Deja Vu - All Over Again

There has to be a jinx on the pathway between Hamburg and Amsterdam.  You’ve already heard what happened on the way to Amsterdam.  We got on board the nine o’clock train which would have put us into Hamburg around 1415. An hour and a half down the tracks, the train stopped.  Someone had committed suicide by jumping in front of a train ahead of us. 

They told everyone to get off the train.  We were in the last car which wasn’t even at the station platform so we had to go forward two cars to get there.  Once everybody was off, the train left.  There wasn’t a station agent to ask, or anybody from the train company.   Another train pulled in and word got around that we were to board this to go to the next station.  Which we did. 

While on the train they said they were running a bus bridge between Amelo and Henglo.  So 12 cars of passengers got off the train and there was one bus.  It took a while for them to set up the buses, but, eventually, several pulled in to pick up passengers.  You can imagine the scene as everyone is trying to get on the bus.   After four buses we got seats.   Mind you, we all have our luggage, so you can imagine the scene.

We get to Henglo, get off the bus and an official tells us to get on the bus behind us; it is going to Bad Benheim (in Germany) where we can pick up a train to Berlin.  We got to Bad Benheim at 1328 and they said the train would be there “circa” 1400.  It finally arrived at 1420.  Since, we only needed to go two stops to get our train to Hamburg we got on the first car.  I had pulled up the schedule for the Hamburg trains and knew that if we could get to Osnasbruk  in time to catch the 1523 train, we might make our connection in time to get to the Opera. 

We got there about 1500, and they announced the train for Hamburg would be on a different platform, so we schlepped our luggage one more time.  I was going to try and get an agent to get our first class seat reservations, when the train pulled in.  It turned out it was the 1423 train running late.   We grabbed the first seats we saw in a compartment, and hoped nobody else would show up with that seat assignment.  The conductor looked at our tickets and allowed us to stay, so we headed north.

We finally got to see Bremen, however briefly, and got to Hamburg around 1710.  Checking into our hotel was easy, and we were able to get to La Traviata.  

We enjoyed the performance.  The highllight was a very strong soprano

The staging was a bit unusual:  What do bumper cars have to do with a courtesan in Paris in the 18^th century?