5 years 4 months 24 days

Day 1972. Sammy was up pretty early again, and as Randy calls back to him, Emmy was then up to. Only Tammy stayed in bed longer and woke up, when the shouting continued. We then all got up and started packing. When most was done, we went downstairs to have breakfast, at about 8:30 am, half an hour later than usual.

Emmy wanted his omelet again as well as bread with Nutella, his new-found favorite stuff to put on his bread. Tammy wanted bread with Nutella as well, as well as plain yogurt. She didn't eat anything else and little of that. After we were done with breakfast, we returned to the room and finished packing. Just before 10 am (check-out time) we left the room with all our luggage and took it to the reception area. I paid the remaining balance of our bill, and we were given HAPPY pasta and sauce. The pasta is actually shaped like their mascot Happy. Then we were told that the kids could pick a little gift out of a basket. It took the kids a while to look at everything and choose.

The shuttle was to leave at 10:45, so the kids went to the unsupervised play area to play one last time. When it was time to come out, Tammy saw the cross with Jesus on it and asked about it, as they're not used to seeing a cross with Jesus on it. In our churches the cross is empty because Jesus has risen. So I explained it to them. Then we carried the luggage one level down to the garage and walked to the shuttle.

The driver arrived a moment later and started loading everything into the van. Sammy was excited to be riding a car again. A few minutes later we arrived at the train station in Zell am See. All our stuff was unloaded, then we were on our own. We had to take the elevator down, underground, then walk to another platform and ride the elevator back up. The kids were whining that they were so cold, and so we went inside the little glass room right there to be sheltered  a little. Of course the kids wanted their tablets.

The train was 5 minutes late and arrived at 11:20 pm. Just before it did, we left the room and walked outside. As you can imagine, it's a challenge getting three big suitcases, two small ones, a purse, a wheelchair and three kids into a train. Thankfully this was a regional train with no steps. Tammy, Emmy and I got to sit together by a table of four, with a lady already in the fourth spot who then moved, while Randy and Sammy stayed with the luggage. They then continued watching their tablets, while I was getting very tired. We had about 90 minutes scheduled on that train. The kids were getting hungry and eating some of the sandwiches I had made at breakfast. I closed my eyes to rest, but sleep was not possible.

Half an hour later we arrived in Schwarzach and stayed longer than we should have. At one point all the lights and power went out, then came back on. A few more minutes later a voice said that the train had technical issues and could not continue. We all had to get off the train and take another one. Just great! As if 3 trains was not enough, now we had yet another train to take!

We all stayed right there on the platform, as the next train was arriving on the other side of it. At least that was something. And it wasn't too long until it arrived. However it was an old train, which is quite a challenge with all our luggage and three kids. For some reason Tammy and Emmy always freak out, maybe thinking they wouldn't make it on the train before it leaves.

It was an old train, but there were plenty of free seats which was nice. Tammy and Emmy sat on two seats, and I had the two on the other side of the aisle, while Randy and Sammy were in front of the siblings. I closed my eyes again to rest.

The conductor came by to check our tickets. I asked whether we could stay on the train as it was going to Vienna, but we had train-specific tickets and the train breakdown had not led to us not making our connection, even though we were arriving late. And so we had to get off in Salzburg, with all our stuff, and we walked to the waiting room together. It was 1:20 pm. Randy changed Sammy's diaper right there, and before we knew it it was time to leave again. We took everything up the elevator again to the right platform and asked about where the train car would stop that had the wheelchair spot.

Again the kids were whining about the train not arriving, but it arrived just before 2:10 pm. We weren't quite in the right spot and had to walk back in the direction we had come from. Then we got on in first class, right where the wheelchair spot was. We left Randy and Sammy there and walked through the car to the next one, second class. Even though I had reserved seats, there were no seat numbers on our ticket, so we had to find free seats ourselves. Unfortunately this train was extremely full. We found a table for four where one seat was taken and two reserved and took the risk of sitting down there. Thankfully the people who had reserved the seats never arrived.

The kids continued watching their tablets, while I closed my eyes, but sleeping was not possible. After a while Randy and Sammy arrived. He handed me Sammy, and Tammy and Emmy moved closer to each other so that Daddy could sit down as well. There were no other available seats. After a while Randy took Sammy again, when he was becoming too heavy for me.

While the first train ride was scheduled to be 1.5 hours, this one was 2.5 hours. Sammy was getting impatient to arrive. While Tammy and Emmy wanted to return to the hotel, Sammy was looking forward to home.

When we were approaching Vienna, we moved our stuff and ourselves to first class, to where Sammy's seat was. Then we all put our coats on, and just after 4:30 pm we arrived in Vienna at the central station. Again the kids were freaking out, when we had to get everything and ourselves off the train. Then we walked to the elevators and took them a level down, walked to the next elevator and took it up. My phone had told me that that was the platform our train home would leave from. But it wasn't true. I looked at the screen and saw that it was another platform. So we took the elevators back down and went up to the right platform. My hands were already starting to hurt quite a bit from two suitcases on top of each other in one hand, and two bags in the other.

When we got off the elevator, the train was right there. We know from experience that it often sits there for a while before it leaves. So we got on right away, having to heave our luggage over a big gap to get on. Inside, it was rather dark, and there were no people. I looked at the screen, where I saw a weird name, probably Hungarian. It quickly became clear that we were not on the right train, so we got off again right away. I then saw that it was platform 4 and we needed platform 3, which was on the other side. So we walked over there and continued walking to get to the front of the train.

Again the kids were whining, mainly Tammy. When the train arrived, we saw that we had walked a little to far and had to walk back. Right after we had gotten on, the driver came out of his cabin and approached us. He made us aware that the door on the other side was not working,which is the side where we'd have to get off. But when he saw how narrow Sammy's wheelchair is, he knew we could roll him through the aisle to the next door. We stayed where we were for a while and moved all our stuff to the next door, as we were approaching our stop.

We got all our stuff off, over the big gap, and made our way to the elevator, more walking, then another elevator down, then walking to the entrance of our building. A few minutes later we were home, just before 5:30 pm.

Sammy was very excited, while the other two wanted to go back to the hotel. I went to the kitchen right away to make their dinner. We didn't have much - toast bread and some apples and grapes. They ate some, but not very much, then they went into the water and had fun. Tammy had done a fair bit of crying and cried some more. She seemed really tired. After a while they came out of the water, and we got them ready for bed. It was only 7 pm, an hour earlier than usual, but Sammy fell asleep immediately. I still read a bedtime story to the other two, then they also went to bed. It was Emmy who was kind of crying then and who needed the longest to fall asleep.
I went to the kitchen and made myself a soup that I then enjoyed eating. After I was done, I downloaded today's pictures and started working on them. Now it's 11:30 pm, and I'm the only one awake. And I still have to take care of the dishes.