Wednesday, June 14, 2006 - leaving home
After a full day spent around home getting ready (and screwing around), I head to the airport. In spite of my earlier plans to take the light rail, I end up taking a cab, figuring that I don’t want to transfer to the rail downtown during rush-hour, and also don’t want to haul my suitcase on a bus. That’s the weakness of the current rail — unless you’re going from downtown to the airport (or vice-versa), you’ve got to use some other mode of transport that’s less suited to carrying luggage.
At the airport, the plane is overbooked. Northwest is offering $750 in travel vouchers plus a hotel room to folks who are willing to wait a day to take the flight which will surely be overbooked again. I don’t have time to accomodate the delay, so I consign myself to a full plane. At least I’ve got a window seat, and I take a few photos along the way.
 |
 |
 |
 |
Thursday, June 15, 2006 - travel day
I’ve got almost five hours to kill in Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. It’s not quite enough time to leave the airport and make it into town, but way too long to just spend the entire time at the gate. One interesting thing they have are “transfer stations” between parts of the airport. There’s customs and immigration when you go from one part of the airport to another, and then the airlines also have their transfer stations where you can do the checkin that you normally would at the gate. I think it’s a lot better solution than the one at MSP.
I arrive in Vienna in the evening, and catch a bus from the airport to Westbahnhof Wien, which is near where I’m staying. Once I’m there, I catch a cab to the hotel, even though it’s only a four or five block walk, but I’m tired, unsure of the exact directions, and am more than happy to spend the €5 on the short cab-ride.
I’m in the hotel room and done with a shower before 10pm, but can’t go to sleep right away. The time zone changes were partly offset by the lack of sleep, but I apparently took a few too many naps along the way and it takes a while to get to sleep.
Friday, June 16, 2006 - getting to Melk
I don’t really have fixed plans for the day. Checkout time at the hotel is noon, and breakfast is served from 6:30 to 9. Of course I’m awake at 4am, and the stores generally don’t open until 9am. I put together a shopping list consisting of a mini-tripod, a watch, and some spare t-shirts, and head out.
I end up taking the U-bahn all the way downtown to St. Stephen’s Place, where I walk around a bit, then as the heat catches up with me, try to sit in a café for a minute, but my German completely fails me and I end up leaving without ordering anything. I head back to the hotel for a second shower, and decide that maybe it’ll be cooler in the country, so I head for the train to Melk.
Getting to Melk now means a transfer in St. Pölten. I think there still might be trains that hit all the small towns along the way, but the quickest way is the transfer now. I get onto the train, and end up sitting next to a very helpful woman who restores my faith in humanity as she explains a few things I’m too addled to figure out myself. She also helpfully nudges me awake when we reach St. Pölten and I need to transfer. The area around the train station has changed enough in the past twenty-five years that I wouldn’t have recognized it.
Another train, then I’m in Melk. This I recognize. Rather than take the cab downhill into town, I decide to walk the four blocks this time. Along the way a woman helps point me toward my hotel, even though I was pretty sure I knew where I was going and didn’t ask for help. She just stopped me and asked which hotel I was looking for. My German is up to the task this time.