Wanderung 31

We were up and about fairly early as we had a full day of travel ahead of us. First we had to take the S-Bahn to the Hamburg Hauptbanhof, then walk to the Zentral OmniBus (ZOB) station, take the Flix bus to port city of Kiel, and then get to the Costa Pacifica which was moored somewhere in the port. There were a decent number of links in that transportation chain, so I think we were all a bit nervous about "The Plan" going off as planned.

• Plan A: Plan A was "The Plan", but it had a lot of links and it was absolutely imperative that we catch our ship before it sailed away at 5 p.m.! But I had mentally prepared backup plans to get us there on time if "The Plan" misfired:
• Plan B: Take intercity train directly from Hamburg Hauptbahnhof to Kiel Haupbahnhof, then a taxi to the Costa Pacifica -- I wasn't sure how often trains ran between the two cities but figured that there would at least be one around noon that would get us there on time. However, the train was slightly more expensive than the Flix bus.
• Plan C: Take a taxi directly from Hamburg all the way to the Costa Pacifica in Kiel -- very easy but very expensive!
• Plan D: Throw ourselves on the mercy of our kind and forbearing German relatives and ask them to sacrifice their Sunday rest to drive us up to Kiel -- very rude but very cheap!

Having made that many backup plans, I could relax and enjoy a big breakfast of salami and cheese on a hoagie, and eggs on a roll plus coffee at the bakery outside the train station. The others in our party were, however, more uncertain about all this and had either no or very little breakfast, which played a role in how we all felt later that day.

In any event, we checked out around 10 am and caught the S1 down to Hauptbahnhof without any problems. The ZOB station turned out to be just across the street from Hauptbahnhof rather than a couple of blocks away as I had recalled it, so we arrived there 45 minutes early, which gave us time for a bathroom break at the McDonalds next door before boarding the Flix bus.

The ride up to Kiel was on the interstate (Autobahn) that runs pretty much due North-East between the two cities. Fortunately it was a Sunday and traffic was very sparse as we had construction zones along the way where we were channeled into a single lane. Trucks have to pay a special and quite hefty fee in Germany to drive on Sundays, and as a result almost all of them stay parked in the rest areas, which leaves the Autobahns mercifully free of truck traffic. As a result, we arrived almost exactly on time at 12:50, but to my surprise we were not dropped off at the ZOB in Kiel, but rather at an auxiliary bus station several blocks up the street at the far end of the harbor. Nuts!

So we perforce had to trundle our luggage back down the street to the ZOB and Haupbahnhof, where we searched for any sign or clue of where the Costa Pacifica was moored and how we should get there. I searched in the train station for a person waving a little "Costa" flag or a Costa-labeled kiosk and failed to find either one. There was a sign for Tourist Information in the train station, but try as I might I never found that either, possibly because it was closed on Sundays, I am not sure. Meanwhile, back with the luggage outside, Monika had seen a Costa shuttle bus pass by, but it had just curled around in front of the train station without stopping and then driven off! Double nuts!

Our choices at that point were to try to chase down the Costa shuttle to its stop, try to walk to the ship, or give up and take a taxi. I asked a local guy on a bicycle where the Costa Pacifica was, and he said to go down to the Main Street along the harbor and turn left and go about 400 meters. That didn't sound too bad, so I took the lead and off we went. But it turned out that the Pacifica was more like a mile or so down that street, so it was quite a hike, what with pulling our luggage along and all.

Still, we arrived at the cruise ship terminal where the Pacifica was docked about 1:30, but there began our "Long Wait". We had been given number 23, and it took over 2 hours before we were allowed to check in. Since the others had not had breakfast nor lunch, they were all understandably getting quite hungry and thirsty by this time. Jerry and Monika wandered off for a beer and a bratwurst, and Linda bought us some ice cream cones while she and I waited with the luggage.

When we finally checked in, I was astonished to see only 8 Costa check-in clerks servicing a ship that carried 3,500 passengers! No wonder we had the ungodly long wait! But we finally embarked, had the obligatory picture taken, and got to our cabins. We stepped out onto our balcony and had a friendly gull greet us. If I were supersitious, I would probably have considered that to be a good omen. But I'm not superstitious, so all I saw was an aerial freeloader looking for an easy meal!

Linda then somehow instinctively found her way to the ship's buffet, the one place where we could get an immediate snack, and by the time we were back in our cabins our luggage had arrived. We interrupted our unpacking for the lifeboat drill, and then had dinner together, shortly after which I just collapsed and went to bed.