Innsbruck targeted for New Year sex attacks These feral humans are in the process of destroying Europe, it's past time to take action. Maddog story about Innsbruck below. Speaking of Innsbruck, many years ago, we were planning a trip to Europe, it was to be a reunion tour of sorts for Mother-in-law where we would take her back to Poland, and she could see her relations, and introduce us to them.
During the planning stage it became clear a close friend really wanted to go on the trip with us, and I asked the wife if it would be ok to invite he, his wife, and daughter to go along. She is always accepting of my idiosyncrasies, and said, yes. So, I invited them. The backstory is that they were having some marital difficulty, and could really use something to help them reconnect. I wasn't sure if three weeks with me was what they needed but, hey, it had to show her how good she had it! Anyway, so, she was quite standoffish about the whole idea of a European vacation, but wanted to come over, and talk about it. They came, and we went over the proposed trip, which was only vaguely planned at the time. She had objections to pretty much every part of the trip, from staying in zimmer in Austria, to eating in small local restaurants, to staying in off the beaten path towns, and villages. Her first tactic was to complain about the costs, based on a trip she had taken when much younger. But our budget costs were less than half of the numbers she was complaining about, and she was shocked when I told her the cost of our last flight to Europe, she didn't believe I could get us there for such a small amount per person. She seemed to be all but unwilling to go, but might be talked into it if we were only hitting the big cities, and staying in 4 star hotels, and eating at Michelin 3 star restaurants. For a family vacation! Right. This was a neck snapping shift from penny pinching, to lavish splurging in about 2 minutes. I told my friend that she didn't want to go, but he was serious about going, and was determined to get her to go. I thought "lost cause." It was. She never agreed to go, they eventually divorced. I had invited the family, not just my friend, but he saw things differently, and decided to come on the trip sans family. He always had difficulty with social boundaries, and decorum. In the end, I didn't care that much, and so the plan was set the trip would be essentially a large circular swing starting in Frankfurt, Germany heading South through Austria, Northern Italy, the Czech Republic, Poland, and then back through Germany to Frankfort. The day before the flight friend called, and said he had client issues, and would not be able to fly with us, but would need to come a few days later. I was nonplussed. This wasn't even his trip, and he was already taking control. I counted to 10, and asked him where he wanted to meet us, and how he intended to get there. He had no idea. And in the end we had to go back to Frankfort to pick him up from the airport. Sigh. No vacation survives contact with reality, and this was going sideways fast. We landed in Germany, and headed for the Rhine, I figured this would be a good place for a two day diversion, what with all of the castles, and interesting things to do. It was, and I would recommend it, especially if you are traveling with children. In fact, we liked it so much, after we picked him up from the airport we went back for a double dip. However, on the first day when we arrived, mother-in-law took young son down to the water to toss stones while we moved the stuff into the hotel room. She foolishly stepped on some slimy stuff down by the water and twisted her ankle, which became very painful. Friend showed up with a serious case of bronchitis, MIL's leg worsened, and a few days later after touring down the Romantic Road, and through South Germany, we settled in Reutte, Austria, and friend decided he needed to see a doc for some antibiotics. He also told the doc about MIL's leg, and he diagnosed (remotely) Fibula fracture. So, we brought her in and indeed, she had a fracture, which required hospitalization, surgical reduction, and about 12 days of hospital stay (they do things differently in Europe). In the US it would have been outpatient surgery. The trip now completely FUBAR, we home based out of Reutte, which turned out to be a very pretty home base. God that was a long setup! Now to the Innsbruck story. We were making local trips in Austria each day, and decided to make a 3 or 4 day trip down to Venice, which was not on the original trip plan. As we headed out through Austria, we passed by Innsbruck, and friend saw the highway exit to the Innsbruck Olympics ski jump, and just had to go, but as it was already late, and I was driving, I vetoed the idea, much to his aggravation. I have no idea why, but Innsbruck ski jump became his primary desire on the trip, and after an hour or two of whinging, I told him we would stop on the way home. Near the Brenner pass we stopped to tour a castle, which was a good idea to stretch the legs, and get something to eat, then on to Venice. We got in fairly late, and after some scrounging found a little home/hotel with vacancy for a very good price. It was tucked away, small, and with zero amenities, but it had a great little back canal view from our room. That was pretty cool. Wife would sleep in, son and I would head down get coffee, and a few rolls, and come up sit in the french window "balcony" and eat breakfast. Then we would go for a long walk in the windy back lanes and alleys of Venice. I liked that Venice, but pretty much everything else was one huge gaudy tourist trap just like so much of Europe. But Venice is a story for another day. When we returned, I kept my word, and we stopped at the Innsbruck ski jump. It was in May so it had an abandoned feel, and there was no snow, but it had a pretty view down into the town of Innsbruck off in the distance. After wife saw the town, we had to go investigate. In my book the ski jump was worth 5 minutes, but friend was now complete! I still don't quite get it, but . . . This trip proved to be my ultimate in making lemonade out of the lemons available. Like all of my trips it turned into something good, although at many times it appeared to be headed somewhere bad. Wife worried the entire time about the cost of her mothers surgery, and whether insurance would pay. In the end, after expending hundreds of dollars in phone calls to the US, and wasting hours of time, we were presented with a bill for an amount so paltry I assumed it as for the initial diagnosis by the townie doctor, but it wasn't it was the entire bill for 12 days of hospitalization, surgery, surgeon, post op, recovery, everything. I will ask wife if she recalls the costs, but it seemed to me to be about $3,000, where in the US the surgeon's costs would have been at least that, and the hospital stay would have been at least $500 - $1,000 per day. Anyway, this had a humorous ending. When we got back to Portlandia, we submitted the bill to MIL's insurer, after a while the insurer agreed to pay, calculated the exchange rate, cut a check, in dollars, and sent the check by mail. The problem was that the exchange rate had changed from the date the check was sent to the time it was received. This created a kerfuffle over about $100. Why wife didn't just cut a check for the difference, I do not know, but she got in a test of wills with the insurance person over the fact that the hospital had sent us a follow up letter demanding an additional payment. The insurance employee was equally invested in not cutting a second check. The entire thing turned into a fiasco a la War of the Roses. I was, as usual, nonplussed. WTF? So, tiring of the drama, I asked wife if I could try to sort out the problem. She wanted to chew on the insurance employees butt, but ultimately agreed. So, I sent the young man a letter enclosing a letter I proposed to send to the Austrian hospital outlining their costs, and comparing it to the US average costs for the same procedure. Remember at the time I was an attorney working in the area of medical issues, and evaluating medical billings was a common part of my practice. The US bill was 4-5 times more than the original Austrian bill. My letter simply outlined my position, that they owed the money, but if they did not pay, I would send the Austrian hospital the letter "just to make sure they had not missed anything in their billing, since that would create problems for MIL later." I asked him to call if he intended to pay, otherwise I would send the letter on a date certain. He called, cocky, self assured, and unwilling to recant. I was polite, and simply said, you might want to run this by your boss, if you don't, and this blows up, you will be on your own with you boss. The day before the date certain, he called, saying his boss had decided to make the payment "as a courtesy to MIL." I thanked him. That was a lot of work, but . . . happy wife, happy life. And she was happy! Wife has a way of inflating minor issues into world ending fiasco's. It's a knack. I loosen her self made Gordian knots. It's a knack. I'm not sure where our marriage was made, heaven, or hell, but it works. Heh!
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