Vienna Austria
Made it!
Pat likes to get to airport early - well before flight time. After all, there are lots of things that can go wrong with air travel and there is even more uncertainty with today's baggage, ticketing, security, passport, health and vaccine checks. Not to mention the run of the mill age old airline problems. Cannot really blame her. So although we live just over 20 minutes drive to the airport the taxi left our house at 5am sharp for an 8:05 departure.
Airports today are amazing places. The customers (sometimes referred to as guests) learn how to pull up reservations, scan passports, get boarding passes and tag bags in a few short minutes - essentially become an airline passenger agent. The technology that has allowed this transformation is incredible; the loss of skilled employment opportunities must also be staggering.
Pat and I have travelled to the airport, completed all the prerequisite airline passenger agent jobs and had two Subway sandwiches made (I guess that soon we might be making our own, too!) in just over an hour. We are booked on the second flight to Toronto and laughed as we walked passed the gate with the first Toronto flight of the day that had yet to be called for boarding. Guess we could have slept in.
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Our two flights today were both great. On time and no drama. We travelled in luxury with an open seat between us on both flights. As we piled our belongings between us on the extra seat we wondered how you can make do with only two seats. Kind of like a poor man's business class.
Our processing through Vienna Airport was fast! We had no real conversations with Border Control, there were no virus or vaccine document checks and we are not sure if we actually saw a Customs agent. Our longest wait was for baggage retrieval and our bags were altogether and the first on the belt. And here is a good hack - the baggage carts in Vienna Airport take Canadian 25 cent coins to release them. With no Euro coins on hand yet, this was a real score. Of course this is not a rental. You get the same coin back when you return the cart. But not all coins fit - and the quarter does! and a good thing because that is all we had.
We caught the bus to Wein Westbaunhof with minutes to spare. After a short drive into the city we struggled on foot with our bags and bikes for the last one half kilometer to our hotel. Probably will not try that again if we can help it. We are staying at the Stadthalle an environmentally friendly and cyclist friendly hotel. In fact you receive 10% off your room rate if you arrive by bike or train. As we were really early for our check-in we dropped our bags and returned to the station and bought train tickets to Salzburg. After we left the counter we remembered we will be on bikes ( a key reason for being here lol) and went back again to reserve and paid the five additional euros for each bike.
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The rest of the afternoon was spent sourcing sim cards, window shopping and people watching. After a couple of pictures taken on the camera our first mispack ( is that a word ..maybe it should be misspack). I am getting that sinking feeling that I did not pack my camera battery charger!! With incredible luck we just happen to be walking through a street with half a dozen camera shops. I determined it can be replaced for around 40 euro. All is good.
We found our way back to the hotel and had the desperately needed jet lag nap. After that, Scott got up and built the bikes. It's always a bit stressful hoping that nothing has been bent, broken or forgotten. They are ready for their test ride!
Returning to the room, Pat had not budged an inch. Finally awake, we went to a local bar and grill that was celebrating Octoberfest already. Any reason for a second beer! The schnitzel and salad were a great way to get back on the meal schedule and enjoy some Austrian flavours. There were light showers as we walked home with a few more in the forecast for tomorrow.
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2 years ago