Travel woes and interesting people (24 September 2024)

 


I messed up with our travel to Zürich.  Initially I had a ticket for us to go to Linz and then onto Munich and from there to Zürich.   However, we had a conversation with an Aussie couple who said they were going a different route and catching the same train from Munich.  I checked with a rail person to ensure we were on the right train and was told to take the same route as the Aussie couple.  It was a bad move.

 

I thought we were going to Pilsen (where the pilsener beer is made) and changing trains to one that was going to take us to Munich.  When we got to Pilsen we had quite a surprise as  we discovered we were going on a bus.  It left late. We eventually found out that we were catching a train from a small village on the Czech/German border. 

 

The bus went very slowly and we knew we had a train to catch at 10am.  Unfortunately, due to traffic hold-ups and a slow driver we missed our connection and had to wait for nearly two hours for the next train in a small smelly waiting room. 

 

Finally the train arrived.  It meant that we missed our Munich to Zürich connection.  We managed to secure seats on the next available train and then there was a nearly two hour wait.  It was the first day of the Oktoberfest and we were entertained by watching many people dressed in traditional costume, as they headed off for the festivities. 

 

While it was a day of frustration we were able to share it with some interesting people.  The Aussies had been celebrating the wedding of their daughter behind Lennon’s Wall in the Lesser Town of Prague.  Another couple were Americans who were on a two week holiday.  They were lovely.  We talked about the elections in the US.  They were Harris supporters and very concerned about the direction of the US.  Pennsylvania is a battleground state so they were very concerned about the misinformation and lies that Trump and the Republicans were promoting.  It was a fascinating conversation, and they were telling us how families now have topics of conversation they can’t risk talking about, especially politics. 

 

We finally arrived in Zürich at around 9pm and were met by Bev’s friends.  It had been a long day  having been up since before 5am. 

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