Travel in Corona-time

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Working as a musician, I've always had to travel quite a bit for my work... airports and train-stations as well as the inside of a touring coach have been a bit of a constant but necessary evil in order to get to venues for concerts and rehearsals. Corona has obviously put quite a dent in this sort of life for the short to medium term... however, there are work possibilities that haven't yet been cancelled from August onwards.

Since the EU Schengen Zone was introduced, travelling between all the countries in the Schengen Zone has been a relatively easy affair. No border checks (except for one special island...), no visas and no restrictions. Freedom of movement has been one of the founding principles of the European Union, and it has led to travel between countries that has been simple to plan and execute.

However, the Coronavirus of 2020 has put that to an end... with countries instituting hard or soft regulations on travel between different countries, quite often with specific restrictions depending on the country that you are travelling from and to which can change at a moment's notice... and with different rules for public transport for each country. During the worst of the Corona period, it was quite simple... don't travel, the end. However, now as the hard restrictions are softening in preparation for the summer, the restrictions are more fluid and specific.

So, due to the fact that I have a much reduced touring and work schedule over this coming summer... I thought I would take the opportunity to enrol in a summer course with a teacher in Austria to buff up my skills on the Viola dámore. The Viola dámore is by far and away my weakest instrument in my arsenal, with most of my learning having been self-taught and without the benefit of a professional mentor. So, I signed up for a week of lessons and chamber music with someone who has had much more experience than me in this instrument.

It is something that my wife has mentioned before in the past... that singers in the Classical Music world get lessons and mentorship throughout their career and that is considered normal. However, instrumentalists tend to leave this form of learning behind after their initial formal training. It did strike me as true and a bit of an oddity, so I thought it would be a great idea to go and seek further lessons and learning in an instrument that I would like to master better!

So, I figured that air travel was not really going to be an option.... that said, if I have the chance to travel by train I would always opt for that first! There is something much more comfortable about sitting in a reserved train seat on a super fast train with air conditioning and power outlets rather than fighting the security hassles and crappy tourists of the airports.

So for a week's course, I will have a roughly 10 hour train ride from Netherlands to Austria and a similar travel on the way back. I always try to book seats on the ICE trains in Germany as I am often travelling with my instruments and I would like to have a guaranteed seat for the multi-hour train journey! Interestingly enough, on the return trip... it was cheaper to book the 1st class ticket rather than the 2nd class with the extra seat booking costs. So, 1st class on the way back!

Something that I always do is to make sure that I have the itinerary all planned out and all the relevant track change information all easily accessible in my diary. After all, sometimes there are limited train change times... and there is nothing more stressful than hunting for information in a bag somewhere whilst the clock is ticking down. That said, most of the German area trains are pretty well connected... with changes having ample enough time, trains running on time and with platforms that aren't on the other side of the station! It isn't something that can be said for all European train networks!

So, the course is booked... travel is finally booked... and the castle accommodation is ready!Now I need to practice and get ready for a week of lessons... something that I haven't done for quite a number of years!

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