The photograph above, which I took in Munich, has nothing to do with my story, but I have to share this tale of yet another incident that befell me on my tour through Germany.
On our second-to-last evening in Munich, a large group of my fellow travelers and I decided to take the U-Bahn (subway) to Marienplatz in the city center of Munich. We were instructed by Jürgen to take the U-6 train from the station near our hotel. To save money, Anne and Olivia, the two Go Ahead main office representatives, and I decided to purchase a group day pass, which would cost less than buying individual tickets. Of course, we had to travel together at all times.
As we were boarding the train, Olivia announced that the front of the train displayed U-4, not U-6. Anne quickly stepped off the train onto the platform with Olivia. Everyone else in our group was already on the train, with me, and were confident they were on the correct train. As I tried to get off the train, to join the people with whom I shared a ticket, the doors started to close. Anne said to go ahead, but I was afraid that, if I was not with Anne and Olivia, I would end up having to pay the steep fine for not having a ticket. I HAD to join them on the platform.
I was almost off the train, when the doors closed on my right ankle! I could hear the conductor angrily yelling in German as I strained to pull my foot free of the closing doors. I was sure that one of two things was going to happen. Either the train would pull away from the station, and I would be dragged to my death, or I would break free of the clutches of death, but my shoe would remain on the train - a modern-day Cinderfella!
Fortunately, hidden option number three occurred. Joe, one of my fellow travelers, used his superhuman strength to pry open the doors enough for me to escape certain doom before the train started.
As the train sped off, I made it safely to the platform with no more than black marks on my ankle from the rubber bumpers on the train doors. My foot didn't even hurt. After making sure I was OK, Olivia apologized profusely, but I was already laughing about the incident, joking that I was disappointed that I didn't have time to pull out my camera to take a selfie. We laughed about it for the remainder of the evening.
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