Reorganization of the trip

Germany

Place:
Behringersdorf

Latitude N:
49°30’264”

Longitude E:
011°04’453′

I call the rail specialist first thing in the morning. “Mr. Katzer, you’re still here?” wonders Mr. Hahn. “Yes, we didn’t have a transit visa for Belarus. Why didn’t they tell us that we urgently needed one?” “I’m sorry about that. I tell all my customers. But you are the absolute travel professional for me. I thought you knew that.” “No, I didn’t know. When we’re preparing for a big trip, we often don’t know where our heads are because of all the work. It’s impossible for me to take care of everything. That’s why I like to work with specialists and, as in this case, have them organize such a complicated train journey,” I reply in a friendly manner, because the baby has already fallen into the well and it won’t come out if I accuse my counterpart. “The damage is not insignificant. The trains are all gone. Do we have a chance of a refund?” I want to know. “So the Trans-Siberian train doesn’t leave until tonight. I can cancel that immediately. You’ll get everything back. For the other tickets, the chances of a refund are very slim. But maybe something can be done. I’ll take care of it” “Oh, that sounds fantastic. We never expected to get anything refunded at all, let alone the entire Transsib ticket,” I say happily. “No problem, I’ll arrange that immediately, but how will you get to Moscow now? A four-man compartment can no longer be booked for the next four to six weeks,” says Mr. Hahn with a worried tone in his voice. “I don’t know, we’re currently reorganizing. Maybe someone will drive us to Moscow in our Sprinter. I think we’ll know more tomorrow. I’ll be in touch again.”

As soon as the conversation is over, we pull out all the stops to get a clear picture of what happens next as quickly as possible. We make phone calls and ask friends if they know anyone who can drive us to Moscow. “Oh, it’s you Denis. I thought something was wrong with the geotracking. I kept pressing reload.” “No, everything’s fine with the tracking. We’re stuck in Frankfurt Oder,” I say and explain the whole story to Stefan. Then I ask him if he would like to drive us to Moscow. “I think I have too much to do, but I will find someone. I promise you that”.

Many of our friends are concerned about the new geotracking we have set up on our news page. You could follow our route so far and see how the dot on the map in Frankfurt Oder has become fixed. Since we left the train, we were only able to see our short routes to the restaurant and back. The first worried e-mails reach us. “This geotracking is both a blessing and a curse,” says Tanja. “Right, we can no longer send our doubles on expeditions and chill out in Hawaii ourselves,” I joke. “Unless we give our doubles the transmitter for tracking?” she laughs.

It’s 12:30 pm. We sit next to our equipment in front of the hotel and wait for Meike. Meike is the mother dog of Henkie, Ajaci’s Spanish friend. But since she is also our friend, she offered to pick us up with our Sprinter last night. Fortunately, it has not yet been deregistered. Matthias, a friend in the neighborhood, will take over.

12:31 pm. Meike drives our van to the parking lot in front of the hotel. We greet each other happily and hug as if we haven’t seen each other for years. “It’s fantastic that you’re picking us up despite your move to the new house,” says Tanja as we leave Frankfurt Oder behind us. “What are friends for? Not just for partying, but also when you need them,” replies the Dutchwoman exuberantly. “Why didn’t you organize your new departure from Frankfurt Oder?” Meike wants to know. “I think it’s better to do this from home. We need new Russian visas, plus now the Belarus transit visas, we may have to organize our trip to Moscow with our own Sprinter, tell many people and sponsors why the start has failed and when we might leave again. There is a huge amount to organize and it will take at least a week or more. We are happy to be sitting in our office and not in an expensive hotel,” I explain.

The next morning we go to the local bakery for breakfast. Following my intuition, I call Mr. Hahn and ask if there is still a free compartment on the almost always fully booked train to Moscow. “It doesn’t look good,” he says. “Then we have to take the van to Moscow. Unfortunately, no car rental company offers a one-way option to get to Moscow in a rental car. All rental companies require the renter to return the vehicle. So far, we don’t have a driver who will take us the 2,300 km to this world metropolis and drive our Sprinter back again,” I explain. “Hold on, I think I’ve found what I’m looking for,” Mr. Hahn suddenly replies. “How did you find it? Is there another compartment?” “There’s a VIP compartment. It costs twice as much for two people as your previous four-person compartment. There’s actually still one available on July 5 and it’s even a bit bigger.” “We’ll take that,” I say spontaneously. “Booked,” replies Mr. Hahn a few minutes later. “We think we’ll pack our bikes in cardboard boxes. Then we’ll have even more luggage visually, but they won’t be able to complain about bikes.” “And they have VIP status. That certainly helps too,” says Mr. Hahn. “I’ve always wanted to travel as a VIP,” I reply with a laugh. In the course of the conversation, we also rebook the Transsib. We book two four-man compartments to avoid problems with all the equipment. That means we now have eight tickets. It’s expensive but still cheaper than getting stranded in the most expensive city in the world with two bikes, two trailers, a dog and lots of luggage. And that could happen if the Russians don’t let us on the Trans-Siberian Railway because of excess baggage.

Because we first need a visa for Russia before we can get a transit visa for Belarus, the time until our next departure is very short again. According to the current schedule, the Belarus visa will be issued in the late afternoon of 02.07. issued. The visa company then sends the passports to us by overnight courier. We should have them on Friday 03.07.15. Because we don’t want to run the risk of a train delay this time, we’ll be driving our own van on Saturday. God willing, we’ll be standing at the railroad embankment on Sunday morning waiting for the train that we’ve already had to leave…

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