Alpine Adventure- part I

                           Alpine Adventure

      We had always wanted to visit Bavaria and see Switzerland and Austria. Dozens of movies, like “Heidi, “ “The Sound of Music,” and “The Eiger Sanction” had blossomed colorful images in our imaginations. The notions of towering granite mountains, lush, green, alpine meadows and smiling red cheeked children, playing in the fields, was nourished by many, many books we had read.

In addition, we had flown over the dark, brooding mass of the Alps a few times and once visited lake Lugano in the far South of Switzerland. My Mother’s grand parents had come from Munich in the 1800’s, so there was an ancestry angle to explore as well. I had taken a few years of German in High School, and a refresher course a few years back, so I thought I could get by with the linguistic basics.

We did our research and decided that we would like to spend another five days in Amsterdam to explore their museums and visit the medieval city of Bruges. Then, we thought we would fly on to Munich for four days to explore the region, and perhaps unearth a few family connections.

We had already found a GLOBUS Alpine Tour that seemed like a good fit. Dutifully, we made all of our plane, hotel and tour reservations. It was to be a month-long odyssey that we thought might be our final visit to Europe. It had taken us almost a year to research and make all of the arrangements.

  Two months before our departure date, GLOBUS dropped the bombshell. They were changing the “unalterable date” of the tour. Okay, we had a choice. Change our tour date or cancel our plans. The first thing you learn when you travel is that you have to make do with what you have, no matter what plans fall through. You have to rock and roll regardless of what happens. We shrugged our shoulders, said “Okay we are still on.”  Cancelling the Amsterdam and Munich visits, with all attendant hotel and airline reservations, was problematic. We knew that we would end up eating several hundred dollars in lost payments there. American Airlines also wanted another $600 to change the flights that we had made into Frankfurt. Globus agreed to pick up those costs, so weren’t going to get completely skinned.

As the July 14^th departure date approached we made all needed credit security preparations, ordered a few hundred Euros from AAA and tried to anticipate every other tactic that we could think of, to ward off the many hurdles that you face on one of these treks. We were finally ready to go.

Thursday. July 14^th, 2016- Amherst, N.Y.

        We were up early, made final preparations and then  took a cab to Buffalo International Airport at 9 A.M. We had applied and been accepted into the TSA pre flight check in program. The cost of $85 each, for five years, was to prove well worth it. We checked our bags into American Airlines and then sailed through the TSA line with ease. The airport was crowded. It seemed that everyone was on vacation. Our 11:30 A.M. flight to Charlotte, N.C was on time. We boarded and made that leg easily enough. Charlotte is the AA hub and is usually crowded. A storm in the Midwest, two days ago, had caused the usual wave of missed connections and rescheduled flights. The airport was like an anthill with passengers scurrying hither and yon. Each flight seemed to have a list of standby passengers trying to make up for the disruption. A bagel and coffee settled us down and we watched the many families struggling to drag huge piles of carry-on luggage and maintain control of what we would later call “Der Teufel’s Kinder.” (The Devil’s Children)

       Finally, our 4:40 P.M. flight for Frankfurt, Germany was called. We boarded without incident and settled into something different. A large amount of accumulated air miles, and an extra charge, had allowed us to fly in the business class section. What a difference from the usual cattle pen of economy class. We each had an individual cubicle, whose seat totally reclined for sleeping. Boze headsets to watch the movies, wonderful in-flight meals and anything you wanted or needed to drink made this a very pleasant and comfortable nine-hour flight into Frankfurt. So this is how the “other half” lives? Pretty nice ! German customs were perfunctory and polite. We had arrived.

         In the Frankfurt terminal, we had paid GLOBUS $80 for someone to meet us and take us to our nearby Hotel, The Sheraton Congress. Of course whoever that person was had either taken a powder or just not arrived. We collected our luggage (GePach) and found a cab. The ride to nearby Lyonner Strasser was brief and not expensive, at 25 euros. The hotel found room for us even at this early hour. The English speaking receptionists was particularly friendly and helpful. It was 8:00 A.M. locally time (2:00 A.M. EST.)

         While we were unpacking, the Globus driver showed up at the hotel and offered to reimburse us for our cab ride. No doubt Globus would fry his butt if we complained. We took him up on his offer. Who needs the hassle?  Morpheus immediately claimed the first few hours of our visit.

       It was Bastille Day in France. Terrorists had just  killed 85 people at a rally in Nice. This trip was already getting

interesting. An attempted military coup in Turkey the next day got our attention as well..

        We were up and around by mid afternoon. The hotel lies in in a business suburb Niederrburo, close to the airport. There isn’t much else in the area except office buildings and car parks. A surface, light-rail looked promising for tomorrow’s exploration. For now, we returned to the hotel and had coffee in the bar. A very pleasant barman, with impeccable English who had spent several years in the United States, gave us a whole array of tips for riding the light rail, where to get off and even a few suggested sights to visit.

        Later, this same bar man was doubling as a waiter in the hotel’s restaurant. We sipped a decent Riesling. Mary enjoyed the Wienner Schnitzel (breaded veal cutlets) and I, the Forelle (Salmon.) It was a good culinary start to our excursion.

In our room, the T.V was an adventure. Besides the many channels in Deutch, they offered programs in Russian, Italian, Spanish, Arabic, English and French. We watched a BBC Opera in German and faded off into the twilight, happy that we were here.

                                                    -30

                                             (1,102 words)

                                         Joseph Xavier Martin