We got to the counter at Logan Airport with passports in hand and spirits high. Slight concern when the agents had trouble locating our reservations escalated to disbelief when they informed us we had tickets for yesterday’s flight. Naturally we assumed the crisply speaking agents in red vests could not read or had mixed up our names, and out flew our smart phones to prove them wrong. Unfortunately, our devices took the sides of the now very amused agents.
No one could ask for more faithful companions than my travel woes, constantly following me wherever I go and now welcoming my friends as their own.
Off we were marched to customer service, where to our left a European gentleman was waving his credit card around with abandon, purchasing a $6,820 ticket so he could get to Zurich to meet his privately chartered flight to his final destination, a detail he felt obliged to provide. To our right, a man who had for undetermined reasons missed his flight was conferring with someone on the phone about buying a last minute ticket that came to $2,500. From here the agents docket us $300 each for the ticket switch, $150 for the bike case, then tacked on another $100 for the bike case for good measure, throwing around some threats about the “people in Zurich” not even wanting to touch something that heavy. No doubt they felt they had some room to push us around because in comparison to the other gentleman we were getting a bargain.
From there things went as planned, with the challenges limited to a screaming baby on the 7 hour flight, and the amplitude of our luggage. On a side note I would really like to have a conversation with whoever designed the Airport luggage carts, with an unremovable blue strap stretched from the handle to the far end of the cart, limiting the luggage you could stack. The Logan agents were not joking about the “people in Zurich” and their baggage discrimination. But, counting our blessings: both of us and all of our luggage had arrived.
From there we found a very helpful agent to direct us to the local train to Zurich main train station, where we enjoyed multiple coffees and biscotti awaiting our train to Imst. The train ride was beautiful enough to keep us awake.
Should we be scared by the snow???
A quick taxi ride brought us to our hotel, whose decor combined a disturbing number of taxidermied beasts and fowls with crucifixes and other melancholy religious figures.
The town of Terrenz:
