Let me know how it goes!
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Update on my posts agonizing about cancelling our Vienna trip (planned for 4/19). Short version is that we are going! Longer version is that we decided to cancel, thinking we could possibly get a refund. Turns out we were wrong about that – but we could’ve gotten a voucher. All this coincided with the announcement about the availability of a 2nd booster, so we decided to get the 2nd booster and go for it. We booked these flights last June so we got a great deal on business class seats. We’re on for Vienna. If anyone has Vienna tips, please send them my way.
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We had an incredible tour of historic Vienna through a program called Stroll Buddy (I think it had a different name back then). Not sure if still in effect during Covid, but it matches volunteers with small groups. Ours was a family of 4. The volunteer was priceless. They won’t allow any type of gratuity, but we treated her to dinner afterward. Highly recommend for any city that sponsors this program.
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Make sure you go on the Ferris wheel, it’s a symbol of Vienna. Taking the boat to Bratislava (90 mins by catamaran) is good if the weather cooperates. A day trip to Salzburg or Budapest by train is also feasible (2.5 hours each way).
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How marvelous! Would love to go.
Have heard from friends
Alsace beautiful around Colmar.
Carcassone (medieval walled city), Lourdes, are lovely.
Or would overlap / or avoid crowds on the Tour de France route.
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I’m hoping to use your trip as inspiration! We are planning to take our two Ss and their GFs for Christmas. We are staying for 4-5 days, then taking the train to Innsbruck for 1 day/2 nights, then taking the train to Zurich to fly home. But, my parents took us to Vienna for a few days in 2015 as part of a 3 weeks whirlwind trip to Switzerland, Prague, Budapest, Bratislava, Vienna, and Paris.
Were you looking for things to do/see, or do you have those pretty much planned? Our hopeful highlights this time are: schonbrun (all of our #1 favorite thing in Vienna and 10x better than Versailles! We all hated Versailles), Spanish Riding School (wasn’t available when we were there in 2015. Performances are too $$$ for us, but for a fraction you can see a rehearsal which is supposed to be very good.), St. Stephens Church - H & I also really ant to do the catacombs 15 min tour underneath. We kick ourselves for not going in Paris. We also want to do the Christmas/New Year’s markets.
Probable - Art museums that we missed the last time. as older S loves art. “Woman in Gold” is a great movie about a Jewish woman who spends 10 years suing the Austrian government to get back a Klimt painting that was stolen from her family before WWII. A lot of it is set in Vienna which is fun for us. We love seeing movies in places we’ve been.
Possible - Karlz Church. Last time, we went up the (very safe!) scaffolding to the top. It starts off as marble but changes to paint that looks like marble. it was cool to see so close up and it was like $3 if I recall. also, the opera house is popular, but not really for us. I would like to see Christmas music in a church somewhere along the way though.
If the rest of my family liked to walk a lot, I saw a cool website about all of their graffiti art around the city. I’d like to do that, but wouldn’t drag my family around to do so.
As far as any tips - research when things are open/close beforehand. Lots of sites in Europe are close on weird days like Tuesdays.
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We had a brief visit to Vienna in summer 2019 while on a river cruise, which is what inspired us to come back for a longer visit. While there we visited Schoenbrunn. Unfortunately it was raining pretty hard so we didn’t get to appreciate the grounds or gardens, so we will definitely go back. Great idea for us to re-watch the “Woman in Gold.” DH is compiling a list of museums he wants to visit, and we will keep an eye on hours of operation. Thanks for the tip about graffiti art. I bookmarked some links about it. I didn’t realize there were catacombs at St. Stephen’s Church. We did the Paris catacombs so we’ll check it out.
We were 90% sure we were going to cancel this trip, so we didn’t do as much pre-planning as usual (in fact we were planning our backup trip to Zion & Las Vegas). But the one thing we did was to buy tickets to the Spanish Riding School.
Thanks so much for the ideas! I’ll post about our experience when we come back.
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As far as buildings go, don’t miss the Hundertwasser house.
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Added to my list! Thanks.
Woman in Gold painting is in NYC now. Great movie, though.
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I think the idea was to watch the movie just because it’s set in Vienna and for the historical context of what happened to the painting.
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I just booked my first cruise in years - for Christmas. Looking forward to it. We love cruising. It’s a much easier way for my elderly mother to travel.
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Along with drinking beer, try some Grüner Veltliner - a crisp white wine.
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Hey…I am probably not quite yet the age of your elderly mother but H and I dearly miss cruising. Hope to get back on the ship in October.
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I think I put it on the potential spam thread, but since it involves travel, I’ll update here. Due to our Covid-canceled trip back in 2020, Eurowings would only give us a voucher, not a refund - even though they canceled the flight (Germany-Poland). Not too long ago I got an email from them offering cash instead, but it included a link to put in a bank account - not happening.
I contacted them through their website (that I got to myself) and sent an inquiry. This morning I received the following from them - directed to me by name. While the English isn’t perfect, it seems to be legit - esp if they can refund it to Paypal instead of my putting in any bank account or credit card number. Time will still tell.
Of course, it has me dreaming of a trip to just use the voucher, but right now we’re pretty booked with events and our soon to come train trip here. If we don’t have the refund by August, I might factor the voucher in after seeing what Covid, the economy, and the war are like.
Thank you for your inquiry. We regret that we have not been able to convince you of our voucher in the long-term. Of course, your right to reimbursement will remain, even if you keep your voucher for the time being. We will be happy to take a note of your voucher for reversal, as requested by you. The reverse transaction will be checked and carried out individually by one of our employees. Due to the rather high manual effort and the large number of inquiries we continue to receive, we kindly ask for your understanding that we cannot process refunds at short notice within the usual time frames. We have taken up your request for a refund and will make a refund to the deposited means of payment.
As long as no refund has been issued, you still have the option of using your voucher. We would like to point out that your voucher has a residual value, i.e. if the voucher value exceeds the value of the newly booked flight, the residual voucher value remains and can be used for another booking. Furthermore, the voucher is not person-specific, i.e. it is not bound to the contact person used in the booking, but can be used independently of the person for bookings via eurowings.com or the Eurowings App. The booking and travel period is indicated on your voucher. We have deliberately decided to make the use of vouchers as flexible as possible.
Perhaps you can still find a destination that spontaneously appeals to you? You can use our Eurowings App to set up push messages and be notified of new destinations in our flight schedule. If you use your voucher, the Flex option allows you to rebook as many times as you like on a new date to any destination. The rebooking fee is waived until 14 days before the scheduled departure date. In this way, you can be sure of the lowest price and remain flexible in your plans.
We are looking forward to welcoming you on board again soon and remain -
We just returned from a week in Costa Rica, and everything went smoothly! Couldn’t have been better. On Friday April 1st they dropped all restrictions to enter CR, so I’m actually glad that was at the end of our trip. When we arrived all international travelers needed to be fully-vaccinated, so I felt comfortable being there, more comfortable than our local grocery store anyway! I think CR has an 80% vaccinated rate, too. We opted for an all-inclusive to keep things simple for this trip with friends and all our kids. The resort and other guests all abided by mask-wearing. The resort also provided Covid tests so we could re-enter the US, and it was all really easy. 100% recommend Costa Rica for anyone who wants a warm-weather trip.
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I think the problem I’m having with the email you received is indeed the poor English - their website is in perfect English - all their PR is as well. Proceed with caution.
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I’ll definitely call and wait on hold forever if they happen to want a credit card number - and no way are they getting my bank account number. They said they’d refund to the source I paid for it with. If so, that’s Paypal, and I still have my account with them.
The email has the same number they assigned to my inquiry when I contacted them directly from their website.
We’ll see what happens.
Well, I was in the Bay Area for a week, then England for a week. Two days at home and will be heading to the Bay Area, then Memphis, and then the Bay Area and heading home. My past life is catching up with me.
In San Francisco/Palo Alto, uber requires a mask. Apple Store employees were wearing a mask but you no longer need to show vax status to enter a restaurant. But, a fair degree of mask wearing in indoor spaces.
In London, almost no one in the airport was wearing a mask. I can’t remember but I don’t think airline employees were until we got on the plane. Virtually no one else was. Limo drivers, uber drivers, store employees, hotel employees (I think some were) were not. I led a meeting with 10 people in a big conference room. The company management board. 8 hours. Not masked but spaced out. However 2 of the folks were on Teams because they had Covid. For three days I had breakfast, lunch and dinner scheduled with former clients and prospective clients. Two of my meals were canceled due to Covid (and one due to a CEO being fired and my client receiving a promotion). So Covid all around but no precautions whatsoever. We’ll see what the Bay Area is like 10 days later.
Went to the Cathay Pacific First Class Lounge in Terminal 3 – small but very pleasant.
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We have a conundrum. Last spring, we booked a Southwest flight to Chicago for our anniversary in late October because fares were so reasonable. We had enough HHonors points for a few nights. We planned to revisit some of our favorite attractions and restaurants from our 40 years living there. Because of the strict restrictions still in effect in the fall, we decided to postpone our visit until such time as we could do more of what we hoped for. Little did we know…
Well, that time is coming up - if we don’t travel by June 17, we lose the banked $447. But…the increase in airfares means it would cost close to another $400. And husband is beginning his serious physical therapy after hamstring tendon reattachment surgery, so at present can’t sit or walk for very long. So we have to decide if we want to just wave the money goodbye, or shell out considerably more than we planned. We don’t have to go; no family obligations or anything - just for nostalgia.
It’s actually cheaper to fly to Honolulu than Chicago! But the Hilton points are ludicruous - how do you all afford to stay on the islands? And is there any way if (very big if) I just take myself, that I can stay somewhere affordable without a car that will allow me to snorkel and maybe do a whale watching tour? And not feel uncomfortable on my own? Note that husband does not know about this concept;). We have been to Hawaii three times but the last time was in the early 90’s.
I played around on Southwest to see where else we might be able to get with our banked $$. The closest cost was Las Vegas, but we’ve been there seen that. Otherwise we could go to other cities in California but honestly other than airfare we’d be paying for a vacation we aren’t really interested in. And I really don’t want to have to rent a car!