by Marry Wakefield Buxton –
Part 1 • Part 2 • Part 3 • Part 4 • Part 5 • Part 6 • Part 7
Urbanna Va.— “Absolutely not! Never! I’m not interested in a trip with Virginia lawyers for Continuing Legal Education (CLE) to Vienna, Austria! I want to stay home! I hate airline travel! I won’t go! Not under any circumstances!” All words spoken last month to husband Chip.
We left for Vienna with a group of 100 lawyers, judges and spouses on a Friday via Richmond where we picked up a van that would take us to Dulles Airport to await our flight. Our van left at noon so we hustled to McDonald’s on Broad Street for some sandwiches to go, which we wolfed down as our van departed. That was only the first experience with indigestion as the week abroad unfolded and only one reason why I hate to travel.
After checking in we retired to a lounge to relax departure nerves. We sat for the next three hours listening to a baby scream. I did not relax. It was obvious the baby didn’t want to travel any more than I did. Before boarding the jumbo jet that would carry us on its eight-hour nonstop flight to Austria to see a multitude of Hapsburg palaces and the sewers of Vienna that ended the life of Harry Lime, I swallowed a few glasses of wine. The crying baby, fortunately, was seated in another compartment far from earshot. The poor fellow had to fly without the benefit of wine.
I hate to fly. The man I have been married to for 56 years loves to fly. So we fly. Such is marriage. One has to compromise in order to survive. Austrian airlines at least served very fine cuisine. Indeed, a man dressed as chef came out of his kitchen cubical and asked me what I wished for dinner: beef, fish or ravioli. I went beef with all the scrumptious courses and with a German white wine to accompany dinner it was superb. The food on Austrian Airlines was far above the usual and I vote it serving the best food in the sky.
What a long flight! We left Dulles at 6 p.m. and arrived Austrian time (6-hour time change) on Saturday at 8 a.m. I felt terrible, really miserable, as if I had been up all night trying my best to sleep, but more perhaps like a half-drowned dog. It was pouring rain too, so the sobriquet is quite fitting, and I had no choice but to run with the gaggle of lawyers and spouses through torrential rain to get on the bus parked several blocks away which would whisk us to our hotel.
Things looked better in the Five Star Imperial Hotel, called the best hotel in the world, as per usual CLE excursions, for only the best for Virginia lawyers. And indeed, it was an ex-palace that had been converted to an elaborate and ornate hotel. We stared up at full length portraits of previous owners, the Duke and Duchess of Somebody, that were hung on opposite walls and staring down at us as we checked in. I had to admit, as half dead as I felt, it sure beat the Holiday Inn.
We made it to our room so elegant it might have qualified to house a king’s throne. I hit the shower first and then the bed, and I did not come back to consciousness for four solid hours.
Food. I needed food. “What time is it, dear?”
“1 p.m. Austrian time, my dear.”
My head hurt. I thought six hours earlier in Urbanna those lucky people back home were probably still asleep in their wonderful beds. Lucky them!
We jumped into clothes and rushed downstairs for food. The cafe no longer was serving breakfast and I stared desolately at offerings of Snitzel, Weiner and Wurst (which might have been the name of a German law firm?). But no. I wanted breakfast, per my Urbanna stomach, and we headed for McDonald’s right around the corner for an Egg McMuffin which tasted better at that moment than anything I have ever eaten in my life.
My stomach ached. My legs felt cramped. Travel is hell. No one knows this better than I do as I have traveled a lot and my best advice to those more fortunate than I is, for God’s sake, stay home. One must be young and in perfect condition (and well drugged) to survive travel these days and that’s the truth.
Thus ended the first 24 hours of my scintillating trip to Vienna. More next week if I survive the first few days adjusting to the time change. In the meantime, I will hope to send you next week’s column exploring the city.
I couldn’t wait to hear the great Austrian composers, the best in the world . . . Strauss, Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn . . . such music to calm the wild beast! So maestro, strike up the band! (Continued next week) ©2019
