If You Thought Airline Food Was Bad…
It’s early afternoon on a bright and sunshiny Wednesday in March as I write this. I’m on my way to Frankfurt for this year’s Musikmesse, enjoying the ride on the ICE high-speed train. On longer train rides such as this — the trip from Aachen to Frankfurt takes about two hours — I occasionally spoil myself to overpriced coffee and stale snacks. This time, though, the quality of the food was different, and not in a good way.
What you see above is a cheese-and-pickle sandwich, the likes of which can be yours for a measly 3.60 Euros. Now, I love me some cheese-and-pickle sandwich, (British chain Pret-A-Manger’s “Mature Cheddar & Pickle” is to die for!), but this one wasn’t all that mouth-watering: odd powder on the outside (flour? mold?!), dried-out cheese on the inside, rubbery bread in between, and butter that might serve perfectly well as window sealant. In case you’re wondering about the latter: yes, the butter looked just as yellow and disgusting in reality as it does in the above photo. (If you really care to see its full glory, a full-size image as available on Flickr)
It is hard to believe they had the guts to actually serve this. Then again, maybe it’s Deutsche Bahn’s equivalent to Jubilee Aquavit — the latter having crossed the equator at least once, and that sandwich having traveled to Novosibirsk, and back, at least once…
Despite all this, the waiter did earn himself a little tip because he reacted in the only acceptable way: by hastily agreeing that, no, he wouldn’t eat something like that, either, and taking it away without charging for it and without even the slightest hint at wanting to utter a single stupid remark.
That latter behavior was just as surprising as the non-quality of the food: if you’ve ever traveled with Deutsche Bahn you know that friendliness and customer orientation was an alien concept for the overwhelming majority of their train staff. Until recently, it seems: during the whole trip from Aachen to Frankfurt and back, all Bahn employees I met were friendly, if not positively pleasant to communicate with.
Considering that it is much easier to return a bad sandwich than it is to ask for an exchange of the train staff, I’ll just give Deutsche Bahn the benefit of the doubt and acknowledge that, overall, they’re on the right track (no pun intended…) towards noticeable improvement. As for the trains’ overall timeliness, let’s cover that some other time.
Share your view on this article with other readers: