We have a history with trains. Okay. It isn’t much of a history but getting kicked off of one is certainly one of our more memorable travel adventures. Today was an equally memorable adventure and it ended on a train.
We spent the morning playing tourists and exploring all the bridges. See post one and post two from earlier in the day. After that, we were off to our hotel for showers followed by beers with a view.
It was a lovely and scenic drive along a skinny curvy road. We went by a long lake with tons of people playing in and near the water.
Shortly past the lake, 2 motorcycles came upon us super fast looking to pass us and be on their merry way. There was an oncoming car so we edged to the side to give everyone maximum space. Unfortunately, there was a bridge in our path and the bridge had a cement curb. Our front tire shared a passionate kiss with said curb and died a quick death from the heat of the kiss.
And there we were. Stranded on the side of the road. I should mention at this point that we travel internationally with just data service and no phone service. We literally couldn’t call for help.
I tried to flag down a passing vehicle but they either didn’t see me or didn’t want to engage. I can’t blame them.
I then spied a hiker returning to his vehicle and asked him if he spoke English. He said a little and so I explained the flat and that we needed a tow truck. He said we could use the SOS system in the car to contact the rental company and get help. Brilliant!
Chris does this and gets transferred to the local emergency services office. They misunderstood a flat tire to be a burning vehicle. We all agreed the vehicle wasn’t burning (or so we thought) and ended the call as a non-emergency.
Our new friends watched this exchange and then offered to call the local equivalent of AAA (fun fact there are 2 different versions of this: 1 German and 1 Austrian but they’re the same thing). They did so and got an estimate for the time and cost of the service since we weren’t members. About an hour and between 250 and 600 euro. They also suggested calling the rental place. So smart! We got pressured into extra insurance so let’s do this and save some cash.
Miriam, daughter of Wolfgang, the hiker I flagged down, called on our behalf and got an estimate of 1-1.5 hours for someone to come out and bring us a replacement car and take away the lovestruck one. Excellent! They volunteered to keep us company because it was unlikely that our German skills and the tow truck driver’s English skills would find a happy middle ground. They were right.
While we were waiting for the tow truck driver, 2 police cars containing 4 police officers (total) came upon us lights flashing. Turns out someone had received a call about a burning car in our vicinity, so they came to check it out.
Wolfgang explained the situation to them and the mistaken conversation during the SOS call which smoothed things over. Two of the officers donned reflective vests and went to inspect the bridge. They came back a short time later and informed us that it was unharmed. I was so pleased to hear it.
They hung out with us for a while joking and telling stories before leaving again. Wolfgang offered everyone mango candy as they got back in their vehicles.
We passed the time talking about a wide variety of topics including but not limited to:
- their family: Miriam is 1 of 6 kids. She isn’t the youngest nor the oldest but I’m not sure where she hits in the lineup. Her oldest sister met an Australian while working? Traveling? there. They got married and lived there in 2019 through the Pandemic. They’re now both living in Germany. We discussed jobs and the challenges of working abroad.
- license plates. Turns out that the first few letters of the plate tell you the area the car is from similar to the stickers that Tennessee does for the county of registration. We chatted that it wasn’t exactly done by county or city but some specific German process. Wikipedia tells me that it’s done by “district authority” and that there’s a German children’s game of guessing where each car is from. We kinda played this but our version was more of Wolfgang and Miriam pointing out where each passing vehicle was from and telling us a little about the area. It’s holiday season so there were a ton of plates from as far away as Hamburg but they also spied some from their neighboring district
- ALDIs has voice cards where we can solve our lack of voice plan. This prompted Chris to buy a number (is that a thing?) while we were on the side of the road. Also, ALDIs configures their product lineup regionally. Wolfgang and Miriam’s post-hike snacks came from their local ALDIs and apparently couldn’t be found in a Northern German store
- the sensitivity of our car. It auto-locked when you walked away from it and beeped to let you know it provided you this service. It’d then beep and unlock when you approached again. This is annoying when you’re just hanging out nearby but it allowed me to share my newest dad joke:
- Knock knock
Who’s there
Cargo
Cargo who?
No silly. Owls go who. Cars go beep beep
- Knock knock
- regional food to try where we’re from. I couldn’t immediately remember anything from Seattle so we told them about Nashville hot chicken. Then Chris told them about Seattle dogs. I gave him grief for bringing up the ugly stepchild to people whose country perfected sausage.
- The importance and location of the car warning safety triangle. Each car in Germany and Austria (probably more countries in Europe) is required to have a triangle that is to be displayed a minimum distance behind a disabled vehicle. Initially, we thought that our rental was missing this component and Wolfgang set up his behind our car. With all of our free time, we eventually discovered that our car did have one and we relieved Wolfgang’s triangle of its duties with the brand new one from the rental car.
While we waited, several vehicles slowed down to check on us and 2 even stopped to offer help. I’ve had help before in the States when I’ve had a flat tire on the side of the road but it was a few decades ago at this point. I’m not sure that would happen these days.
An hour and a half later Miriam got a call from the tow truck driver who was 10 minutes away. There’s no way I’d have been able to get him to our location. They were intimately familiar with it having had problems finding the parking spot for their morning hike. Their staying to provide the necessary detail to the other driver seriously saved our butts.
When our tow truck driver arrived he revealed a new twist: the station he’d been told to tow the car to is 1) not a rental car facility and 2) closed for summer holidays for another week. We were going to be stranded.
Miriam got back on the phone and worked out that we could get another car from any of their rental facilities. Unfortunately, the nearest 2 have already closed for the evening.
It quickly became obvious that the next step needed to be getting a hotel near a rental facility. Wolfgang graciously offered to give us a ride to the train station, we snapped a selfie with our new friends and got a train to Munich where I sit writing this draft.
My dear reader, these poor Good Samaritans got up early for a long and strenuous hike along a narrow trail. They shared pictures and holy cow were the views amazing! But I digress. They spent 5+ hours hiking and I accosted them just as they were heading home. They then spent the next 4 and a half hours chatting with us on the side of the road, waiting on hold at least 3 separate times with our rental agency, and were our translators with the police, the tow truck driver, and every other Good Samaritan that offered to help us. We owe them so much and have clearly used up all of our goodwill on this trip.
Here’s hoping we make it to Salzburg tomorrow without any further adventures!
