Friday, December 23 - Disembarkation Day!

 You know those mornings when you wake up, fresh and ready to face the day?  Your body feels like you're 25 again, and you just want to get out there and go?

Today isn't one of those days.  I actually woke up feeling like I could sleep for another couple of hours.  Or days.  BUT, it's disembarkation day, and we had to go.  We got up, and headed down to breakfast.  One last morning of someone else deciding what we should eat, without having to pay anything else.

One of the neater things about AMAWaterways is the way they do disembarkation.  On ocean cruises, as we all know, it's a mass exodus off the boat, as they have to turn over thousands of rooms before they have more people board the ship.  Here, it's a much more sedate pace.  We had booked ourselves onto the 11:14a train from Vilshofen to Munich, and then from there we were on the 1:34p train from Munich to Innsbruck.  I was super excited for this part, as I had done TONS of research trying to find the easiest/best way to get from A to B in Europe.  Trains were cheap, easy, and convenient.

AMAWaterways arranged for private transportation from the ship to the train station, and we were successfully on our way by 9:30 AM.  Having almost a full hour at the train station, Bill and I jumped across the road to McDonald's, and had a coffee (for me), coke (for Bill), and a breakfast sandwich for Mom, since she declined to join us on our last free meal on board.  

I have to tell you, despite having done all the research, I was extremely nervous about this next leg.  I'd never done this before, and I wasn't sure what I was doing.  We had reservations for seats, but what Wagon were we on?  How were the seats arranged?  It was...stressful (stressig, in German!)  I showed my tickets several times to the attendant, and she assured me we were all good.  

Fast forward to us on the train, finally.  (I also had a small worry that we had limited time to get on the train, and Mom's mobility along with her luggage would be a huge bottleneck for us.  BUT, the train came, we hopped on, and um, didn't find a seat.  It was already packed.  We stood there, by the door, and looked exactly like what we were - out of place.

The ticket lady came by, and asked for our tickets, so I showed her the app with my reservation.  After about 4 minutes of trying to figure out my tickets, we finally deduced that had reserved seats, but had not, in fact, bought tickets.  No worries - I can "easily" do it on the app.  (Har har)

After a bit I had tickets from Vilshofen to Munich.  I had seats reserved for us from Munich to Innsbruck, but I couldn't buy a ticket on that train because it was "full."  I spent the rest of the trip from Vilshofen to Munich (about 75 minutes) trying to buy tickets.  I'm reasonably confident that I lost about 12 years of my life span on that train.  I DID finally get tickets.  I was somewhat comfortable with the notion that I had tickets AND a reservation, so I think...maybe we're good.

 

Following along with my train station pictures, above is Munich.  It was pretty neat, and luckily our next train was only a few platforms away.  We moved our way over there, and regained our composure . Oh.  Why did we regain our composure?  Let me back track.  I was so focused on trying to ensure we had tickets to match our reservations, that I didn't enlighten you all to the plight of mom and Bill on our first European train.

So, after we were "confirmed" on the first train, the ticket lady beckoned to mom from the first class car, letting her know there were seats up there.  So, mom took MY luggage, which was/is the smallest of all ours (albeit the heaviest).  She all but disappeared in the crowd.  Shortly thereafter, Bill and I were summoned up the aisle a bit.  The ticket lady crammed Bill into a seat, and we got his luggage into the seat next to him.  At this point, 4 million people were trying to move past us.  I had mom's bag, which is the size of a small country in Europe, and we were blocking the aisle. I heaved that beast into the seat with Bill, leaving Bill standing right in front of the seat, holding Mom's McDonald's coke, his backpack, and a gift bag that we were carrying with us.  With nowhere for me to sit, I headed back to the door area right next to the bathroom.  Which is where I stood for the remainder of the ride.

Bill stood in front of his seat, with his backpack on, mom's coke in hand, and the gift bag clinched in his fingers for 75 minutes.  Mom...we don't know what happened to.  Oh, and the internet "puck" was in my backpack, way out of range for anyone to use it, except me.  So, Mom and Bill had no connectivity, and I couldn't alert them to our stop when it came.  THANKFULLY, it was the final stop, and the train "terminated" in Munich.  Bill couldn't hardly move/stand when we got done.  Mom was mostly asleep and confused when we got off. Although, she did get to sit in first class the whole way.

Next up, our trip to Innsbruck, which...oh boy.  After the DISASTER of a ride to Munich, I was a bit worried on how this would go.

Our train was actually SUPER early, and was chilling on the platform.  I wasn't sure if it was ours, as we were taking the train to Bologna, and this one said "Verona."  As the time got closer, however, I started looking and sure as sh*t, it was our train.  We hauled ass to the OTHER END of our platform, as our "car" was all the way down there.  We got to the door just as it closed, and for the life of me, I couldn't get the damn thing to open.  So, we ran to the other end of that car, and finally got on the train.  Wagon 256. Seats 25, 26, and 27.  So, on we got.  And our car was NOT the set up that I had reserved.  As you can imagine, a string of expletives were running through my head.  Literally no one knew what was going on.  There simply was NO number 27.  Whatever, we found a cabin with 25 and 26, and sat our asses down.  Until some loud Italian woman who was screaming at her husband about finding THEIR cabin came in, and they had Wagon 256, seats 28 and 23.  Of which, there wasn't any.  So, at least we were in good company.  

They sat down with us, until ANOTHER couple came and said THEY had seats 29 and 30.  Of which, there WAS a 29 and 30 in our little cabin.  Italian husband got up, and went to a DIFFERENT cabin, only to come back and say he FOUND 28!  Which made me think maybe 27 was over there.  So I got up, and found 27, over there!  AND, I cracked the code on the damn windows for each cabin, finally confirming who was where.  We sent Italian mafia boss wife over to our 27, and we took 23 in our cabin.  OYE VEY.  I was SO DONE with today.  I was fairly confident that Bill and Mom were going to murder me, and never travel with me again.  At this point, I wouldn't blame them.

It wasn't until the conductor came by and scanned our tickets that I was FINALLY able to breath again.  The bad part about the stress relief finally hitting was our new traveling companions.  Italian husband and wife (not the screaming one).  Darn Italians like to talk. And they wanted to talk to us.  Thankfully Bill, despite not feeling fabulous (he had a tickle in his throat!), he was able to entertain them through the whole journey, with only a little interjection from me along the way.

Thankfully, we arrived in Innsbruck without any further ado, and hailed a taxi to take us to our hotel.  I chose the hotel based on user reviews and proximity to the train station. Even though it was supposed to be a short 10 minute walk, after today's adventures, we decided to forego walking, and just ride a taxi.  Which got us close, but the damn street was closed in front of our hotel.  So, we ended up having to walk a smidge anyways, with our luggage, on a street that was apparently, and unbeknownst to us, in the middle of the final day of a Christmas Market.  Legit, steps outside our door.

We got checked in, and got our room keys, and off we went.  I'm pretty sure mom was off to take some drugs, Bill was off to use the bathroom, and I was off to self medicate with alcohol.  Or maybe just curl up and cry for a bit.  That was honestly one of the most stressful trips I've ever taken. Anyway - our room.  The hotel was SUPER awesome.  Our room was SUPER UNIQUE.  That glass corner over there?  Yep, that's our bathroom.  A glass walled bathroom.  Shadows were readily apparent.  Good thing it wasn't Mom in there! 

After confirming that Mom was DONE for the day (maybe the trip?) Bill and I went to explore the Christmas Market that was set to close at 8PM sharp (according to our receptionist who spoke PERFECT English).

The Markets here were super cute, and super crowded.  I think that arriving on Friday, the 23rd, was a combination of Holiday travelers, end of week workers, and just general revelry running amuck.  Joy, laughter, fun, and good times were being had by all.  It was fun to see, and oh yea - I bought a mug.  Duh.  Pretty sure Bill is going to murder me when I get home and unpack all of them. 

After such a long day, we decided to just eat at the hotel.  The restaurant was allegedly a super great restaurant, with fantastic food.  So, we hopped downstairs, and grabbed a seat.  Of course, they offered wienerschnitzel, so of course, we got that.  Well, except mom.  Who got Calf Liver.  Gross on top on top of gross.

You can see how much she's enjoying it.  Not even sitting in her seat.

Finally, even though I had a beer, we had also decided to get a coke since we didn't have hardly anything on the train ride out.  Unfortunately, the area apparently has their OWN version of Coke, which I found to be quite tasty.  All in all, yum.

We wrapped up the night with a visit to our beds, and I was excited to be able to explore Innsbruck.  From what I saw tonight, this town is awesome.