I’ve decided that I won’t be going to Wrocław, Poland in November.
First of all, my mobility problems are getting worse. I’ve been using a walker for a while now because arthritis in my back doesn’t want me vertical unsupported for more than a few minutes at a time, so the walker was something to lean on; but for several weeks now, my hips have been complaining as well, and so the walking itself is also a problem.
I wasn’t worried about the parts of the trip west of, and across, the Atlantic: all the trains I’d ride in the U.S. (except a couple of shorter rides between New York and Boston) have checked baggage service; all the stations where I’d change trains have “red cap” service (help with luggage); and I’d get wheelchair assistance in all the airports.
European trains generally don’t have checked baggage service; but one of my colleagues on the committee told me about a group called “Bahnhofsmission” that provides help with luggage at train stations in Germany, so that would be OK.
I was also worried about a tram ride from the Hauptbahnhof (central train station) to a hotel in Berlin; but I’ve found out that a taxi ride should cost a good deal less than €30; and since I splurge on these trips anyway, that would be no big deal.
But that leaves the fact that my hearing aids don’t work well in big meetings; and since the real reason for the trip would be to attend a meeting of the ISO standards committee for the C++ programming language, I would mostly be Zooming in from my hotel room*. I would certainly enjoy the travel itself; but it seems difficult to justify the expense when I can attend the meeting just as well from home.
Oh, well; planning the trip was fun; and maybe I’ll take a joy ride on Amtrak some time later this year.
*I have an accessory called a “TV adaptor” that plugs into a headphone jack and generates a bluetooth signal that feeds my hearing aids. It gives me just enough quality to understand human speech.
It sounds like you’d have a better time at home, all things considered. My father used hearing aids and never got the knack of them. We had endless rounds of “Speak up! Why are you yelling?” until we figured out the problem with the aids was that he was hearing sounds okay with them on; he just couldn’t separate speech sounds from ambient sounds. Sounds like the new technology is so much better.
I’m sorry a trip you were looking forward to is now looking unlikely. Just this week, I had a conversation with a friend about how unfair it is that we are no longer 20 years old, when a good night’s sleep would fix anything short of decapitation. On the other hand, Covid is really high right now and it seems like everyone I know has it, so maybe it’s best not to travel?
Katydid
Hearing aids have got much more sophisticated, mine have settings for different environments like a movie or the pub and the program has dozens of these, you choose the situations you are in most often and they load up those. Plus of course you can ask them to pick up anything broadcast on blue tooth directly so it sounds straight in your ears, no more holding the phone and shrugging up your shoulder while you try to talk and so something with your hands.
Oh and Bill I’m sorry. I think taking a trip for fun would be an excellent thing to do. Where might you go?
Thanks, Jazzlet–good to know hearing aids have gotten better.
I agree that taking a trip for fun where there’s no pressures might be just the thing.
Katydid:
That’s my problem as well, and always has been; and now that the hearing aids are getting older, I get mostly distortion when listening to anything that comes out of a loudspeaker (like in a big meeting).
Jazzlet:
That sounds like what I need. What brand of hearing aids do you have? I have some older Oticons that were basically top-of-the-line when I bought them seven or eight years ago. I’m thinking about getting some new ones, so maybe I can look into switching to your brand. Is there an accessory like my Oticon TV Adaptor 3.0 that can plug into some kind of audio output and feed the hearing aids?
I’m thinking about starting out on the Texas Eagle to Los Angeles. The through cars run only three days per week, but that wouldn’t matter since I could schedule the trip whenever it works. I made the eastbound trip only once before, and that was a couple of decades ago.
From there, I could take the Coast Starlight to either Portland or Seattle. I’ve ridden the Starlight only once before, and only from Los Angeles to San José.
From the Pacific Northwest, I could take the Empire Builder to Chicago, spend the night, and the Texas Eagle home. I’ve done that numerous times; but I’ve ridden the Portland split of the Builder only twice many years ago; and the ride through the Columbia River gorge is really pretty.
But I wouldn’t want to trust making the connection from the Starlight to the Builder in Portland, so I’d have to plan on spending the night, and I don’t think that there’s a hotel near Portland’s Union Station. There’s no connection in Seattle, but there’s a fancy hotel right next door to King Street Station.
Alternatively, I could take the Starlight only as far as Emeryville (the Bay Area station), spend the night just across the tracks, and take the California Zephyr to Chicago. The Zephyr was the penultimate leg of my trip to Hawaiʻi in February; but we were bustituted from Grand Junction to Denver because Union Pacific had a train on the ground blocking the Moffat Tunnel.
A simpler trip would be just the Lake Shore Limited to New York and back. That’s basically what I was planning for the U.S. part of the trip to Wrocław, and it’s what I did on my trip to Varna, Bulgaria last summer. It wouldn’t require spending the night anywhere except for one night at the New Yorker Hotel which is just one block from the Moynihan Train Hall (Amtrak’s extension of Penn Station).
Sorry if that was more than you wanted to know. 😎
Nathos Nova M, they have the usual louder and quieter buttons on the actual aids, but the more complex stuff is managed through Phonak on my phone. When you initially get them Phonak is also used to load any specific things you need for your hearing, so mine takes into account that without the aids I hear the pulse of the blood flowing through my ears, more so in my left ear, and adjusts the aids accordingly. Of course I am in the UK so I don’t know whether my brand will be available to you.
The trip sounds interesting, and beautiful, I hope you manage to do the Columbia River gorge, it sound like it could be spectacular.
Oh I forgot to say you can control volume through the phone, easier than those tiny button on the aids, and that when you are on a call or using your phone GPS or whatever other people can’t hear what the phone is ‘saying’ because it just goes straight to the aids rather than being broadcast. I have found the latter rather useful on occasion.
I took the Starlight from San Francisco to Vancouver, British Columbia back in the 1980s, when all an American needed to travel to Canada was a valid US driver’s license for identity. Obviously I slept on the train and my 20-year-old self thought it was very glamorous and comfortable.
Heads up: Covid is now a huge problem in the USA due to our collective stupidity and several novel variants all out there competing for hosts, so you might want to consider that when planning a trip on public transport. 🙁