Austrian Airlines - with Stopover in Vienna

It was about time to try a different route from Toronto to Israel so I decided to give Austrian Airlines another chance - and spend a day travelling around Vienna.  I have transferred through the Vienna Airport a few times but have never left the airport to spend the day touring.  So this was a first.

I had previous written a blog on transferring through Vienna from Toronto to Tel-Aviv back in September 2011 here.  But there were a number of points to update.

I booked this flight through FlightHub - which was quite reasonable these days and it was "low season" in any event.  I managed to get a flight with one way via Vienna and the way back direct on Air Canada.  So it really wasn't a bad way to spend a day in Vienna and it worked with my schedule.

Austrian Airlines has some quirky policies.  For example, in economy class you can only book a seat in advance if you want to pay.  Otherwise, you can reserve a seat when you check in 36 hours before departure.  It is not that you get a special seat for booking in advance - just a regular seat.  Even having special status on the Star Alliance system does not help.  I took my chances and booked my seats 36 hours before check-in - and the seats were fine.  There were many good seats available.  So I guess you just have to make sure to go online exactly 36 hours or so before your flight and book the seats.

The flight itself from Toronto to Vienna was fine.  It was a 2-3-2 configuration - so reasonably roomy seats compared to the new Airbus planes that Air Canada is using.  With a 3-3-3 configuration, those seats are quite cramped.

Austrian has updated its planes somewhat. So there is now a reasonably modern entertainment system with a decent selection of new movies as well as games, TV programs etc.,  I watched one movie and tried to sleep for as much of the flight as I could.

I ordered an Asian Vegetarian meal (which usually means curried chick peas and/or tofu on rice).  It was a much more substantial meal than I get on Air Canada and it was fine.  The Austrian flight attendants are highly visible, wearing hideous bright red outfits with white aprons.  But they walk up and down the aisles all flight.  They are constantly coming around with beverages, which is quite a contrast with, for example, El Al.

The flight arrived in Vienna at about 8:30 a.m.  My baggage was checked though so it was just a matter of walking through immigration and then heading out to see the city.  There is a luggage storage facility at one end of the Terminal (upstairs).  For 4 Euros a day per bag, you can check whatever you like.  So I left my carry on items there, other then essentials, and headed out.

The Vienna airport is connected to the train system.  You have a few choices.  You can take a higher speed express train from the airport to downtown Vienna for 14 Euros each way - and the ride takes about 16 minutes.  Or you can use the regular train system in which case the train makes a few stops and takes about 26 minutes.  I bought an all day transit pass - which cost 7 Euros.  There was a 2 Euro supplement to take the train from the airport but I was all set.  The trains do not come every few minutes - it is more like two or three per hour.  So my next train was not until 9:45, arriving at 10:15 or so in Vienna. The "express train" was not operating more frequently so the difference would have been negligible.

In any case, I took the train to the main Vienna station "Wien Mitte."  From there, I changed trains and headed over to "Stephensplatz" a very centrally located station for walking tours.

Vienna is a very historic city with interesting buildings, palaces, statues and museums throughout the city.  Just wandering around the streets is certainly an experience.

Holocaust Memorial - Vienna

I decided to start off in the old Jewish Ghetto.  I saw the Holocaust memorial and went into the first of two Jewish museums.  I really wouldn't say that there was anything particularly fascinating about the museum.  In fact, if anything, the history of the Viennese Jewish community is quite a sordid one.  Both museums note that Vienna had one of the largest, most vibrant Jewish communities in the world as early as 1150-1200 C.E.  In 1420, the entire community was expelled, massacred and/or converted (but mostly expelled and massacred as far as I can determine...).

 After about 100 years or so, the Jewish community took advantage of Austrian "tolerance" and began to return to Vienna.  The community faced many challenges until its eventual "emancipation," hundreds of years later.  Of course, not so long after the emancipation, there was Hitler, the anschluss and we all know the rest of the story.  After wandering through these two Jewish museums, one is simply left with the question of how any Jew could consider living in Austria given the history of that country.  Yet there is Jewish community now (albeit a small one) with a Jewish Community Centre and some other facilities.

For a taste of Austrian culture and cuisine, I decided to visit an Austrian Coffee House. I went to Cafe Central, which is quite a well known place.  I tried the house specialty - Viennese Cafe Melange, which was basically a cappuccino.  I also tried a coffee with Apricot liqueur which was tasty.  It was a fairly formal atmosphere - service from waiters wearing tuxedos with white aprons.  There is a newspaper gallery so that patrons can pick up a newspaper and enjoy a leisurely read with their coffee.

I left the coffee house and decided to wander the streets of Vienna and see the palaces, sculptures and churches.  I was getting quite tired but the weather was fairly decent and the city was reasonably manageable by foot.  I didn't bother taking the train even though I had an all day pass.  Instead I walked from place to place.

I didn't actually go inside and take the inner tour of any of the churches or palaces.  Partially, this was simply timing but it was also due to the fact that preferred to wander around outside.

By 4:00 p.m. or so, I was sufficiently tired out. I took the train back to the airport, picked up my checked luggage, hit the duty free shop and made my way over to the lounge.  I should note that the duty free prices in Vienna for whisky were quite reasonable - especially compared to the prices in Israel or Canada.  For example, a bottle of Glenmorangie Duthac (a splendid whisky in my view) was 70 Euros for a one litre bottle. That same whisky sells for $130 USD at the Israeli duty free shop...

The lounge was decent.  It had some food, drinks, comfortable seats and free wi-fi.  So I had some rest and relaxation time for a few hours until the flight.

The flight from Vienna to Tel-Aviv is only about 3 1/2 hours.  It is a Airbus plane with very cramped seats and no entertainment of any sort.  The flight was jam packed but it was a short flight, on time and uneventful.  The only problem was that it arrived in Israel at 12:40 a.m., which is a really lousy time to arrive somewhere.

All in all, I guess I can say I have had a small taste of Vienna.  Nothing that I saw while wandering around or that I read about in the travel book that I had with me is calling me to spend another day.  In fact, I would probably pay a fair bit more to avoid the connection time and skip another day in Vienna. This is quite a contrast with the day I spend in Amsterdam - which left me feeling that I could easily spend another week there....

In any event, it is nice to be back in Israel in time to practice Megillah reading, get everyone's costumes ready, cook up some treats and prepare for the Purim celebrations.

More on other topics soon....

Latest Terrorist Attacks in Israel and Pew Study Link

  

We have been enjoying some unseasonably warm weather in Israel while dealing with a spate of Palestinian terror attacks.

Yonatan Azarihab

Yesterday, as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was visiting Israel, Israelis fought back three different terrorist attacks in three different areas.  One attack occurred in Petah Tikvah.  The victim, Yonatan Azarihab, was stabbed several times in the shoulder and neck by a Palestinian attacker.  Though seriously injured, Azarihab pulled the knife out of his shoulder and used the knife to fight off the attacker.  The attacker, a 20 year old Palestinian, died of his wounds.  Azarihab is being treated at an Israeli hospital.

In another attack in Jaffa, a 21 year old Palestinian man ran down a a beach promenade stabbing several people in his path.  He injured twelve people and killed one.  Six of the injured were hospitalized, at least one of whom is in critical condition.  A local busker sprang to action by using his guitar to hit the attacker and slow him down before police arrived on the scene and shot the attacker.  The attacker killed an American student, Taylor Force, a U.S. military veteran, who was visiting Israel.  The Fatah website, which represents one of the strongest factions of the Palestinian authority, praised the attack as the work of a "martyr."

In a third attack, a Palestinian on a motorcycle opened fire on a police vehicle near the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem.  One officer was killed in the attack and a second was seriously injured.  Police eventually caught up to the terrorist and killed him.

The current wave of attacks has been ongoing since September 2015.  Hundreds of Palestinians have attacked Israelis across Israel. Although many of the attacks have been knife attacks, there have also been shootings, car attacks (where the attacker purposely drives into a group of civilians) and other incidents.  Many of the attackers have been killed by nearby bystanders, police forces or others arriving at the scene to fight off the attacks.

The attacks have generally not been condemned by the Palestinian leadership or even by Israeli Arab Knesset members.  Many of the attacks have been celebrated and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has praised several of the attackers as "Martyrs."

One has to wonder about the end game for the Palestinians.  If they are of the view that the use of this type of violence will push Israel to make significant peace concessions, that would seem to be a mistaken assumption.  If anything, the Israeli political landscape has been shifting to the right as a result of these attacks.

A Pew Research Center study released this week reported that close to 50% of Israelis would now support a policy of transferring Israeli Arabs out of Israel.  To where?   Well maybe that is a corollary of the Palestinian position that the Palestinian state as part of a "two-state solution" should be emptied of its Jews.  If a "two-state solution" means that each people gets its own state, many interesting questions arise.  If each state has a minority of the other state's people - and provides full rights for that minority (as Israel now does for the Palestinian population), then it seems doubtful that many Israelis would push too hard for the expulsion or transfer from Israel of the Palestinians to the nascent Palestinian state.

But if it is a negotiated condition of a two state solution that Israel uproot any Jewish communities in the territory earmarked for the new Palestinian state and provide the Palestinian state with territory completely free of any Jewish residents, it is understandable that many would view the corollary to be a logical extension of the same premise. 

This is the position taken by Israeli Knesset Member Avigdor Lieberman of the "Yisrael Beitenu" party, which is currently not part of the governing coalition.  Lieberman would argue that this is what President Obama has referred to as "land swaps" where Israel would trade areas within Israel that have primarily Arab populations for areas of the West Bank that have primarily Jewish populations.

Funny enough, the Palestinian Authority view is that Israel should empty the West Bank of Jews as part of a territorial compromise and agree to accept Palestinian refugees into Israel itself rather than their new proposed homeland.  Obviously this makes no sense at all.  The whole purpose of a "two-state solution" would be that the Palestinians could resolve, completely, the issue of refugees within the borders of their new state.  Netanyahu and Lieberman have been criticized for taking this position as racist and intransigent.  But it is neither to accept that a two state solution means two states for two peoples.

Some 50% of Israelis apparently reject the premise of a "transfer," according to the study.  After all, Israeli Arabs comprise some 20% of Israel's population and are involved in all facets of Israeli life.  It is probably also incorrect to interpret the poll result as suggesting that Israelis who claimed to support a transfer would want to deport Arab Israeli citizens, proactively, outside of some type of political deal that created two ethnic nation states with a negotiated population exchange mechanism.

But this latest round of violence has impacted Israeli opinion. As the number of terrorist incidents on civilians within Israel continues to increase, Israeli attitudes towards Palestinians, Israeli and non-Israeli, continue to change for the worse.

Perhaps Palestinian leader Abbas figures that this is the way to force Israel into a deal and to gain international support.  But it seems to me that the current round of Palestinian violence has pushed things in the opposite direction. 

Adventures of Used Car Buying in Israel

Buying a used car anywhere is challenging.  You never really know what you are getting.  Are you just buying someone else's problems?  It is always a risky venture.

That's no different in Israel.  But there are several advantages and disadvantages here that should be taken into account as well as some unique issues.

For starters, cost is a huge factor in any car purchase in Israel.  The price of automobiles in Israel is simply astronomical.  It is mostly taxes - which bring the price of a new car to 2.5 to 3 times the cost of the same car in a place like Canada.  So a new car - a relatively small one by Canadian standards like a Toyota Corolla or a Honda Civic - can cost more than $40,000 Cdn in Israel for a fairly basic model.  Ouch.

New immigrants to Israel are entitled to bring a new car with them at a reduced tax rate or they can use their "new immigrant privileges" to buy a new car in Israel at a reduced rate.  However, even with the reduction, the prices are still incredibly high, compared to North American costs. 

Another option is to consider a used vehicle.  Sure that is quite risky - but anyone living in Israel to begin with is not necessarily averse to risk...

We recently set out to find a used vehicle and it was quite an adventure.  We will probably only know after several months, or even years, if we made a good decision.  If it is any consolation, our local mechanic tells us that the car should be maintenance free for at least the next 15,000 km. 

How do you find that "diamond in the rough?"  Well, there are several good Israeli sites with large used car inventories, that change every day.  yad2.co.il is one example (translated as "2ndhand").  "winwin.co.il" is another one.  (It goes without saying that everyone wins in Israel in a used car purchase situation...)

These sites generally include a mixture of private sellers and used car companies.  There are rental car and leasing companies selling cars and smaller private dealers.  There are also a few huge financing/sales companies that have offices across the country.  Many of the small used car companies disguise themselves as private sellers to try and avoid some of the initial stigma of a used car lot.  You do need to know Hebrew to use these sites though they are fairly user friendly with drop down menus to help narrow your search.

Of course, as with any car purchase, it is important to set a budget, figure out what cars are in the set range and then try to narrow it down.  There are hundreds of types of cars available in Israel.  Japanese, Korean, European, American and others.  The choices can be overwhelming.  Many are vehicles that you just don't hear about in North America.  Renault, Peugeot, Skoda, Dihatsu.  Then there are the Korean cars - Hyundai (spelled out as Yundai in Hebrew) and Kia - the Japanese cars (lots of Mazda and Toyota, some Suzuki, Honda and Nissan), German cars (VW, Audi, BMW) and many Fords....As in many other parts of the world, Toyota, Honda and Mazda, as well as the German cars are viewed by many as the more reliable vehicles.

Weather is also a big factor.  Since the weather here is so much easier on cars than the snowy winters of Canada and the northern U.S., cars can last quite a long time.

So we set out to look for a used Japanese car.  How do you describe a vehicle in Israel with about 100,000 km on it?  Generally - either "like new," "completely new" or in "perfect condition."  After some brief phone conversations, we went to look at a few of these "new, perfectly maintained cars."

One had several dents and looked like it had been in at least two accidents.  The seller had described it as in "completely new" condition - with only 98,000 km on it....okay....

We found another one that looked like a great deal.  It had about 95,000 km but really did look like it was in fairly great shape.  So we decided to arrange a licensed test of the vehicle.  Given that there are so many used car sales across the country, entrepreneurs have made things fairly easy for consumers.  You can take the car to "Computest" or "Supertest" and get the "complete buyer's test."  There are other companies as well.  These companies will run a battery of tests, top to bottom on the car including several computerized tests of all of the car's different systems.  You then get a complete booklet of all of the car's attributes and defects. 

So we hooked up the new-looking car....

Turns out it had been in two major accidents.  It had been repainted and much of the car had been rebuilt with third party parts.  Out of 19 systems tested, the car only passed 7.  Yikes.  That was an expense of about $140 that saved us thousands....

Back to the drawing board.

We went to see another car described as "like new."   It could only be described (by us anyways) as "beaten up."  We didn't even bother discussing a test.

Another "new"car was shown to us by its proud owner.  It had three or four visible signs of damage.  But the owner told us that he left the damage as is so that no one would think he had "covered up anything."  It looked reasonably good mechanically - the owner had a detailed service record booklet and was very proud of his maintenance efforts.  But repairing the various dents and getting a paint job would run about 5,000 N.I.S., assuming that everything else was perfect.

Needless to say, you definitely have to be prepared to kiss a lot of frogs to find the princess here.  Or, at least, to avoid finding the hidden ogre.

In one case, we spoke to the "owner" about a car that had a massive lien on it.  The owner wanted us to pay him first - then he would pay the lien holder - and once they released the lien (which could take up to 40 days, according to one Israeli site), he would then transfer the ownership.  I don't think so.  Remember that many people in Israel have negative bank balances.  So as soon as you pay the person, any money deposited would first go into the person's account to pay off the negative balance.  Who knows if the lien would ever get removed?...

So we kept looking.  We found two or three more options that look reasonable and started to look seriously at the transfer process.

The actual process of buying the vehicle (if and when you find one that is suitable) is reasonably easy.  You go to any post office with the seller.  The post office charges a fee of about 250 N.I.S. ($85) and checks to make sure that there are no liens or charges against the vehicle.  If everything is clear, the post office will provide ownership documentation instantly.

The buyer and seller can prepare and sign a sales contract - including the vehicle number, engine number, respective ID #s for the buyer and seller and other details.  Once the money is exchanged and the ownership is registered - the only thing left to do is insure the vehicle.  I found a fairly straightforward boilerplate agreement on the internet and modified it slightly to make it suitable. 

In Israel, all used cars are tested each year year and a passed test is a condition of the vehicle registration.  The total annual fee can be about 1400 N.I.S.  So buying a car that has recently been tested can mean quite a savings, of up to a year's worth of test fees.

For calculating the market value of the car, Israel uses two types of "price books" ("Mehiron") to set the value of cars when Israelis buy or sell them.  Many sellers will stick to the Mehiron price religiously.  There is certainly some room, depending on the number of kilometres on the vehicle and the condition - but the Mehiron is often a basis for negotiating.

So we actually found another one that looked like a reasonable deal.  It was about 45 minutes away.  The owners seemed like a decent couple....After a test drive and a visual inspection, it was back to another computerized test location.

This car fared much better.  A handful of repairs were needed with an estimated cost of about 2,000-2,500 N.I.S.  But the owners were willing to knock that off of the already reduced, agreed upon selling price.  So we decided it would be worth the risk.

We took the car to a local mechanic who confirmed that the cost would be close to the estimate.  These were mostly more in the range of maintenance issues than major problems of any kind.  But of course the brakes, rotors and pads, would all need to be changed....With a few other optional items that would need to be done soon, the initial mechanic's bill ran up a bit higher than anticipated, but still in the ballpark.  Supposedly, we wound up with a car in very good shape mechanically and aesthetically, that should be fine for a while

We were able to insure the vehicle fairly easily by phone.  We contacted a few different insurance companies.  Unlike Canada/ U.S., they don't ask you how far you will be driving each day or whether you have passed a driver education course.  However, they do consider driving record (for the past 5 years), record of driving offences (if any) and whether there any new drivers.  Our agent also asked if anyone in the family was a teacher..(this included near and distant relatives).  We came with up a family member's name and were able to get a 20% discount.  No details required....

Buyers may prefer to buy from a used car dealership which might include some type of warranty. But based on some examples we saw, the cost differential could be quite significant - perhaps 20% or 30% or even more.  And I am not really convinced that these dealerships are likely to be any more scrupulous than a private seller.

But buyers will always want to take any car to one of these testing places for a comprehensive test - and perhaps also to a mechanic, since the testing agencies do not open and check the brake systems.  Of course some sellers may have a full service book and one could check what services were last performed and when.  But you still need to check these things.

Buyers will also want to be extra careful about title to the vehicle and will want to ensure that they are buying the vehicle free and clear.  Although the post office will cover most of these checks, it is not fully comprehensive.  You can go the Ministry of Transportation to verify that the vehicle is free and clear of any liens or other encumbrances.

While buying a used car in Israel is clearly a shark's world,  companies like Computest and Supertest help remove some of the risk.  Ultimately, you can never remove all of the risk - but it is probably worthwhile taking a chance if you can get a good used vehicle for a price that is drastically reduced over the price of a new or almost new model of the same car.  Then again, I suppose I will have to report back in about two years on whether I still believe that to be the case.

For now, we will see how our "almost new" used car holds up....

The vehicle model, year, price and kilometre reading have been purposely withheld to protect the innocent....

Until the next update on this issue - happy motoring!