Racing to the Airport.

I’m not sure what the opposite of “hurry up and wait” would be,  but last night I tried it out,  even though I hadn’t planned on it.

Somehow misjudged the timing,  and didn’t leave the apartment here until ten to eleven,  and the flight was supposed to come in at around five past?

Oops.

The trip usually takes about a half hour.  It’s ten minutes just to get down to the car in the underground parking.

I didn’t run, but I didn’t dawdle either.

Needless to say I had the little Beemer kinda flying once I got out on the highway.  Good thing the construction on the A4 was on the other side.  That would have sucked. They were squeezing three lanes of traffic down to one and had the road ripped up.  If you click on that link,  it coincidently shows the exact route that I took.  We don’t actually live on Zieglergasse,  but that’s where the entrance to the parking garage is.

So I had my little cell phone out at the ready,  waiting for the call with the question, “Where are you?”.    Never sure what to give as an answer to that one,  “I’m an idiot and I can’t tell time”?    Thankfully that call never came.

Travelling Companion arrived all right,  but didn’t come out through the point of no return until 23:27.   I had scurried in there at 23:23!

Such good timing.  Just too bad I didn’t really plan it that way. It would be wonderful if it worked that way each time,  but I usually have to stand around for a good 20 minutes to a half hour,  never really knowing when exactly the plane has touched down.   And flights at the end of the day?  If they’re on time,  it’s pretty nearly a miracle.

So of course,  I already knew about the construction,  but taking any other route is a bit of a crap shoot,  and I have come in to Vienna another way,   but it’s not any faster than just waiting your turn to go single file past the construction crew.   

Oh and by the way,  those crews are the same no matter where they are in the world.  There’s usually one or two guys down in the hole,  and about six of them standing around,  checking to make sure the work is getting done.  Or having a smoke.  Or something. It was about 18°C,  yet they were wearing jackets.  Travelling Companion commented that they were bundled up,  but I pointed out that it was because they weren’t going any actual work.

 

I think we crashed some time well after midnight.  She didn’t even unpack her bag, but I’ll sort that out later today.  I have a whack of things to look after today,  not the least of which is trying to figure out what to have on hand for the rest of the weekend.

I’ll be heading off to Slovenia tomorrow morning just as soon as I haul on me trousers,  so I’ve had to figure out what we’ll be eating when we come back,  and then what to have on Sunday.   I’ve already made reservations for Sunday night at Plachutta,  which is one of the places that we do take visitors on a fairly regular basis.   I’m in their reservation database,  but they still can’t pronounce my last name.  I’ve tried to get used to it.  Really.

 

Meanwhile,  we’ve had a little bit of interesting activity just up the street in the last couple days.  

For anyone who is remotely interested,  I’ll be updating this construction site over the next year or so. 

I’ve always had a thing for cranes.

 

Looked like they were hauling up big pieces of a Meccano® set all day long.  They’re not too keen on flimsy buildings it seems.

 

Looking up the street…

 

Now,  here’s an example of something I find absolutely mindboggling about life in the “big city”.  

The pedestrians think nothing of still using the sidewalk right next to the machine,  AND you’ll notice that he has maybe a foot there between the back of the crane and the building?

 

I guess “an inch is as good as a mile” comes to mind?

 

There may be a bit of a void over the next few days.  We’ll see.

 

Hope everyone has a fine weekend.

 

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