part 2 of this travel journal of my October 2019 trip to Germany, I have shared about the incidents that occurred on this trip so far - and we are only a few days in!  More lessons were to come!

In Part 2, I shared that my aunt, who we were staying with in Frankfurt during this trip ended up in a stroke unit at a hospital due to a mini stroke.  She was fine - thankfully - but had to be kept under observation and thoroughly examined.  Unfortunately, there were not beds available in the closer hospitals so she ended up in Höchst, on the outskirts of Frankfurt.  It was a quite a trek to get to her, but on Tuesday morning, October 8th, we were determined to make the trip!   We wanted to take her a suitcase of personal items, toiletries and other such things she had requested.

We would have to take public transportation, but thankfully, with the Internet, you can find all the routes and modes of transportation easily.  Or so I thought.  The trip to Hoechst Klinikum involved first walking about 15 minutes to the U-bahn (subway) station, then going to the Hauptwache station.  There we 'd transfer to the S-bahn (faster regional-type train) to Höchst train station.  Then there were 2 buses that went the less than 1 km to the hospital.

We knew enough to buy a day-card for the Frankfurt area public transportation as the least expensive way to go.  We could use those tickets on all modes of transportation in Frankfurt all day.

Anyway, as we got to the Höchst train station, we were in a hurry to get to the hospital, so we grabbed a taxi for the quick 5 or 10 minute ride.  It cost 10 Euros (including the tip) but was worth the convenience of not having to figure out which bus to take.  We found my aunt's room and were able to speak with her a few minutes before she was wheeled off for some kind of brain scan or another ...

Coming out of the hospital, we saw a bus station.  We saw the numbers for the buses that I had previously researched to get us back to the Höchst train station.  We even asked some of the other people, also waiting, but they were as uncertain as we were about the schedule.  One bus came by, and I asked the driver if he was going to the train station.  Unfortunately, he didn't speak German well, and I had no idea what he said but assumed he meant he did NOT go to the train station.  We didn't get on his bus.

We did eventually get on a bus that was the same number as the bus indicated on the signage at the station.  After a few minutes, 3 bus "conductors" got on the bus and asked for every one's tickets.  This isn't unusual, and we showed them our Frankfurt day ticket.  They came back to us later and asked to see our identification.  We both had our passports with us, and that is what we showed them.  They then asked us to get off the bus at the next station ...

Not knowing what was going on, we anxiously got off as the one agent-guy was holding our passports.  He vaguely explained to us that not only were we going the opposite direction of the train station, the day pass tickets we had ended its territory at the train station, and we should have gotten an additional bus ticket to ride this particular bus.  WHO KNEW??!!  Höchst is a city district of Frankfurt, but apparently there is some border there as it pertains to public transportation!

We tried to explain why we were even in Höchst - visiting the sick relative, who was supposed to be our travel guide while we were visiting Germany!  However, we were met with zero mercy.  AND we were given a 60 Euro (each!) fine for riding schwarz*.  AND they held our passport until we had forked over the money!!

In retrospect, I am pretty upset about the way we were treated and the total disregard for our situation.  They could have just as easily let us go with a warning ... And just this week, I sent a letter to the bus-public transportation customer service department with my complaint.  Not sure it will get us far, as one of the bus conductors told us that day, "Gesetz ist Gesetz."  (Rules are rules.)

***********A VOCAB TIDBIT**************
To ride without a valid ticket on public transportation in Germany is called *Schwarzfahren (to ride "black" = schwarz).   This term has its origins in the days of smuggling and illegal activities (think black market).  Also, it may be related to the verb schwärzen which means to blacken.   Criminals and smugglers often blackened their faces in order to not be seen while they went about their illegal activities at night.
***********************************************

Yep, my mother and I are criminals...or at least, we were made to feel like it!

Thankfully, for the most part, my mother and I didn't have any more MISadventures during our time in Germany!  We did cancel our travel plans to Hannover to visit some friends there and had to cancel a rental car we'd reserved for the next 3 days (actually another lesson learned:  there may be a FINE for cancelling your car in less then 24 hours from the time of pick-up!).   Much of our hard-saved vacation money was spent on fees and fines ...

Lesson learned:  Expect the unexpected!