Dec 24
Saturday evening
after returning from Munich the crew was anxious for more site seeing. And top
of the list was checking another country off the list. The nearest country to where we are staying
is Austria and the nearest town is Braunau am Inn, about 45 minutes from us.
The photos of the town did not show anything really interesting and the town's
claim to fame is being the birthplace of Adolph Hitler, so let's keep looking…
Not much further
away down a different route is Salzberg, a beautiful city that owes its ornate
architecture to the nearby salt mines that once made it one of the richest
cities in all of Europe. We decided this
would make a better destination and ten of us headed our in out two vans for a
little day-trip.
Given that it was
Christmas eve and we didn't know when gas stations would be closing, we stopped
to top off both vehicles before heading out.
I pulled into the pump on one side and quickly fueled my van. Walking back from paying, I looked over at
Kurt pumping on the other side and noticed that the pump said E10--not diesel
(despite having green-handled nozzles as had all other diesel pumps to date). I looked around the corner and realized I had
done the exact same thing! Now both vans
were polluted with gas and undrivable!
With Donovan and
Jess interpreting for us, we first talked to the guy running the gas station
who advised us to check our rental contracts for a roadside assistance
number. We found it and made the call. While not an uncommon mistake, I think the
people on the other end were a little shocked that we had been able to do this
to two vans. Unfortunately for us, Terry (our resident mechanic) wasn't feeling
well and had stayed behind. Likely he
would have spotted our mistake and stopped us before making it.
 |
| Stocking stuffer shopping at the Shell station |
Meanwhile, ten of us
are hanging around inside of this small town gas station/convenience
store. It is soon apparent our trip to
Salzberg is now cancelled and all the last-minute stocking gift purchases are
going to need to be made here. We
haven’t opened stockings yet, but I half-expect to have an air freshener in
mine. :)
We call Enterprise
back up and are greeted with a calling menu.
We press 4 for "other" because our situation doesn't neatly
fit into one of the first three options.
The phone rings and rings. I let it wring for three minutes, but no one
answers. We hang up and try calling back
and selecting option 3 "roadside assistance" - even though we've
already called for that part. The
recorded message (in German) says that their offices are closed. Try again, this time going for option 2
"Change a reservation", the call asks us to select our language and
when we try English. We are transferred
to a pleasant but dim woman in the UK, who tells us that the alternate
transportation is arranged through roadside assistance (who told us to call the
rental company). She gives us the number
for "emergency assistance" for Germany and wishes us a Merry
Christmas. We try to call the number she
provides, but the recorded message says it is an invalid number.
As we’re making
these calls, it becomes noon and the gas station attendant comes out and closes
up shop. He has given us the phone
number for the taxi service in the nearest town with a taxi. So at least we have a way of getting back to
the house which is about 7 kilometers away.
The temperature is hovering around freezing. We can sit in the vans, but can't turn them
on for fear of wrecking the engines.
Thank goodness everyone dressed for a day of walking around an alpine
town.
We decide there is
no reason to have the entire crew stay at the scene. We call the cab and explain the number of
people that need to be picked up. They
say a cab will be there in 10-15 minutes.
After about 10 minutes, a tab driver calls back. He explains to Jessie that this will be a
"really expensive" ride and is required to give us the opportunity to
cancel. What other choice do we
have?
About 15 minutes later a caravan of vehicles show
up. A large flatbed tow truck, followed
by an ADAC customer support van, followed by a cab driver in a minivan. The customer support van barely slows down
when he sees the cab and speeds off.
The tow truck driver
takes the keys to both vehicles and says we do not need to wait around. We all squeeze into the van and head back to
our Airbnb home. The cost of the ride ended
up not being as bad as we feared and when you consider that ten of us made it
in one trip, it was even more reasonable.
So now
we are home safe and sound. In our tiny
hamlet of Bödldorf. At the start
of a 3-day business holiday. With no
vehicles.
To be continued…
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