Continued
This article is a continuation of a previous one. Please check out the part one article if you haven’t already, and start from the beginning.
Departing Innsbruck Hauptbanhof
The 20 minute delay became 40, then eventually a little over an hour. “No problem,” I thought. “Still better than NJ Transit on a good day.” So I boarded the second half of the train, which was originally supposed to go to Vienna, via Salzburg and Linz.
Everything still seemed fine at this point. I mean just look at the scene from shortly after departing the station:
This is when things started to get interesting… Announcements begin (over the speakers on the train) stating that this train will no longer go to Wien (Vienna), as the path via Linz is flooded, so the line will be ending in Salzburg. No problem, as they also state we can still get to Wien the long way, by taking another train just across the platform at Salzburg which is heading to Graz. We would then be able to find trains heading up into Wien from the south side, as travel into the city was only thought to be impacted on the western side. This sounds fine, so we all do exactly that and board a Graz-bound train from Salzburg. This would take us an extra 1-2 hours at least, but several of us were destined for Wien (or places even further), so it was the best, and only, option.
Some incredible scenery on the way to Salzburg:
Salzburg to Graz
At this point, the weather started to get visbly bad, but the views were still pretty stunning, despite the peaks getting much smaller as we continued toward the southeast.
Contrast the beautiful views above with this one:
That alert says (in German) that there is an intense storm in the area that is producing wind gusts up to 100km/h, and it recommends staying indoors.
Graz
We arrived in Graz without issue, but once we arrived, it became clear that the south path into Wien was not open any longer. The departure board is looking pretty grim:
Slowly, the realization that I might be stuck in Graz for the night sets in, so I leave the train station and go just outside to check whether buses are also similarly impacted. They are, so I’m getting ready to settle in. I am very hungry at this point, so I figure I might as well get some food. There was a döner kebab place on the other side of the plaza, so I headed over there to grab some food.
After eating, I thought why not check the departures one last time at Graz, just to see if any trains are headed further north and east toward Wien. All of the Wien trains are still showing as canceled at this point, and the departure board still shows the same banner mentioning delays, with no estimate as to when the conditions will end. Also any train heading northeast and terminating before Wien is canceled, all except one to Mürzzuschlag. I started looking up Mürzzuschlag to see what train/bus/car services might be available from there, and the information I find seems ok. It’s very close to Wien (~70mi or ~112km), so I start to consider taking this train. It leaves in just a few minutes, and it’s the last train out of here that isn’t headed back the way I came. I decided to take it, assuming I’d be able to find a bus or taxi or anything there, and if all else fails, I can probably find a hotel for the night.
Mürzzuschlag
So, I arrived in Mürzzuschlag about 1.5 hours later, and there were a few people asking the station attendants there about where they might go, how they could get to their destinations, etc. Checking the departure boards, I quickly realize this was the last train to arrive or leave, and no other trains are scheduled until the morning. There have to buses or something, so I head outside to ask around. The station attendants tell me there will be no buses to Wien, as originally scheduled - they’ve all been canceled. So, I start looking up taxi services in the city, and calling them. They’re all closed. Taxis have business hours here? Ok, no problem. Let me check all the ride sharing services. Checked Uber, FREENOW, etc, etc. Not a single driver within range. Guess I have to give up and just find a hotel. There are only two in this village, and one is very very close. So, I take a walk over to the closer one. Nobody is in the lobby, but there’s a phone number you can call after hours. Call it, and it’s out of service. I’m in the middle of this kinda small village, and all the street lights are on, but nobody is around. I hear no sounds at all, other than ones I make myself. It’s pretty eery, but surely there’s someone awake somewhere…
Ok, so since that hotel would’t answer, there was one other hotel to try. I looked them up and tried to call them. This time I got an answer! A very nice lady said she had one room left, and it had a very special price. Perfect. I thanked her and told her I’m walking there now, and I would be there in about 20 minutes. She told me to wait where I was - said it was a harder walk than it seemed, and she would come and get me. I tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. She arrived maybe 5-10 minutes later, and I loaded my stuff into the car, then we headed back to the hotel. She explained to me that I was about to understand why she insisted on picking me up. We drove for just a few minutes, and then we started climbing up the side of a mountain on a tiny, unlit road that was about 1.5 times the width of the car. Oh, I get it now. A few minutes later, we arrived at the hotel, which was basically a three story apartment building. She showed me the room I’d be staying in, and it was actually a two bedroom apartment! Then, she handed me the key, and I went inside to get some sleep. What a day it had been at this point. I left Zürich at 08:40, and it was now almost 02:00 the following morning, but I was very happy to have a place to sleep. The view from my room of the village below was very nice.
I got a decent amount of sleep - maybe too much - and I woke up just before 11:00 or so. Oops. I wondered if I’d missed any buses or trains. I got cleaned up and got my stuff ready for checkout. When I walked around towards the front, I met the owners’ really cool dog, who was lying outside in the light rain, seemingly very unbothered by it.
I was also greeted by the day time view of Mürzzuschlag from above, which was very nice, even in rainy weather.
After a light breakfast and some coffee, this awesome lady drove me back to the train station, so I could figure out the train/bus/taxi situation to try and get to Wien. I don’t advertise products or places or anything of that sort, but that lady and her husband were so cool, that I feel like I have to name the place, just in case someone reading this ends up in that village some day. The place was called Lambach Villa, and it was very nice.
Making my way to Wien
Upon arriving at the Mürzzuschlag train station, it was immediately apparent that the train situation was not going to be resolved any time soon.
However, the station attendants told me there was another bus leaving from outside in a few hours, so I waited around until it was time to go. As promised, the bus left right on schedule, after filling up completely with people who were very excited to head to Wien. The views were much less pleasant on the way there than the prior train rides were, but I wasn’t too worried about that. I did manage to get one “just ok” photo along the way, of this valley village we could see from high up on a bridge we crossed.
We arrived in Wien around 5:30PM on the 16th of September, and I’d missed the entire first day of the conference I was traveling there to attend, but I was safe and dry, so I felt only relief. I checked in to my hotel a day late, and I arranged to meet with some work colleagues for dinner.
CONTINUED IN PART THREE…