The German train system is perhaps (the French would argue otherwise) Europe’s finest. It works well. And yet…

The train from Poznań to Berlin was 20 minutes late at the border. In Frankfurt an der Oder, the first town on the German side, the crew changed to a German one. The new guard announced in fluent English that we would be late in Berlin, but didn’t add the explanation he had offered in German: that the delay had been incurred in a “foreign country” (“ausland”). Diplomatically, he didn’t specify which one…

On the train from Berlin to Cologne, two of the hi-tech toilets didn’t flush, and of all the advertised food options, only croissants were available. And we were 20 minutes late at our destination, though nobody mentioned where that delay had been incurred…