A good few years ago myself and two colleagues attended the CeBIT show in Hannover. This used to be a massive show of around 750,000 visitors over 10 days. As you can imagine flights and hotels were at a premium, but being a savvy travel planner I got a deal!
We got a flight from Heathrow to Berlin and the train from Berlin to Hannover it was half the price. Instead of paying for hotel rooms, we stayed in private houses, (one “hausfrau” would be an entirely new story) again half the price. So for the 8 days we were at the show I was feeling rather pleased with myself that we were doing business there on the cheap, that is until the last day.
Our train to Berlin departed from the CeBIT fairground at 13.25. There are only two platforms and, by my watch, we were there at 13.20 so got on the next train and we quickly picked up speed… Towards Stuttgart in the wrong direction.
My watch was a few minutes fast and we (at my insistence) had got on the wrong train. A helpful train master sorted us out, we got off the train 38 minutes later in the middle of nowhere with a biting wind, -10 Celsius and 30cm of snow. None of us had winter coats (hey we are English,, well two English and a Scotsman) and a 50-minute wait to get a train back to Hannover Central Station.
I used the time wisely to phone British Airways to change our booking, but because they were cheap tickets, no changes were permitted. At this point, glumness, misery and anger set in. The glumness from me, I had got it wrong, the misery from Tony, my other colleague who had metal bits in his feet and really felt the cold. The anger from a colleague Steve, who needed to be home because it was his wedding anniversary and his wife had swopped hospital shifts to have the night off. Still, on the phone with BA, the good news 3 seats on a flight departing Hannover to London were available, so I booked them.
The train came, we got to Hannover Central Station and took a taxi to the airport (yes I now know if we had stayed on the same train we would have been at the airport a few minutes later). While checking in there is a terrible smell. So bad a cleaning crew was investigating. Let’s just say my colleague Steve, anxious to get home for his anniversary managed to clear the way through security and passport control without any problems.
With minutes to spare we take our seats in the plane. The last 3 seats were in business class, so we sit, relax and enjoy a glass of champagne (those were the days my friend) then the pilot says “welcome aboard this BA flight to London Gatwick….
A taxi from Gatwick to Heathrow got us back to Heathrow exactly 7 minutes later than if we had got the original plane from Berlin and back in Oxford on time.
Those few minutes cost over a £1000 and we never went to CeBIT again…
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