Worst tour? Probably not, but it certainly will be remembered

Last Saturday (March 1st) started as a fairly normal day. I woke up, went to work (the main train station), and gathered my tour together in front of the Radius Tours office. At the office, tourists were being told by Jasmin (one of our wonderful office people) that there could be problems with the train and they should be aware that we can’t be held responsible if they don’t get back to Munich at a specific time, etc.

So, I lead my group of 22 people from the USA, Croatia, Hong Kong, and Brazil to the opposite side of the station to catch the train. The first bad sign was blinking on the screen at the start of the platform. It said there would be a 15min delay. Fifteen minutes is not a big deal and in fact, the train left Munich only five minutes late, so I easily shrugged that off and figured that would probably be the end of it.

I was wrong, very wrong.

After about 45 minutes on the train we stopped in a town called Aßling.

The conducter came on the intercom and said there would be a short delay. Five minutes later he came back on and said it would be a longer delay, but was unsure how long it would be, they were working on it. Twenty minutes later I called Petra to check out the website to see if it said anything. After a few more calls I talked to Gaby, my boss. She didn’t have any more information, but tried to come up with a way out of the situation. Finally, after it hailed, snowed, and melted…the conducter came through and said there would be buses to drive everyone on the train back to Munich, no trains were going either way on that length of track that day.

They sent two buses for an entire train. It was packed, standing room only, miserable, and the ride was around one hour. We got back to the Munich train station about 3pm…where we had started at 9:15 that morning. In that time I met some very nice people, but the fact that we never even got remotely CLOSE to Salzburg makes it definitely in my top 3 worst tours ever. I doubt I’ll ever forget this one.

So, here’s a pic from Salzburg on a day where we actually got there:

2 thoughts on “Worst tour? Probably not, but it certainly will be remembered

  1. NOFXmike Post author

    To me? All but one were very understanding about it, they had been warned by the person at the office…and took the risk. I was lucky nearly all on the tour were very nice people. They got refunds…one woman came back the next day and apparently REALLY was a major pain , she wanted to go after DB (the train company), which of course is pointless…they give no refunds for natural disasters…which it was. I did get smiles out of most and a “we’re glad at least we had you so we didn’t go through that alone” type of response…oh well. It’s just sad because most of these people only have 2-3 days in and around Munich and if half a day is wasted sitting on a train then turning back, it’s a good chunk of what they’ll remember as Munich. I had a similar, but much more over-the-top experience in Mexico once…but that’s another story.

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