These next few blog posts are about our family trip to Austria. Since, in real life, it is impossible to separate any event, be it a trip to Austria or anything else, from what comes before and what occurs afterward I’ll spend a couple of paragraphs providing some background and context for this excursion.
Kathy and I traveled to Austria because of a cascade of occurrences that began in 1998, when Mike was in high school and took German as his foreign language choice. Five years later, when it was time for Madeline to choose a foreign language she also chose German. One of the main reasons for her choice was that Mike had taken German. As she tells it, this would allow them to share a secret language that neither Kathy nor I would be able to understand. A trip to Germany in high school continued her interest in German language and culture, then, German became one of her minor concentrations in college. A summer in Berlin allowed her to become more proficient in the language, and ultimately, after graduation, she pursued an opportunity to spend a year in Linz, Austria teaching English to high school aged kids.
We went to Austria because visiting Madeline provided a reason for us to go. We planned a two-week trip, with the time equally divided between four cities, Munich, Germany, then Salzburg, Linz, and Vienna in Austria. Mike would join us for a week in the middle of the trip. Madeline, who was on Easter break, would meet us in Munich and travel with us for the entire time.
A week before we were to fly to Munich, my left kidney decided to cough out a stone, which lodged about half way out. End result: Me experiencing excruciating pain followed by me experiencing laparoscopic surgery for stone removal—for the expelled stone as well as another cluster of stones the CT scan found in my kidney. I waffled for a while as to if I could make the trip, but I decided to go, and while it wasn’t the optimal experience, in the end I’m happy I went.
To prevent post surgical swelling and blockage (not an ideal outcome, especially if I were to be somewhere in the middle of Europe), the urologist, during surgery, installed a stent. A stent is a device that resembles a long soda straw with curly-queues at both ends. The one end sits in the kidney & the other end goes into the bladder. I found that carrying a stent around Europe was not a good time. It ranged from uncomfortable when I was sitting, to borderline painful when I was walking around. It put me at a definite disadvantage when we would do walking tours. I partially focused on the tour, partially focused on how I felt and mostly thought about how good it would be to sit down again.
Our plane from Atlanta to Munich was only partially full—a partially full trans-Atlantic flight is something I have not experienced for over twenty years, and it was wonderful. I claimed three seats and was able to lie down and get some quality sleep on the way over. Considering my subpar condition, the good flight over was a real plus, I actually had the stamina necessary to deplane, get luggage, get through the passport check, negotiate the S bahn into Munich, and start my European experience.
Kathy and I traveled to Austria because of a cascade of occurrences that began in 1998, when Mike was in high school and took German as his foreign language choice. Five years later, when it was time for Madeline to choose a foreign language she also chose German. One of the main reasons for her choice was that Mike had taken German. As she tells it, this would allow them to share a secret language that neither Kathy nor I would be able to understand. A trip to Germany in high school continued her interest in German language and culture, then, German became one of her minor concentrations in college. A summer in Berlin allowed her to become more proficient in the language, and ultimately, after graduation, she pursued an opportunity to spend a year in Linz, Austria teaching English to high school aged kids.
We went to Austria because visiting Madeline provided a reason for us to go. We planned a two-week trip, with the time equally divided between four cities, Munich, Germany, then Salzburg, Linz, and Vienna in Austria. Mike would join us for a week in the middle of the trip. Madeline, who was on Easter break, would meet us in Munich and travel with us for the entire time.
A week before we were to fly to Munich, my left kidney decided to cough out a stone, which lodged about half way out. End result: Me experiencing excruciating pain followed by me experiencing laparoscopic surgery for stone removal—for the expelled stone as well as another cluster of stones the CT scan found in my kidney. I waffled for a while as to if I could make the trip, but I decided to go, and while it wasn’t the optimal experience, in the end I’m happy I went.
To prevent post surgical swelling and blockage (not an ideal outcome, especially if I were to be somewhere in the middle of Europe), the urologist, during surgery, installed a stent. A stent is a device that resembles a long soda straw with curly-queues at both ends. The one end sits in the kidney & the other end goes into the bladder. I found that carrying a stent around Europe was not a good time. It ranged from uncomfortable when I was sitting, to borderline painful when I was walking around. It put me at a definite disadvantage when we would do walking tours. I partially focused on the tour, partially focused on how I felt and mostly thought about how good it would be to sit down again.
Our plane from Atlanta to Munich was only partially full—a partially full trans-Atlantic flight is something I have not experienced for over twenty years, and it was wonderful. I claimed three seats and was able to lie down and get some quality sleep on the way over. Considering my subpar condition, the good flight over was a real plus, I actually had the stamina necessary to deplane, get luggage, get through the passport check, negotiate the S bahn into Munich, and start my European experience.
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