There and Back Again

“I feel like we’re going on a journey,” said Michelle, as we walked out the door this afternoon.

I laughed.

“You make it sound like we’re not coming back for a long time! Like we’re hobbits going ‘There and Back Again,’ you know?”

As we walked down the 113 winding steps to the street, we bantered cheerfully about the Misty Mountains, Murkwood, and Lothlorien and set out for a two hour trip to see Beethoven’s summer home in Neussdorf (on the outskirts of the Vienna woods). We had decided to ride the Schnellbahn or ‘fast train’ that runs around the perimeter of Vienna. Well, we got on “the S-Bahn” in Heiligenstadt, marveling at the beautiful interior of the train--the comfortable seats, the streamlined windows and the smoothness of the ride. I sighed and relaxed sleepily into my seat, watching the Danube slip swiftly by outside my window.

We should have been slightly alarmed by seeing a fellow passenger carrying a heavy suitcase and prepared with an iPod and various “long trip” accessories, BUT we weren’t. About a half an hour later, when we started wondering exactly when this “S-Bahn” would stop at our station, a conductor stopped with a ticket punch (ticket punch?! public transport in Wien doesn’t require punched tickets…) and asked where we were going.

“Neussdorf?” Michelle responded (after he kindly repeated the question in very broken English). Well, apparently, this train didn’t stop at Neussdorf.

This train doesn’t stop at Neussdorf. While that was still registering in our minds, he moved on.

I watched the color drain out of Michelle’s face. Not the S-Bahn…where are we?…where are we going?… I read all the questions and panic in her eyes.

Thankfully, the Spirit speaks English and whispers peace and brings calmness. I felt that everything would be all right. We both had maps, our emergency €20, cell phones, pepper spray ;) , and the Holy Ghost. When the train finally stopped at Tulln (the City of Flowers actually), we got out and found a ticket office. The Austrian official explained that we were not in Vienna and sold us tickets back to the city.

Wrong train!

After we had those tickets in hand and were standing on the cold platform waiting for the right train, we laughed and laughed. The situation was hysterically comical once the adrenalin had faded. We had taken the International Train not the Schnellbahn. When we arrived in Vienna on the City Train, we boarded the U-Bahn (the dear, safe, familiar U-Bahn that runs only inside of Vienna) and got to Dr. Hinkley’s home in time for Sunday evening devotional.

Key Word: Wien

Tender Mercies:

-we did not leave the country

-the conductor did not charge us the €85 for not having tickets

-we were kept safe at Tulln and arrived safely back in Vienna

-we were prepared by our teachers and our leaders for an emergency

-the Spirit brought us peace, and

-the U-Bahn

We love the U-Bahn