... before you reach it."
These wise words are very often given to me as advice from my dear friend Christine.
You see: I am impatient. I am a scheduler, I like to make plans. Worry about them.
Today I got a beautiful example for that vice: how often had I discussed with friends and family whether I should renew my one-year-season ticket for the German railroad - the special offer "BahnCard100" for pensioners and retirees.
I enjoyed its possibilities: with this ticket I can as often as I want take every train in Germany, on the spur of a moment, going as far in Germany as I want. For one year, "without paying" anymore.
The only fly in the ointment was the price: 3880 Euros (= 3.319 Pound Sterling) - a special offer for us oldies.
Quite a lot, I think. But I bought it. Although being at least 3 weeks a month together with the triplets so I had only one week a month - in which I travelled to Berlin, mostly, and sometimes to Munich.
Mid-September I have to renew this Card.
OR NOT.
As I said: I crossed that bridge often in my head.
Yesterday I saw: no need for that.
They do not offer this "special offer" anymore. (One can still buy the regular one - 2.class in the train - for 4.550 Euro. (3.894Pound Sterling)
No need to cross a bridge. I won't. I will buy the tickets I need, every time, and that's it.
Sigh... It was so comfortable... But...
Probably the most economical. But spontaneity? Well, cross that bridge when you come to it.
ReplyDeleteI crossed it - and bought the BahnCard 50
DeleteIt sounds like a toll bridge.
ReplyDeleteIt actually is.
DeleteRail rovers used to be cheap.
ReplyDeleteGood old times. Now they are late and expensive...
DeleteWhat fun. To be able to go on a whim. Sounds heavenly.
ReplyDeleteIf one has enough time (but with my triplet grandchildren I don't) it is a super deal. In the newspapers they told about a young man who for one year lived in Germany's trains - no flat, no house, and seeing a lot :-)
DeleteI'ts well worth it for you Britta as you use the train often. We get cheap train fares once a pensioner but I don't use trains that much at the moment. We also get a free bus pass which I have got but have never used !!!!! XXXX
ReplyDeleteDear Jacquie, in Berlin I do everything by underground (7 different lines near) or bus or tram - I sold my little red Fiat 500, it was not used.
ReplyDeleteIn Bavaria very soon I had to buy a Merc - the little red train stops once every one hour (!) at the station, and the village has no shops at all, not even a bakery, nor - very sorry to say that: a café... XXXX
Dearest Britta, I think you took the right path and can now just zip off whenever you fancy, rather than fretting that you may not get your years-worth of value from the annual pass. We spend virtually all our time on public transport and despite finding the trains quite expensive in England, where we've just been, so long as you aren't a commuter anymore, taking infrequent jaunts is not so , in the greater scheme.
ReplyDeleteI've just looked back at your more recent posts and see that I've been absent from your Comments Department. For shame! Your posts are familiar, as I have been keeping up with your Pretty Witty's, but I think I've been reading them on my phone when I'm on the bus or train flitting to and fro between dancing classes and whatnot, and my stupid phone won't let me comment for some reason. Grrr!
Dear Pip, I am so glad to discover your comment, thank you! (I read it on my phone - here on the blog they hid it in the spam-box; where I had to pick it out).
DeleteWow - you've been in England!!! I was there so often, but not in the last years, and I yearn...
At the moment I have to cast an attentive glance at my life - the triplets became 5 years old now, and we are deeply in love - and they are able to tell me so! bliss - yet I have to think how to spend more "free" time now and will make some decisions: How - and where - do I want to live?
I am almost three years now here in Bavaria - beautiful - and a little less in my huge Berlin flat. I see the outline of a plan emerging, softly. Hum Mark Knopfler's "The Trawlerman's Song" - "We're taking on water, diesel and stores/ Layin' up awhile before I'm back on board", lalala...
No need to decide hastily . (If time is kind to me).
Together with the Flying Dutchman I will visit the Provence in mid-September.
I hope that I will find new elan to write - about everyday adventures.
I'm glad you are back!