Trains, Planes and Compassion

Sometimes a lot of pain and suffering can be taken away with a kind word or thoughtful deed—even when the two (trial and solicitous service) are not connected in any way. A trial loses its sting when tempered by someone’s charity. 

I recently learned this personally when my husband and I had one of those “worst days of your life” when everything went wrong; then, a compassionate act made at the end of the day seem a funny tale to tell instead of a bitter memory.

Ed and I were on a once in a lifetime, 50^th year anniversary family history trip to Europe. Our schedule was as tight as a rubber band, with no time for error or waste. We were traveling from Manchester, England to Dublin, Ireland on a Sunday morning early morning flight. We had been traveling on the train a lot on our trip, including into the Manchester Train Station. We knew that the train went from Manchester to the airport about every five to ten minutes, so we arrived at the train station about two hours earlier than our flight was due. It was a short trip on the train to the airport and we thought there was no problem. 

However, we didn’t realize that on Sundays the trains only run every 45 minutes to an hour, and we’d just missed the last one. We still didn’t worry. However, when the train we were on had engine problems, we began to worry. Normally the distance between the train station exits and airport entrances were close or had shuttle service, but not in Manchester—it was a long, winding distance between them. As we finally reached the airport, we saw taxis dropping people off right off at the airport gates that had taken us ages to reach. Ed said, “We should have taken a taxi and been here hours ago.”

We contacted handicapped assistance which we had arranged for in advanced in all the

airports because of Ed’s emphysema and lung transplant which makes it difficult for him to walk fast or very far; they had no record of our requesting it, but they said they could arrange it. That took longer. By then we knew we’d missed our flight and we had. 

They booked us on the next available flight to Dublin which was 12 hours later and would cost us $360. What choice did we have? Nothing more fun than hanging around an airport for 12 hours. What they didn’t tell us was that there was a lounge especially for handicapped passengers where we could have sat down in comfortable seats, at least. So we walked around with our entire luggage and stopped in at cafes for hours. Ed had had problems at times on our trip with nausea and this was one of those days. So he didn’t dare eat anything and only sipped at bottled water. He read from my kindle and I read my kindle book on my tablet. It was one time it came in handy to have both. 

Finally it was time we could check in our luggage anyway, and not be burdened down with it. We went back to the gate and they weighed our luggage (which I had used my portable weight to keep it down to .4 kilos within the 20 kilo limit). Then they informed us that this airline only had a 15 kilo limit (and only 8 kilos for carry-ons) so our luggage (which we had paid for in advance) was overweight and would cost us $150 each more for overweight charges. We left the gate and were wondering what to do when the lady at customer service suggested we go downstairs and purchase a small $15.00 duffle bag in one of the gift shops. It folds up into the size of 12 inch book and yet holds a lot. We could then put the five kilo excess luggage from each of our bags, plus, our excess carry-on in it and pay for an extra bag, which was less than $70.00. We did that and rearranged our luggage. We must not have been the only people unprepared for the unusual weight limits as there were long shelves there for “repacking and rearranging luggage.” 

Finally at 8:00pm, we climbed aboard a small airplane and headed for Dublin. The seats were so close together that although Ed is a small person, his knees were touching the seat in front of him. Ed was finally so weak from not eating that I was happy when he ate some crackers and did not get nauseated. 

As we disembarked at Dublin, we asked if there was someone from Handicapped Assistance to put Ed in a wheelchair and take him through the terminal to the exit. Everyone we talked to said, “No.” Finally after everyone departed the plane, and no one was left, we began the trek through the long, lonely, deserted terminal. For some reason (probably his weakness), Ed was having problems with walking very far with stopping to rest. Even though he leaned on my shoulder to balance and make it easier to walk, I began to count in my head, walk 10 steps, rest; walk 10 steps, rest. It took us well over an hour to get to customs, who barely looked at our passports and waved us through. We never saw anyone who could help us or who we could ask for Handicapped Assistance.

Everything was so deserted.

At the luggage carrousel our luggage had been taken off and placed by customer service so it was easy to pick it up and get a taxi to our hotel. 

It was about 10:30pm or later when we arrived at our hotel and we were totally exhausted. We had gotten up at 3:30am to get ready for our flight and with all the problems, we were emotionally as well as physically wiped out. I was relieved to find we still had a room (I was waiting for some last cosmic jinx that had somehow interfered with it). 

We got our keys and were ready to go, when the manager (who was having trouble

speaking English) said, “Wait. We have a voucher for you.”

I looked at him strangely and said. “We didn’t pay for a voucher.”

“Yes, it gives you two full meals in our restaurant with appetizer, main course, desert and a

bottle of wine.”

“We didn’t order that,” I again denied.

“Markson gave it to you,” he insisted.

I looked at Ed puzzled and said, “Markson?”

He pulled out an envelope and gave it to us. Inside was an elaborate voucher. 

The manager was grinning all over that we finally understood. “Markson called and paid for it. We expected you here earlier and were all prepared to serve you a special meal.”

We then realized he was talking about our son, Marc, in Washington, D.C. who had called and made the arrangement. I felt like crying that even though we were half a world away, without a cell phone (because it was not compatible), our children were thinking of us on Mother’s Day and wanting to make it special for us.

That one act from our children wiped out all the frustrations of the day; I will always remember that as one of the most special Mother’s Day of my life.

Our Adventure to Australia and New Zealand

Part II

In the Country

We arrived in Australia ready to enjoy it fully. Since we were in an English-speaking country, we didn’t have to learn a foreign language, which was very fortunate. However, we still had to cope with some unexpected difficulties.


:) Throw-away Cell Phone: One of the smartest things we did was to purchase a “throw-away” pre-paid cell phone at the Australia airport when we arrived. For $29.00 American money we bought a cheap, but adequate cell phone with $150.00 worth of minutes; for $29.00 more we got another $150.00 more minutes. I immediately texted our phone number to our children so they could contact us in case of an emergency. This phone was good both in Australia and New Zealand and it was cheaper to call the U. S. than to call a local number in Australia. However, calling a local New Zealand phone number (the airlines to confirm our flight) on this Australian phone number ate up almost all our minutes. But the phone was a lifesaver!!!!


:( GPS doesn’t work: Our GPS could never get a satellite so our purchase of the maps was a total waste!!! But it was a good idea that just didn’t work!

:) Electrical Converters: Electricity voltage is not the same anywhere in the world, so you have to have converters to use any electrical items you might have—laptops, curling irons, ipods, etc. Additionally, every electrical outlet is different (to prevent you from plugging your laptop into a 240 watt outlet and zapping your laptop to death). You could rent converters and adapters from the hotel (some charged you for them, while others only asked for a $20.00 deposited that you got back when you returned it).

But they aren’t that expensive, so I purchased both an adapter, and a converter before I left home, and I’m glad I have my own for future travel. My adapter has outlets for anywhere in the world! My converter had two settings—one higher wattage for curling irons that use a lot of electricity and another for lower wattage for most items. Converters and adapters are one thing you CAN’T LEAVE HOME WITHOUT!

:( No Free Internet: The biggest surprise was that our hotels did not have free internet! I guess I was surprised because most hotels in the U. S. have it, but the more expensive the hotel, the more they wanted to charge you for it! From $.76 a minute, to $10.00 for an hour, to $30.00 a day, they seemed to think that only businessmen with an unlimited business account needed an internet account. But if you had to fly from city to city or country to country as we did, it was a necessity.

I ended up paying for it occasionally, but most of the time I took my Ipod touch or laptop to McDonald’s where they had free internet to send an occasional email or Facebook message to let our family and friends know we were alive. I certainly would not want to spend more than 30 minutes to an hour on the internet per day on a holiday, but I feel in this day and age, internet access is a reality, and dark, dingy internet cafes don’t cut it. The hotels had “business centers” but they charged a large fee to use them also. I confirmed my flight and then printed the boarding passes at the airport.

:) Prearranged Shuttles: The best thing the tour agent set up for us was to be picked up at the airport by a shuttle bus and taken to our hotel. That was wonderful, and I would always have that whether I booked through a tour agency or not. It made life so much easier not to worry when you got to the airport—just to hop aboard a scheduled airport shuttle.

Only once did the shuttle fail us and it was at 9:30 pm when we flew into Auckland. There were few shuttles or taxis by the time we cleared customs and baggage. The shuttle we finally convinced to take us on the 40-minute drive to town would only accept New Zealand money (or a premium to use American dollars) so we exchanged money at a high exchange, and paid him. It made us realize how glad we were that we didn’t have to do that on a regular basis.

:( Ask Before You Go: We discovered the hard way that you always ask a cab driver how much it will cost to take you somewhere when you give them the address. They don’t have counters that add up the charges as you travel like most cities have; when you arrive at your destination, they tell you the charge--$90.00 in our case.


:) Use the Local Public Transportation: My husband hates public transportation, and I thought he wouldn’t be caught dead on a tram or a bus, but he adapted right away to it. We found that it was far easier, faster (and cheaper) to get along on the trams than any other way. We bought a five-day public transportation pass for $20.00 and then went everywhere on it. In Sydney and Melbourne there were trams through the inner city that were easy to get on and off, so we rode them until we realized we were lost; then we’d hop off, look at our city map and hop another tram going the right way. Our hotels were downtown so in Sydney we could actually walk everywhere, but Ed would get tired and grab a tram.