Train to Vienna

Met up with Mona and the kids at a bit after 5:00 PM in the train station. After taking a few minutes for a quick dinner and bathroom stop we gathered at the track circled the wagons (luggage)and waited for the train. we ended up in the las two cars. I was in the very last car and Mona & the students in the car ahead of me. They had three compartments of four couchettes each, which was perfect being the students comprised four boys and seven girls. I was in a compartment with three couchettes. Well, it's not the first time I've slept with strangers. Actually my two male roommates didn't get on until some time down the way. Don't remember which stop exactly, but it was nice having the compartment to myself for awhile.
Slept in fits and starts, woke at nearly every stop along the way. Got out at Dresden, where we had a relatively long stop, to get back on schedule, I suppose. The whole group got out. Took some pictures of the platform. Would have like to have been able to see some of Dresden. Just remember it was pretty flattened during WWII.
Arrived in Vienna right on schedule, gathered everyone together and off to the hotel. Well, sort of. After taking the group down the wrong street for a ways, someone noticed the house numbers were going the wrong way. Whipped out the trusty iPhone and got our bearings again. Fortunately we were only a short detour away from the Hotel Ibis.
We were lucky again in the at this early hour we able to get into 5 of the seven rooms that were booked. Put the luggage of those folks whose rooms were not ready yet into another's room. We all could use a shower, especially me as I have spent two days in these clothes. Most took advantage of the opportunity even though they were anxious to see Vienna.
First on the agenda, breakfast. At Anker many of the students followed Mona's example and had a turkey and cheese sandwich on a short baguette. Typical Austrian fare. I opted for a strudel! Hey, how often am I going to get the chance?
Next order of business, our three day transportation passes. We were going to be using public transport, mainly Ubahn (subway)and Sbahn (surface rail) extensively over the next few days. Initially we were going to buy these passes from a machine. But, inspite of the fact that I was using a credit card and not a debitcard, the machine would not complete the transaction without a pin number. Something to keep in mind for next time. So we had to find a live person to purchase the tickets from. With that taken care of we mapped out the Ubahn to get us to Shoenbrunn Palace, where we took a self paced audio tour of the Palace apartments. Unfortunately no photography was allowed. Then we met outside to start exploring the immense and beautiful gardens.


In the photo you can see the Neptune fountain at the far end. Behind the fountain on top of the hill is an imposing structure, which I do not know the original purpose of, but which today provides a great overview of the garden and a large part of the city. The kids wanted to climb up there, so off we went. All of this walking and climbing, and the fact that I tend to walk pretty fast, earned me the nickname, " Frank the Tank", from the students. Then some of them went through the maze or labyrinth that is part of the gardens.
From here we took the Ubahn to the Naschmarkt (Nosh Market) for lunch. Oh, the aromas of the various ethnic foods. After a bit of looking about, Mona led us to her favorite kebab stand for some really scrumptious sandwiches. It was a tremendous advantage that she used to live in Vienna. The kids ordered in German. I just pointed at what the guy ahead of me ordered and got the idea across that way. A delicious lamb gyro! Yum!


After a bit of shopping time, it started to rain and we headed back into the metro for Stephansplatz. There we encountered some street performers (see photo) .


Some of the students wanted to climb the approximately 300 steps to the top of one of Stephansdome's towers. So we did! This is a view from up there.


After descending, some took the tour of the church's catacombs. Unfortunately, not everyone took the tour and some were relaxing and talking in the church. It only took a moment's inattention for a backpack containing a camera and passport to be stolen.
While Mona and the student whose belongings were stolen went to make the police report, I stayed with the rest of the group and let them explore in groups. Everyone was now very much aware of the possible consequences of not watching your stuff really closely.
Dinner was authentic Austrian schnitzel at a local restaurant. Then it was off to the Rathaus(City Hall) for a free, outdoor Opera on a giant screen. It was awesome to see all the folks out there enjoying this event with the moon riding high on a beautiful clear night.

Crossing the Pond

   At JFK I got through security with about 3 hours to spare before boarding. Seems my flight was delayed due to the late arrival of the aircraft from Germany. So I wandered over to American Airlines' Admiral's Club.  Couldn't talk my way in for free so I anteed up the day pass rate and went in.  Since they gave me three drink vouchers I figured it wasn't a bad deal.  File away for future travel.  Spent a few hours.  In any case it was definitely worth it to have a nice comfortable place to hang out, with snacks, free WiFi, beverages and clean bathrooms.  This was all reinforced when I had to leave for my departure gate and saw that crowd of folks with no place to even sit down!

   Our departure ended up being an hour and a half late.  Obviously I was concerned about making the connection at Dusseldorf for the Berlin flight. But with the jet stream whipping along at a brisk pace and the boys in the cockpit putting the "pedal to the metal" or "balls to the walls" as we used to say back when I was flying for Uncle Sam's No Frills Airlines, we amazingly arrived on our original schedule.  Saw something strange during dinner. The water in my plastic glass had a standing wave on the surface that consisted of a series of concentric circles. I assume this was caused by the slight high frequency vibration you could feel in the aircraft (could this be a high speed buzz from approaching Mach one?). Initially I assumed the waves would be propagating outward from the center (see adjacent pic), but the little bits of ice in the glass were moving from the edge to the center so it would appear the waves were traveling in that direction. Anybody got any theories on this?
   My impression of Air Berlin: aircraft was a nice new Airbus but this was definitely economy class. No individual video screens or choice of entertainment.  Seating was pretty tight with no excess leg room.  They did give complimentary beverages (including wine, beer and mixed drinks) and snacks.  Meals were typical airline fare. Always amazed at how full I feel after eating one of those meals of what appears to be tiny portions.  Must be some concentrated calories packed in there.
   At Dusseldorf I made it through passport control and security very quickly, although something on my person set off the alarm and I had the old wiz wand and pat down treatment.  Of course I got in the wrong line. No pretty fraulein here!  On arriving at the departure gate we were informed that our flight was delayed because they couldn't find part of the crew.  Did they think to check the bars? First place we'd look back home!Well, so much for the legendary German timeliness and efficiency.  But can you believe the smoking lounge?  This is the height of efficiency.  Smokers can really speed things up here. Not only are they isolated from non-smokers, but they are in a totally enclosed space with other smokers!  So they are not only "enjoying" their own smoking but get to suck in the second hand smoke of others!!
   Well, we finally get to Berlin Tegel airport and miraculously my luggage made it too. So hopping on the bus to Berlin Hauptbahnhof for a mere 2,30 Euros I was on my way to the train station.  Being a little nervous about not knowing where to get off the bus I whipped out the trusty iPhone and fired up the mapping app.  Sure enough it showed our location and how far it was to the train station.  Then I sent Mona (the teacher in charge of the student group) a text and arranged to meet them at 17:30 (5:30 PM for you civilians) as our train departs the station at 18:12 for Vienna. They were on a boat tour at the time.

Departing for JFK

July 9, 2011.
   I decided to take Amtrak to NYC and then from there the LI Railroad to Jamaica Station where I could catch the Airtrain to JFK Terminal 8 for my departure on Air Berlin to Berlin via a connection in Dusseldorf. Figured this would be a much more pleasant way to travel than driving myself to the airport in a rental. Plus this way I could work on this blog as I traveled.
   Evelyn drove me to Utica's Union Station where I quickly changed the internet voucher I purchased online for a real train ticket using the automated kiosk in the terminal.  Piece of cake!  Just scan her in and out pops the ticket. There was some uncertainty about the track the train would be using. We started out on tráck 2 (the one closest to the station), but then the rumor circulated that it was going to be on track one, which most of the passengers accessed by using the stairs or elevator to rach the overhead walkway to safely traverse track 2. Being the rebels that we are, we just walked across track two at ground level to platform one. Forgive us OSHA!
   The train was surprisingly crowded. I didn't anticipate so many traveling to New York by train, not taking the train myself very often.  The seating was comfortable enough. My only complaint was the laqck of a shade on the window. I was stuck in a window seat and the morning sun was quite warm and bright.  There were 110V AC outlets for running the electronics that have become such an integral part of our lives.  But, alas, no WiFi!
   As I had woken at 5 AM this morning after turning in past midnight, I was tired and slept awhile.  Now wish I hadn't because I found there was some interesting scenery en route.  The beautiful rural landscape of upstate gave way to the less idyllic, urban "blight" of dilapidated industrial areasfrom bygone days, largely overgrown with what I would call "junk" vegetation occasionally punctuated with attractive wild flowers.  The debris of rail's long gone hey day, while ugly on the surface, made for some interesting sites.  Decaying switches and sidings, jumbles of discarded rails and ties, as well as piles of assorted and unidentifiable machine parts stick in my mind.
   We crossed what I assume was the Harlem river into northern Manhattan.  There was a group of folks on the water in brightly colored kayaks.  The track litter now tunred from decaying industrial residue to just plain trash.  At one point there was a pile of opened and unopened suitcases, as if dumped from the cliffs above, created when the track beds had been carved out of the hilly rock formations making up most of the island. Often I'd see mattresses along the tracks, particularly where there was an overhang or other sheltered area.  Wondered if I would see any homeless, but never saw anyone.  Graffiti abounded on the retaining walls and abandoned buildings alike. It made me think of ancient cave paintings I saw in a history book once.  There must be an innate desire in humans to leave their mark.  The wall writings are surprisingly similar, almost as if done by the same "artist".  The characters, those closely spaced, sometimes overlapping, pudgy, rounded and colorful letters spelled out names and cutesy sayings.  Rarely any profanity.  You could tell that the railroad or a local municipality had tried to fight the spread of the graffiti by painting over extensive sections of retaining walls with grey or taupe paint.  But it was evidently a losing battle as there was a lot of graffiti right on top of the cover up.  In fact, the cover up paint only acted to make the "artwork" stand out more predominately.
   Once in Penn Station I did the bag drag over to Long Island Railroad.  Looks like everything departing from Penn for LI goes through Jamaica Station, so it didn't matter which train I got on.  $4.50 for a senior citizen ticket, what a deal!  Nice train, clean, more utilitarian seating than the plushAmtrak seats, but comfortable enough.  At Jamaica Station I switched to the Airtrain ($5.00) which took me to terminal 8. 
  

Prologue

I'm creating this blog to help keep the folks back home informed on what is going on while we follow our itinerary from Berlin to Vienna and Salzburg and on to Munich. The group I am escorting is already in Germany on a home stay wherein they'reliving with German families in Schneverdingen and attending classes as well. On Sunday, July 10 I will be meeting them in Berlin at the train station to start our journey. I will upload pictures as well as I am able, depending on what kind of internet connection I can find.