... last blog, left at the train station. After the initial rush of now what do we do ... we went to the train ticket office, presumably to find another train to Wengen (with multiple connnections and extra $$$), then look for a room for the night. In talking with the train staff, he typed something into his computer ... then looked at the clock on the wall and said ... a train leaves in four minutes for Mestre (the next station off Venice island) ... then we could catch a train leaving in three minutes from Mestre to Milan ... and then use our originally purchased tickets (if we pay an addition eight euro each). He said if we made the trains to Milan, we would have ten minutes to catch our orginally scheduled train out of Milan ... and back on schedule. We ran to the train and caught it ...
Let's pause for a promo of the European rail system ... its wonderful! We just can't imagine this happening in the U.S. Public transportation is wonderful in Europe and its really all you need to get around. Just dive in and become a local, figure it out (not that hard) ... and move around efficiently and inexpensively. The trains are very comfortable with power ports, overhead luggage racks, tables, food, beverage, and bathrooms ... and as we know now, the trains leave exactly on time!
So, here's our train connections ... Venice to Mestre to Milan ... then Milan to Speiz, Switzerland ... then to Interlaken to Lauterbrunnen to Wengen. The train from Lauterbrunnen to Wengen (4,600') is a cog railway. The trip up the mountain was like a Disneyland train ride ... amazingly beautiful as we passed very green hillsides, thick forest, waterfalls, cows (with bells), and tunnels while leaving a surreal valley below and snow covered mountains above. We rode Italian trains to Speiz ... then Swiss trains to Wengen.
Our train ride took us through the northern Italy's lakes' region ... and its very beautiful country. We especially liked the area of Spesa ... a lake city nestled among the mountains. The ride through Switzerland is simply breathtaking ... it's like using a green Photoshop filter on your pictures ... the green countryside is such a deep green hue ... very unreal ... and really indescibeable.
Our next blog will be on our stay in Wengen ... but just to let you know, we are currently on our boat on the Rhine River (today in Strasbourg, France) ... and have already been to Basel, Switzerland (where we got on the boat) and Colmar, France (Alsace region) ... tomorrow is Heidelberg, Germany. The internet reception is spoty on the boat ... doesn't work while moving and iffy at the ports. We are falling a little behind in our blogging ... but the days have been full with sights and wonderful eating experiences (and the wine is not bad either). Regarding the wine, its so smooth with no after effects or taste ... usually we both get headaches after a couple of glasses of wine. Ron keeps wondering why his waistline is shrinking while eating four course meals with different wines with each course ... and the pastries are to die for!
P.S. ... the internet is reallllly slow ... so downloading pictures may not happen for now.
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