It will be all right; I’ve done it before, it will be all right.
The man with the nice voice is going to take his huge steel machine down a rocky mountain valley and he is going to park it safely in the driveway.
Memories of two years ago, the first time I made the journey are still vivid.
“You know we have to fly down a valley between mountains to land at Innsbruck?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah”, I said, and went back to reading my newspaper (and there are pots of gold at the end of the rainbow, I thought).
The pilot announced that we were beginning our descent, “Cabin crew, ten minutes to landing”. The Alps looked wonderful in bright winter sunshine. Innsbruck drew closer.
“Now look”, said Leslie. I looked out of the window to the left; there were mountains to the side of us. I looked across the aisle to the window at the other side; there were mountains out that window as well.
We were in a jet airliner going at a great speed that was going down a mountain valley. Aren’t airports supposed to be in wide, open spaces? Whose idea was it to put an airport here anyway? I feigned complete calmness and tranquillity, but there were other passengers as clearly surprised as I was, when we landed they started to clap the pilot!
At 1005 Irish time we will take off from Dublin Airport and at 1330 Austrian time we will pull up at the little airport at Innsbruck. The flight will be with the friendliest cabin staff I have ever met, and there will be a smile of greeting from the airport staff. If the sun is shining and the sky is blue, the views will be brilliant. Soon after landing, we will be whisked off down the autobahn to the loveliest village and people in all of Austria.
It will be all right; it will.