End of TMB and Salzburg (July 30 - August 2)
And that was the end of our 2017 Tour de Mont Blanc!
Further adventures awaited before we returned home. We were headed to Salzburg for a few days, where we were going to meet up with our kids. The plan was to fly from Geneva to Munich and then take the one-hour train ride into Salzburg. Should’ve been easy peasey.
Ha!
The good thing about Europe is that if something goes wrong with an airplane itineray, there are other options.
The Alpybus was 15 minutes late picking us up, but that wasn’t the actual cause of our problems. We arrived at the Geneva airport to encounter a madhouse, a seething mob of tourist families all attempting to check in for their flights. There were long lines everywhere, there was no indication of which line was for what airline, and there appeared to be no one in charge.
After standing in line without moving long enough that it became apparent that we would definitely miss our flight, we gave up on these paid-for plane tickets and walked across the street to the train station.
The trains were crowded on a Sunday in late July, especially as we approached the popular tourist areas. The train from Zurich to Salzburg was delayed by thunderstorms and trees down on the track. The restaurant car ran out of food.
But all was well in the end. We got to Salzburg around midnight and were met by our son, who had collected the key to our room. We had a lovely couple of days exploring the town before heading back to the U.S.
And we were confirmed in our decision to bail on our flight from Geneva. It turned out that Geneva airport’s automated baggage system had broken that morning, and humans were checking in bags by hand. Those souls fortunate enough to pass this hurdle then had to wait for the airport’s extremely inefficient security screening. I doubt we could’ve flown that day at all, and in any case, it’s more fun to ride a train through Central Europe than it is to stand in line in an airport, especially in a line full of thousands of overstressed British and German families. Thank goodness we had a choice this time!