Day 11: The trip home
We woke up early at our Vienna hotel and six of us piled into a minivan and headed for the airport at 8AM. Three of us were travelling on Air Berlin and the driver didn't seem to know that this was a different terminal. This was all the more interesting since I was now burdened with an extra bag filled with purchased CDs for the website. The flight to Berlin was fine - we even got a sandwich for a snack!. But the arrangement at this Berlin airport was nutty. After deplaning, passengers are directed to another terminal and are even sent out to the street so this requires a whole new check-in and security screening. For anyone purchasing liquor at the Vienna duty-free shop, that liquor would now have to be confiscated unless one checks what was originally carry-on luggage. Fortunately, my wife figured out this snag (although we did lose a jar of mustard in Vienna.) The transfer process was slow and left no time for duty-free shopping. The flight to JFK in New York was uneventful. Thanks to some headwinds (reaching speeds of over 100 MPH) we arrived slightly late at 4PM Eastern time. Out of a plane of several hundred people, Michael Cucka's bag was the first one to come out at baggage claim. But that was the end of Mike's luck. While his was the first, Marjory's and mine were close to the last. And when we finally got to Michael's car, the car's battery was dead. We called both AAA roadside assistance and the local security number. AAA got there first. While Michael and I were dealing with the man from AAA regarding the battery (in the front of the car), Marjory was standing near the back of the car and between the parked car next to us. Suddenly, some guy drives into the side of the car next to Michael's smashing the rear corner of the parked car and the front corner of his own vehicle. It also pushes the car closer to Michael's and endangers Marjory who is standing between the two. Then the local security shows up and it quickly turns into bedlam as everyone tries to explain what happened to a very confused parking agent. Things finally settled down now. We drove two hours to Michael's house where Marjory and I picked up our car for the 45 minute drive to Windsor. We arrived home at 9:00PM (3:00AM in Vienna). Thus ends this segment of the Bruckner Tour of Austria. |
