Tuesday 23rd, 5.24, possibly not a totally accurate reading locally at +12dg, but as I am in England it doesn't really matter. Forecasting for today here, sunshine with "breeze" and a high of 13dg. Forecasting for my mountains A dusting of new snow. Freeze-thaw conditions max 10°C on Tue morning, min -3°C on Thu afternoon, and a dropping freezing level finally by Friday, so there will be snow, she said !! Nightmare of a trip from Schruns yesterday, nightmare, which actually caused me to be very rude to the ÖBB desk in Feldkirk. I do not normally loose my cool but yesterday was a test beyond me. My day started well, and by 9am I could feel it in my waters... it had disaster written all over it. My three young Swiss male guests decided that they were too tired to get out of bed, breakfast and depart by 10.00. I had to be on the 11.03 train out of Schruns and had wanted to strip the flat clear the rubbish do the beds and start the turn around process. Could I? Number one No. Train Schruns to Bludenz perfect, Railjet connection to Zurich Flughafen delayed by an hour and a half, most abnormal for the Austrian rail network. Good, into the help desk print out for an alternative journey into Feldkirk, then bus to Sargans, Buchs and then train to Zurich. Time frame looking increasingly difficult. Number two No. Got directions to the bus stop from the Feldkirk booking desk, and with suitcase waited waited waited. Transpired the timetable that had been printed for me in Bludenz was wrong, then the bus didn't arrive, then the complete Fwit at the booking desk happily told me that where I was standing was not the correct bus stop. Um excuse me, his collegue had told me an hour previously that was where I had to go. Number three No. He then tried to suggest to me an alternative route and travel plan which would have me arriving in the airport in time to wave goodbye to my flight. Patience. I politely suggested that he needed to do better than that and gave him my flight time. Upshot was then a trip from Feldkirk to Riedenburg then to St Margrethen, then St Gallen, to flughafen... four train changes it is now 13.00, the time I had scheduled to be in the airport... 2 hours 50 of journey still to complete. I could have slapped him really I could. No choices other than to undertake the journey if I ran... FYI, it really is most undignified running with a case, thank goodness I was in flat boots. The air hostess had white wine on her trolley and it was not a full flight, so headphones on and sudoku book out. Today my lovely nephew Michael and I are unsupervised so we are heading off into town to do lunch and shop. Time to soak up a bit of the madness that is pre Christmas Eve shopping. Fa la la la la....
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