Johan Strauss in the Stadtpark in Vienna
Sun. June 3: It was raining when we awakened but had
stopped by the time we had breakfast and checked out of the hotel. We took a
tram and the subway to the Prague rail station and boarded the sleek new Super City
"Smetana". Nice train, although we had to pay a 17 euro supplement per
couple to reserve our seats in our almost empty car. (When we crossed
into Austria the Austrian conductor scoffed at this Czech money grab.)
Back in Vienna we rushed to our hotel, grabbed our panniers from the garage and
the women (and Brian and Peter) readied themselves for their night at the
Viennese opera. Moe and I walked Barb and Carol down to the opera and then
he and I walked over to the Wien Mitte Bahnhof (station) to gather info about our trip to the
airport with our bikes on the S-bahn on Tuesday morning. It was clear that we
would have to forego breakfast at the hotel that morning because we would need
an early start to get to the airport in time for check in for our flight home.
We walked back to our hotel, mapping out a route of bike lanes for our Tuesday
departure. Meanwhile, back at the opera, Carol, Barb and Heather stuck it out
for the full five hour performance of Verdi's "Don Carlos" and
reported that they had enjoyed it. The others (Peter, Brian and Sue) bailed after
the two and a half hour first act and found a nice restaurant for dinner. (So
Peter's "opera rate" changed from "8 bucks an hour" to
"16 bucks an hour".)
Mon. June 4: Every couple scattered for their last look
at Vienna (and I guarantee this was my last look at
Vienna). Carol and I walked past the opera to see the glowering statue
of Beethoven in its own small park and in the beautiful Stadtpark the statues of
Strauss and Schubert (and others I did not recognize). We
wandered down to the beautiful grounds of the Belvedere (marred somewhat
that day by work crews paving walkways) and then across the
Schwarzenburg Platz and the Karlsplatz, had a coffee and separated. I returned
to the hotel to meet Moe for our planned testing of our bike route to the station
the next day. Our ride took less than 25 minutes so with the whole group it
shouldn't be more than a half hour. We had hoped to buy the tickets for the
bikes and ourselves but were told we could not until the day of our journey.
Austrian Air, our air carrier for our return to Toronto, has a small check in
kiosk at the train station. We went there to see if we could select our seats on
the plane. We could and we did. The young man was very helpful. Then he told us
that we could check in there the next morning, including our bikes!
"And our bikes will arrive in Canada when we do?" I asked.
"Yes" he said. So now we could check everything in there in the
morning and take a little more time to get to the airport. We might even get
breakfast. It was a very promising stop.
Tue. June 5: We loaded our bikes and followed our carefully planned route - 25 minutes! However bad news greeted us at the Austrian Air counter at the train station. We had been misinformed by yesterday's helpful young man. They were not equipped to handle the bikes so we reverted to plan 'A' - get the tickets for us and our bikes on the S-bahn train to the airport. Once again we got a group rate - 26.50 euros for the whole group, including the bikes. We struggled with the loaded bikes down two flights of stairs to train level. That was actually easier than lifting them up the two steps on to the train. (As the guys helped me to 'muscle' my loaded bike up or down stairways at various times they became much more impressed with the load I was carrying with all 4 panniers on my bike.) Check-in at the airport was smooth at the "bulky luggage" counter. They had no bags for our bikes so we nervously allowed them to go to the plane "naked". Since we were en route home, any problems could be dealt with there. (It turned out that there were a couple of small problems but no more than we've had when the bikes were bagged.) Austrian Air was a gem! Good service, acceptable food, modern entertainment equipment with individual monitors and a selection of films to choose from. The nine hour flight sped by. I'm embarrassed at how much better they were than our national airline, Air Canada. And no $50 charge for transporting each bike.
In summary, a good trip (except that our Senators didn't win the Stanley Cup! On the other hand, Carol won the hockey pool - $130 - against 51 other hockey fans. I was a distant eighth.) I'd have preferred more cycling. We weren't really on our bikes for the last week. My interest and patience runs short in big cities. (You may have already figured that out.) But I liked Munich. And I liked Prague. (And I like Paris.) So that's not universally true. And the small towns on the Romantic Road and along the Danube were charming. We'll probably go back to Germany.