bretzelitos

We are getting pretty excited about our trip as our first departure is getting closer and closer – only three days to go. 06:45 is our first departure from Rambouillet train station.

Three rebookings needed to be done to accomodate imposed changes in our schedule. Nothing really dramatic or critical at all, but it is worth mentioning.

1. Our planned hotel in Innbruck on July 30th, 2020 cancelled our booking as they remain closed “by director’s decision” until August 15th, 2020. Luckily, we were infomed via the notification service of Booking.com in time. As such, we were able to rebook our stay in Innsbruck in time – now we have a room with a view at “aDLERs HOTEL”, also pretty close to Innsbruck Central Station. Let’s see how it will be!
2. Our train from Munich to Salzburg on July 27th, 2020 was suddenly marked as “not reservable” and my current reservation just disappeared in the travel application we use. Hence we decided to change the reservation and go now with RJX 63 in Business Class on this relation – arriving in Salzburg at 10:58. This leaves us six hours to visit the city – not too bad at all. And after the good experience with ÖBB’s Railjet product in 2018, it is going to be enjoyable.
3. Due to work in progress on ÖBB tracks between Linz and St. Pölten, our forseen train RJ797 from Salzburg to Vienna in the evening of July 27th, 2020 would have arrived after 21:00 in the Austrian capital. A bit too late for us. So we decided to profit from the early arrival in town, keeping our six hours time window for the city visit. We decided to rebook to RJX 69, also in Business Class, leaving Salzburg at 17:08 and arriving in Vienna just after three intermediate stops in Linz, St. Pölten and Vienna Meidling at 19:50. This gives us the opportunity to have dinner either in the train – if the service is available – or in a Beisl restaurant close to “Wien Hauptbahnhof”, Vienna’s Central Station, our last stop for that day.

All other reservations, hotels and trains, remain confirmed at this stage and we are really looking forward to travel. It needs to be noted as well that many hotels offered us upgrades for a really low price for premium rooms. Normally, they would be off budget for our trip – but this time, we are happy to take them up for just some Euros more. I am really looking forward to staying in a “Executive Suite” in Maritim Hotel Dresden on July 23rd, 2020.

I have also gathered some travel information about the routing we do, as such we are able to read and learn about what we will be able to see, visit and enjoy during our trip. So far, we have gathered 25 pages of Wikipedia excerpts about locations, cities, mountains and railroads – to let us learn about Europe and its beauty in history, democracy, antropology and technology.

Later more — time to pack my suitcase for the trip! Wehey!!