Ranty McRantFace
Okay so yesterday was pretty crappy. Although born in Australia I have always felt English (parents English and grew up there) so I do love a whinge as much as the next man, it's just in my DNA... But I'd like to think I give praise where it's due to balance my whinging. Unfortunately when you have had no sleep for 36 hours, you're trying to keep two sleep deprived young kids from spontaneously combusting and you've meticulously planned things and gone to great effort to streamline a process and make it as easy as possible it's very annoying when it all goes wrong! Therefore I shall rant on this post and if you'd rather skip to the next post for the ski stuff then please feel free...
I was suspicious when we made it onto our flight at Frankfurt Airport and the captain announced we were about to depart and he just had to offload two bags for passengers that hadn't made the flight. I wish I'd looked out the window in case those were our bags and I could have alerted the crew. We just assumed that it was bags of other passengers from the Singapore flight who didn't have our legspeed to make the flight. Or were maybe still stuck at x-ray feeding the trays into Herr Jobsworth's little tray machine (see post above).
Anyway, we flew to Munich in what is a crazy short flight. Just enough time to drill the complementary water bottle and chocolate. Kids by the way (5 and 8 years old) were pretty toasted by this point. They had behaved beautifully the whole way - yeah all parents say that about their kids - and had each had a couple of hours sleep on the Singapore to Frankfurt flight. But they were way over-tired and asking how much longer until we get there. We re-assured them with tales of being at Alpbach by lunchtime which in retrospect may have been a mistake...
Landed at Munich, acquired FFP2 masks at pharmacy and simultaneously ensured our credit cards worked in Germany on our phones - all good. Went to baggage carousel and waited. Virtually empty baggage hall and I estimate maybe 20 people on our flight. Ski bag came out first and I grabbed that. Then our second suitcase came out - all good. About five people left at the carousel and then the machine stopped and the screen blinked 'çompleted'. Bollocks.
It can't be unusual as they have a very highly staffed baggage tracing centre nearby so I lined up, explained to the very polite staff what had happened and they set up all of the report and said they could see it was in Frankfurt and could be sent on the next flight. Sadly the next flight was 5 hours away arriving at 110pm which I found quite surprising for Frankfurt-Munich but I guess everyone uses the train. She said they could send it on to our accommodation or we could wait. I chose to wait as the bags contained all of our ski boots, ski bindings for three sets of skis, snowbaord boots and bindings and a lot of the adult clothes, helmets and ski outerwear. I'm a frother, I wanted to ski tomorrow, I'd wait and make sure we got the bags and we had everything so we could ski.
So, five hours in Munich airport with two ratshit kids who thought they were almost at their beds an hour ago... Hmm, next stop rental car. Didn't want to be hit with a late pickup fee. They were very nice, said we should just do the admin now, could put our luggage in the car and leave it in the car park until we got our lost luggage. All good.
By God it was cold in Munich, bone-chilling cold. And we had no jackets for the adults. I was wearing a jumper that I gave to my wife as an extra layer and spent the rest of the day in a t-shirt. The looks I got... The rental car was located in the bowels of Pluto in a dark underground car park that was so cold it could have doubled as a freezer. We got a Hyundai Tucson - the booking was Jeep Compass or similar and I'd been hoping for similar. The Tucson turned out not to be ideal from a practical point of view but I hate Jeeps so I was glad we got the 'similar' option. The back seats were a 60/40 split bu the 40 was on the drivers side and the ski bag wouldn't fit with the seat down. So had to remove all of the skis and slide them individually down the side next to the drivers seat. Grrr. By the time I'd put the luggage we had in the car I couldn't feel my hands and we retreated back to the terminal for baked goods.
We waited for what seemed an eternity. Have you ever tried waiting at an airport with feral kids for five hours when they've already been going for an Aus-EU triple flight combo? They were great about it but tempers were fraying all round. We went for lunch in the terminal and used the Grune Pass that we had got via the Swiss loophole to prove our 2G status. Worked fine so that was a win. Got myself a dark Erdinger to numb the pain and warm up my hands. Wife got a prosecco and in the act of telling the kids not to knock over their bottle of drink knocked her glass over and it smashed on the floor. The German staff were great about it but tempers in our camp continued to fray. It was okay though, I'd get the luggage at 130 and we'd be round the ring road before peak hour and in Alpbach before dark. Or so I thought.
We went to the supermarket at the airport and stocked up on stinky cheese, bread, milk, cereal and a bottle of red. The thought of a cheese-fest and a bottle of wine in the apartment in a few hours kept us going.
Ah yes, and my money changing problems continued. There was a travelex in Frankfurt but we had no time there as we were sprinting for our flight. I didn't find one in Munich (there may have been but I was beyond caring). So I just got the cash out of an ATM on my savings card. I knew it would hurt but I was really beyond worrying about it. I had to do two 500 euro withdrawals, one on NAB, one on Commbank as there is a $1000 daily limit on each account. Got slayed on the exchange rate and an extra $29 withdrawal charge. Did not care. But note to self to get that organised before the airport next time.
Finally we got to 1pm. Still had no snow chains or booster seat as the europcar staff were understandably reluctant to go down into the freezer to get the equipment and told us someone would be there at some point in the day to help us (thanks guys, I think!). I found a German customer down there muttering about the lack of staff several times as well and we conversed in broken English/German about how annoying it was. The international language of whinging!
I went through to baggage claim and waited. Wife went to try and procure snow chains and booster seat from the freezer with the kids. We'll be out of here by 2pm...
130 cam and went, flight not showing on the board or on the Franfurt or Munich airport websites for some reason. Went to counter, yes sir flight is delayed, should be here in next half hour, good news is I can see both bags are on board. Score. Happy to take the hit. Wife then texts to say europcar staff are getting shitty with her. Gave her chains and seat and have told her to get the car out of their car park now. Has told them she can't as I am trying to get our last bags. Kids are upset. I can't help as I can't afford not to get these bags! I told her to sit in the car, turn engine and heater on and make it look like we're about to leave.
2pm comes and goes. No flight, no bags. Finally the flight lands and people eventually troop through. Baggage comes out about 220pm. Yes! The ski boot bag come out. I excitedly text wife. She tells me europcar have again told her to leave the car park. She's never driven on the right before and it's also a manual which complicated things when you are used to the gearstick on the left! I tell her to try and buy time and I should be back in 20 minutes or so.
I wait, seething quietly as bags have stopped coming out now but carousel is still moving. Some people still there. Monitor still says it's in progress. I wait, getting crosser. I text wife to say I'm not confident. And then it happens, the monitor says completed. Bollocks! I rapidly return to the tracing centre, just in time as a huge queue also builds up behind me. There are two lovely ladies there who helped me earlier but I get grumpy man who hates his job and spends the entire time tutting and huffing and puffing at me. Lots of keyboard tapping, lots of grumbling. Do you know where it is? No. Wasn't it scanned onto that flight? I don't know. Helpful! Time is now 3pm. No idea if wife has had car clamped yet or id driving aimlessly around the airport on the wrong side of the road.
Guy says if they find it they will send it to our accommodation. Grumpily takes details. Sends me away. Mate, we are unable to ski without that bag and it also has our jackets in, if we rent some equipment can we claim the cost of that back? This really set him off although I thought it was a reasonable question. After another ten minutes he thrusts a complaint form into my hand (not what I was after, I just wanted to know if we file a claim online or I needed a form for this before we left the airport) and basically told me to bugger off. I'd been polite and friendly the whole time so no idea why he was such an asshat but hey I would probably be like that too working in that job!
Anyhow, with the time now around 330pm I texted wife to explain, said I was on my way and told her to keep stalling. Got there, jumped in car, kids both crying and I thought to myself - international travel! So joyful! So relaxing!!!
In the cold light of day I look back and think it's just a lost bag, it happens. It's just a fact of travel. But when you are tired and the kids are losing their crap and you have to wait around for an extra six hours it is easy to see how people lose their cool. I didn't lose it with any of the poor staff - I was just internally seething. I was most annoyed because we now can't use our skis (bindings in the bag) we have no helmets and gloves and most of our clothes are also missing. I'd planned it all meticulously to be cherry-ripe for a first day ski on the 23rd at Ski Juwel in the sunshine. The best laid plans...
And it wasn't quite over. We headed off in the car, all okay but little things continued to conspire against my already poor mood. Sun was almost down so while I was familiarising myself with a right hand gear-stick, driving on the right and German drivers on teh Autobahn I had the sun directly in my eyes on the skyline and heading into early peak hour traffic! The joys! I'd planned the whole day to avoid this originally.
Got round the ring road, stopped for vignette. Got into Austria feeling a lot better. Dark fell and it all got a bit intimidating when we got off the freeway. Once you get onto the arterials the real fun starts as you have to start concentrating on being on the right side of the road, giving way to the correct side and using roundabouts in the right orientation. It's easy once you've had the first day but when your first crack is in the dark at peak hour and you don't know where you're going it's pretty ordinary. Anyway we go through to Reith and started climbing to Alpbach. Very narrow roads - which I am used to from the UK - but again in the dark with a wall on one side, snow and ice on some parts of the road and speedy gonzalez behind you right up your backside with his headlights in your mirrors it was non-ideal.
The drive through Alpbach and out to Rossmoos was just a wing and a prayer. If we'd met oncoming traffic it was going to be annoying with no rear visibility due to luggage and ice everywhere. Fortunately we winged it to the village and pulled up to have a deep breath. It was pitch black and no-one was about. I went into the Gastehaus Rossmoos and eventually found someone in the restaurant. In very fast German she told me I was in the wrong place and gave me rapid instructions to leave and go over the road. I scampered and we tried over the road where we'd parked (also called Rossmoos). No-one in. It seems everyone in the village is called Rossmoos which makes identifying the correct accommodation in the dark somewhat more challenging.
Kids now asking to get back in the car as it's so cold. Told them to go back to the car and I'd look around. It's just a sprinkling of a few houses outside Alpbach so no-one I caould ask. Looked at google maps and did some googling. Bauernhaus Rossmoos not showing up on the maps. However Ferienwohnung Rossmoos seemed to be written on the booking and that was up a steep road covered in sheet ice. No way was I driving the Tucson up there even with snow tyres. It was solid ice, I couldn't even stand on it without sliding. And even then the building at the top did not look like what we were wanting. Grrr, might just go back to Munich and fly home I am so over this right now! What else is going to go wrong??
This was quickly answered when we managed to find a small side-track that went up avoiding said sheet ice and my wife found the owner of the place (it's actually a working farm with a holiday apartment so no signage) and she told us where to park. I then opened the boot and our only alcohol, I repeat our ONLY alcohol rolled out of the boot and smashed on the ground into a million pieces of glass and a frozen puddle of Rioja. JESUS!
Finally, finally the pain stopped there. She was very friendly and in broken English/German she showed us the apartment which is at the very top of the farmhouse and is enormous and beautifully furnished. And the kids were overjoyed - it had wifi! Such a must have for the youth of today... There are cows all in stalls below which my son will love and the place is amazing. So after all that we took the remains of our luggage up and we live to fight another day.
In a good end to the day our friend drove all the way from Kitzbuhel to bring us our Superski season passes and even bought Kirchdorf hoodies for the kids. Even better - she bought three beers!!! Yes! That beer tasted so good... We ate cheese, drank beer, used wifi and then exhausted collapsed in bed.
Daughter and I woke up at 4am which I thought was not a bad result. We looked out of the window and this is what we saw. We may have no skis, no jackets, no clothes, no wash bag, no sanity, but here, officially ends my ranting...