I live near the Hamburg-Harburg S-Bahn train station.  People like to tease me about it being a slightly dodgy area of the city... which is emphasized by the fact that this particular train station has full time security guards patrolling the train platform.

Normally the guards are just there, wandering about, chatting together, or sometimes chatting with a commuter that they happen to know.  You never really noticed them.  Lately that has changed.

To set the scene though you have to understand how the people here travel on the train to work each day.  Harburg station is a one of the main train stations which means that there is a lot of people converging on that station to get on the S-Bahn train.  There is a train scheduled to arrive on the underground platform every 4 minutes, and generally speaking the trains are usually pretty close to on time.  So, you have a large train station, and a train departing every 4 minutes heading into the Hamburg city center.  Now comes the people.  They arrive up top, and run down the stairs to the train platform.  They run as if all the demons of hell are chasing them.... especially if they think there is a train pulling into the station.  They will practically kill themselves to get to the train... and when the train door closing alarm sounds they sprint even more.  This is normal... despite the fact that there is another train arriving in 4 minutes, the people still do this.  I think they are insane, but that's a topic for another blog entry

Now, lately, the security guards have taken to standing near the last train car, just at the bottom of the stairs... waiting... and when the door alarm goes off and everyone starts that last mad hell-bent sprint to get on the train before the doors close, they start shouting and yelling... it is a bit startling to come down the stairs and be yelled at by some security guard... especially in my case where I don't speak the language, and some big guy in a uniform is yelling in my general direction "HALT!..." and a few other words I don't know.

Life in Germany... it's weird some days...