Buon Giorno! More Train Adventure Stories

On Sunday of this week, Emilee and I left for the Kaiserslautern train station, boarded a train to Mannheim, Germany around 9:20 to connect with our sleeper-train to Venice at 11:30. Somewhere around 2:00 a.m. we finally boarded. Inbetween 11:30 and 2:00, I was somewhat hoping they would announce our train had been cancelled altogether and we could go home. I just didn't see that delay as a sign of a good start of a trip to Venice. But, board, we did. And the "Attendants" (for lack of the correct term) on the Italian City Line train did their utmost to make up for the "inconvenience" the 130 minute delay had caused. (Understand that it was not just the time delay that was stressful....It was the time of day that it occurred...or should I say, time of night.....as well as the fact that none of the announcements were made in English. The most I could make out was that it said something about the train being delayed about 90 minutes.) The only person who understood what was going on was one lone German traveler going to Switzerland on the same train. We all became her friends and stuck to her like glue! She was so gracious, explaining to the group in English and Italian just what was going on. We watched as the "ticker announcements" changed from 90 minutes to 100 minutes to 130 minutes, and finally, the announcement that we were to go to another platform, board the train for Heidelberg, and meet up with our train to Venice there. So, like little ducklings, we all followed the Mother Duckling who made sure we all boarded the train and made it to our City Night Line train. (I am humbled on a daily basis here in Europe. Almost everyone I have come in contact with speaks, on a minimum, two languages. Monica, at our hotel in Venice, spoke Italian, English, some Spanish, German, Japanese, French, Arabic....Amazing....Humbling.)



NOTE: The reason we were given for the train delay was that there had been a train accident at the border between Holland and another country. That's where our train was coming from. Our "Translator" told us that she was thinking the "accident" was really a suicide, as there had been three suicides in recent months involving trains. To confirm that, an American couple arriving at our hotel very late one night in Venice, said their train had been delayed because of an accident. They had been told there had recently been a suicide involving a train, a head-on collision, and another kind of accident. Makes you wonder why the sudden rise in train-related suicides.....)

Finally on board, our attendant showed us our cabin, then asked for our tickets, and seeing that we were First Class passengers, asked us if we would like to upgrade cabins for no extra charge to a cabin with our own bathroom/shower. We said "sure", and we got settled in our new cabin. Being that it was now 2:something in the morning, there was not going to be any looking out the window at the scenery going by, so we turned out the lights and headed off to sleep. Like the time before in the sleeper train, all I really did was doze off and on. What it is about sleeper trains and me, I am not sure. Perhaps it all goes back to getting robbed on a sleeper train when I was 21 years old that keeps me from sleeping soundly. But that was a couchette, not a "sleeper", and not First Class, for crying out loud! :-) (Translation: Couchettes sleep from 4-6 people and they don't lock....and you sleep in your street clothes. Sleepers sleep 1-3, and they lock which means you can get into your P.J.'s!)


Left: Our cabin number, and photos showing how many beds there are in the cabin.


Right: My bunk, in the morning, with our "breakfast boxes" on the bunk.






Left: Emilee's top bunk

Right: Our own (compact) bathroom with sink, toilette, and shower. (not in photo)






Around 6:00, I roused from my semi-sleep and could see that it was light outside, so decided instead of just laying there, half asleep, I would put up my window-shade and look out the window. Well, the first words out of my mouth, and I mean REALLY out of my mouth OUT LOUD were, "OH MY GOD! THIS IS BEAUTIFUL! EMILEE, LOOK!!!" And from her I got nothing. That didn't matter. I just keep talking to myself out loud, scrambling to get my camera out of my camera bag. What I saw when I lifted that shade was the Swiss Alps, with a lake in front of it, snow-capped mountains in the background, little houses ringing the lake, and boats moored throughout the lake. INCREDIBLE! All I can is it was truly majestic. By the time I was able to get my camera out, there was now a full rainbow over the mountains! All I could think of was, I was ready to go home between 11:30-2:00 a.m. thinking that delay was not a good start to this trip, then to wake up and see that beauty, with a rainbow no less!!!! I just said to myself, "That's it. This trip was meant to be, and it's going to be great."

Emilee finally awoke (missing all the splendor of the Alps), as we were nearing the Swiss border. She got up, dressed, just in the nick of time. No sooner had she gotten dressed than there was a knock at our door, a command to leave the door open by a Border Patrolman, and following behind him were three more patrolmen, one with a police dog. Since the advent of the European Union, the borders between European countries are much more open. Going to Brugge, I never saw Border Patrol. However, 25 years ago when I went with Lee, Border Patrol came in force each time you crossed a border. You were asked for your passport, sometimes questioned about where you were going, why, for how long, etc. Border Patrols used to be very intimidating, as they were fully armed, and there was nothing friendly about the way they addressed you. But on this morning, all we got was a "Buon Giorno, please keep your door open." And he proceeded to push it into the "stay open" position. The following patrols passed by, smiled, said "Buon Giorno", quickly scoped the cabin as they passed by, and that was the extent of it. There was no need to ask for our passports because we had to surrender them to the Attendant upon boarding. She then returned them to us as soon as the Border Patrol departed the train. So, the times have changed, but there was still enough of a reminder between Switzerland and Italy that those countries would accept no monkey-business.



As soon as Border Patrol left, the train rolled on, breakfast was served (croissant, roll, butter, cheese spread, and jam in a box, and coffee or tea), and 20 minutes later we arrive in Milan and changed trains to Venice. Nearing Venice I commented to Emilee that if I didn't know better, I would think I was in Florida, for I felt as though I was looking at the Banana or Indian River on my left and right. With little tiny islands of "scrub" out in the water, it reminded me very much of Florida. But, the boats I saw were like none I've seen in Florida.





Then shortly we started seeing the skyline of Venice with its Baroque and Gothic buildings, and I KNEW I was not in Florida! The "Ferrovia" of Venice went right up to the Grand Canal. You walk off the train, go into and then out of the main station, and there you are - the Grand Canal with a Vaporetto Stop right smack in front of you!

There were also water taxis, gondolas, construction boats (my name for them), you name it, they were there. Off we walked to the ticket booth, bought one Vaporetta ticket for each of us (six euro apiece), boarded the "waiting room" (Emilee is still laughing because I thought the floating waiting room was the vaporetto), and then boarded Vaporetto #1 for our stop, Valaparresso - clear almost to the end of all the stops. That was great because I felt like I had gotten a "tour" of the Grand Canal, even without having to pay for a tour!

The Grand Canal: The big boat in the center is a Vaporetta which is the main mode of transportation for getting from one stop to another. Vaporetta 1 stops at all the stops, which is great for sightseeing, but not great if you are in a hurry. Vaporetta 2 doesn't stop at all the stops, but does stop at the main one. In the photo you can also see the gondolas (mainly ridden by tourists and romantics), and the small boats with the wooden deck (see 2nd boat from bottom on the left) are the water taxis. The other boats are just various types. They carry supplies to stores, restaurants, the mail, trash, construction site materials, etc. There is not one single car in Venice! I can't recall even seeing one bicycle.