As we were preparing for this trip, I encountered the nascent Entry/Exit System (archive.org) for the Schengen Area (archive.org).
The Entry/Exit System (EES) is an automated digital IT system that registers non-EU nationals each time they cross the external borders of the 29-country Schengen Area. It completely replaces traditional passport stamping.
If you're interested, just Google EES to see what the issues have been.
We departed Memphis on Thursday morning. In our MEM-DTW-AMS-VIE flight, Delta initially gave us only 55 minutes to make the connection in Schiphol. In the best of times, this would have been tight but with EES, we would never make it. So we had Delta move us to the next flight to Vienna - 6 hours later.
On your first entry into the Schengen Area, you have to register in the EES system. This is a passport scan, a photo, and fingerprint capture. Then you proceed to the new automated Passport Control. In the registration area, we were 33% successful. Success sent you to "Route 1." Failure sent you to "Route 2."
Route 1 was a gated kiosk where again you performed a passport scan, a facial image was processed, and fingerprints verified. Our success rate dropped dramatically. These kiosks are very similar to the PARAFE (archive.org) automated biometric e-gates that we encountered at CDG but the PARAFE gates worked fine.
The Route 2 line was long with a traditional border control officer at the end. Processing there was inconsistent with one saying "You're Ok, just keep going." That would come back to haunt us.
After napping in the KLM Crown Lounge, we headed out to the gate for the KLM flight to Vienna. Upon arrival, we were informed that the flight was delayed and departing from another gate about 20 minutes walk away.
They didn't mention that the new gate was in an oven and way too small for the number of passengers. Remember my previous comment about the lack of air conditioning in public areas.
Door to door travel time was almost 26 hours.
Our Friday arrival at the Marriott Bonvoy (archive.org) was a breath of fresh (cool) air. We had supper at Viva la Mamma (archive.org).
Saturday we visited Schönbrunn Palace (archive.org). We took the State Apartments tour with the audio guide. My audio guide unit didn't operate properly so I got a docent to replace it for me. Issues with audio guides will come up again and again.
In St. Stephen’s Cathedral we took the elevator up the short tower that overlooks the incredible tile roof. Don't take that elevator if you're claustrophobic. There was a pretty good view of Vienna's skyline as well.
Exhausted, we had supper at Champions in the Marriott Bonvoy lobby (air conditioned).
The rest of the crowd enjoyed Vienna and visited Haus des Meeres (archive.org), Museum der Illusionen (archive.org), and the Spanish Riding School (archive.org). There was a lot more to see in the Haus des Meeres than fish and the Museum der Illusionen has gotten to be a regular activity on our trips. Regrettably, the horses of the Spanish Riding School were off for the summer (remember no air conditioning) but they got to see the beautiful facility. It was 102° in Vienna that day.
Monday morning we picked up a Sixt Ford Tourneo and headed west. We were dying for french fries and Cokes with ice so we stopped at a McDonald's and picked up lunch.
As expected, any concentration camp is a moving experience. There were over 81,000 recorded deaths at Mauthausen which makes it a pretty minor camp compared to Auschwitz of more than 1,100,000. But contrast that 81,000 to the 2,753 at the World Trade Towers. The photo below is all the names of those who died at Mauthausen.
One of the shocking things we saw was as we were leaving we noticed a large concrete pool outside near the entrance. A quick Google search turned up that that was a swimming pool for the families of the guards. Think about that. The photo below is not my photo.
On to Salzburg after a 90 minute drive.
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