I usually save my rants for my main blog, but I’m going to put one here because I’m ranting about a travel issue today. Bill and I are headed to Vienna this afternoon. We will be flying on Germanwings. This will be our fourth Germanwings round trip flight, but the other three were before the tragic crash that happened last month. Although logically I know the chances of us crashing today are slim to none, I made a little crack on Facebook about how I hope the crew on our flight is feeling stable. If not, it’s been nice knowing everyone.
Again, it was just a joke. I am positive we’ll be fine and, later today, I’ll be enjoying a nice meal in a Viennese restaurant.
Most all of my friends wished us a good trip. Some said they looked forward to photos. A few reminded us to see the famous Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish Riding School or learn to waltz. And then it happened. Two guys, both fairly opinionated, questioned our decision to fly to Vienna.
One guy, who has told me before that he is not as well traveled as I am, suggested that I take the train because it might be more convenient and fun. Given what happened to a Germanwings flight last month, I did consider the possibility of taking a train. However, we soon found out that it would be more expensive and take longer than flying. Using the train involves going either to Munich or Nuremberg. Having recently gone to Regensburg by train via Nuremberg, we know that there is no high speed ICE train that goes to Nuremberg, so we’d be on a slower train for a couple of hours. There probably is an ICE train to Munich, but it would still take longer than flying. And again, it’s not that inexpensive, though I do find train travel to be less irritating than plane travel is.
Another guy, who has lived in Germany and tends to be a do it yourself-er, suggested that we drive because “Vienna is only four or five hours away.” I wanted to ask my friend to take a look at a map. Vienna is on the extreme Eastern side of Austria. If we encountered no traffic and didn’t need to stop anywhere, it would take about seven hours to drive there from Stuttgart. And we don’t actually live in Stuttgart. Stuttgart is nicknamed STAUgart for good reason. Traffic around here is terrible. So add another hour for that and perhaps one for lunch, vignette buying, gas, and what not. Then you have to find a place to park. Besides, Bill hasn’t yet gotten his international driver’s permit. Chances are good that he’d never be stopped, but the one time you do get stopped and don’t have one, you get a big fine. No thanks.
It just boggles the mind, though. I mean, do people not think I’ve considered other ways of getting to Vienna other than flying on Germanwings? I could have taken another airline, but that would have involved layovers and in most cases, more money. I’m going to throw caution to the wind and fly today. We have beautiful weather. And God willing, I will live to tell about it!
In fact… I already have an invitation to karaoke tonight… 😀