September 22, 2022
Just when you think life is going according to plan....
Well, we had a bit of a debacle today.
Today’s plan, not to be realized, was to go visit the famous Melk Abbey which is just outside our window. It was to be a relaxing day as the following day was to be a long ride to Mauthasen. I woke that morning and since Dave was already in the tub, picked up my iPad mini to read the news — perhaps world peace had been achieved overnight? - and the iPad was deader than a doornail. I had charged it the night before, but plugged it in again: nothing, nada, not a darn thing. Ugh….
I decided to let Dave enjoy his tub before springing the news on him and started to rethink the day in light of this unfortunate development. By the time he emerged from the tub, I had looked at the map and train schedule and had concluded that if we had any chance to replace or fix it it, it would have to be today; not only that, but we would have to go to Vienna, where of course we already knew there is an Apple Store, having been there the previous week. Dave responded well to my bad news and concluded we should get on the road asap which cut short my own tub and abbreviated our normally leisurely breakfast.
The train ride into Vienna was easy. Google maps has made train travel so much easier by identifying the next trains so you don’t have to interpret those mysterious charts at the train station. We had to transfer but arrived in Vienna to make it to the Apple store before noon. We had had a pretty positive experience the week before because the tech people were able to get to us within a few minutes, but today was different. They reported there would be a 3 to 5 hour wait. We went off, had a coffee and then moved onto a little Mexican place for a light lunch. We strung out lunch for over two hours just to kill time. We were feeling blue, not having heard from Apple that they were ready for us. At 3 pm we finally walked back and checked in to see where we stood in the queue, and they finally got to us at 3:30. And, not surprisingly, and after running their diagnostics (etc), they reported that my iPad was deader than a doornail (no surprise there) and that it needed to be replaced. Good news: it’s still under warranty. Bad news: the SERVCE department have none in stock and they can order one that will PROBABLY arrive in Vienna in a week. Bad news: we don't’ plan to be anywhere near Vienna in a week.
At that point commenced this excruciating conversation between us and poor Adnan, our tech guy, about the possibilities in light of this serious limitation. This is where you feel the pain of roaming by bike because of course in a week we were planning to be somewhere obscure in the Czech Republic (Horni Plana to be precise) which is not ANYWHERE near Vienna by ANY mode of transportation. So we asked if they could order the replacement and have it arrive in Munich where we were set to be in 10 days. Nope. We could go into the Apple store in Munich and start the whole conversation all over again (ie: stand in the 3 to 5 hour line to finally come to the same conclusion that my iPad was dead and MAYBE they would have a replacement in stock) but there was nothing they could do to abbreviate the process. We were also set to be in Milan visiting friends at the end of our trip and could do it there, but again, same drill would ensue. We unhappily settled on a poor solution, which was that we would order the iPad to arrive in Vienna hopefully by Oct 3. We where scheduled to take the train from Passau to Munich. Instead we could take a train from Passau to Vienna, pick up the iPad and then take the train from Vienna to Munich. This would have to occur all in the same day. While we were debating, I was madly trying to check train schedules to see if this was even feasible, but there was no way I could figure out if we could get a train that would take bikes, or how many transfers that would entail. And, Adnan would not guarantee the iPad would arrive by then, he just thought it would. Ugh.
So we walked out, feeling totally skinned alive and proceeded to the Shakespeare and Co. bookstore so I could buy a couple of books to read in the meantime. I am a huge reader and the thought of going 10 days without being able to read my iPad was like a smoker not having cigarettes. I quickly did some book shopping; we were in hurry which was a pity because it was a cool bookstore and cried out for at least an hour of browsing. After I paid for my books, and we walked out, Dave again suggested that maybe we should just go buy a new iPad, and avoid the future stress and effort that the extra train ride would involve. We could then deal with getting it replaced back in the US. (An extra iPad mini, yippee). We paused and reflected and I started to think again about the pain-in-the-neck factor that having to train back to Vienna with the bikes and then onto Munich would involve, not to mention the list of chores we have to do when we get back to Munich. Dave thought he saw that a new mini was 349 euros. So, after some calmer reflection we decided to chalk this up to “crap happens” and walked back to the Apple store for a basic iPad purchase.
Naturally, it did not turn out to be that easy. We arrived to be informed it was a one hour wait - hey, what else is new- and at point I sent Dave off to find a martini. At least one of us needed to be in a happier place. He promised he would arrive promptly when I texted to have the conversation that would need to happen with the tech people. I sat next to some old dude who was quite entertaining and we had a fun conversation about a bunch of stuff, none of which is worth repeating (except I thought it was weird when he paid for his Mac Pro with cash?)
When the Apple woman arrived she advised Apple had the mini in stock but it was 549 euros, not the 350 euros we had thought. I texted Dave and he was midway through his martini, in which case an extra 200 euros was not meaningful! He said to go for it so I did. I took another 45 minutes to set it up (etc) and we made it back to our Melk hotel in time for a late dinner.
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Things turned a bit brighter however, because we sat next to a couple from Utah (Jan and Kent) who were bike riders and had a really fun conversation. They were riding to Krems the next day and had ridden in Holland so we exchanged information and hope to stay in touch. After they left we then had a really fun conversation with 4 business men on the other side of us. They were on their way home from Eastern Europe on a business trip and we learned all about the challenges right now due to the energy crisis. They asked Dave how old he was (72)and were super impressed he was on this bike trip at his age! That’s my spouse!
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