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The Great Railway Adventure

2 Jan
I love to travel by train. Even hours and hours is fine by me. Train travel beats air travel and its many indignities. Four hours in a plane makes me want to slit my wrists whereas four hours in a train is just a good start.
The Bernina Express on the famous Brusio spiral viaduct.

The Bernina Express on the famous Brusio spiral viaduct.

To my husband, trains are a religion. Not only does he enjoy riding in them, he can watch them for hours. He delights in rolling stock of all types, and thrills at seeing railroad workers address their tasks. How many thousands of photos he has taken! He also is fascinated by all types of transportation from pedicabs to delivery vehicles. There’s not an Ape 50
Action shot.

Action shot.

that escapes his camera’s eye.
When I suggested London for Christmas by train, with a stop in Paris and return through Switzerland, he had agreed before I finished saying “Bernina Express.” While we did, in fact, sleep in four countries over the two-week period, this was not “If it’s Tuesday it Must be Belgium.”
I’ll leave you at the end of this post with a few photos,  but first the route. The final plan included nine train trips in 15 days. Good thing we have time.
Roma to Milano – 2h:55m
Milano to Paris – 7h:26m
Paris to London – 2h:17m
London to Paris – 2h:29m
Paris to Zurich – 4h:03m
Zurich to Chur – 1h:15m
Chur to Tirano – 4h:13m
Tirano to Milano – 2h:32m
Milano to Roma – 3h:55m
During the last segment, the full-to-capacity train broke down and we had to transfer to a new train resulting in a 1-hour delay. We were only a little annoyed, and we got a partial credit from Trenitalia as a result of the delay.
Yes, that is a remarkable 32 hours-or-so in trains, blissfully snoozing, chatting, reading, writing, and watching the lovely scenery. I would not recommend this type of schedule for people on their average trip to Europe. One would not want to spend as much transit time as we did on a typical two-week vacation; However, we have time, a true blessing of retirement and living in Europe.
I have more to blog about in the coming days. Stay tuned! Click on any picture for a slideshow or a closer look.
Our Eurostar train from Paris to London.
We could not believe how many buses careen around London! Never had to wait for more than a few minutes. This view from a cafe above Trafalgar Sq.
Railroad workers coupling two cars, Chur, Switzerland.
Love the way they spelled “Choo-Choo.” Brambrüesch, Switzerland.
Double-decker buses are such a good idea. More cities should adopt them.
London Transportation Museum allows hands-on/body-in experience.
London Transportation Museum – I model a vintage underground car.
Pedicabs are everywhere in Paris and London.
Workers at St. Pancras perform to raise money for a charity.
Tree made of stuffed animals in St. Pancras Station.
The train runs right down the middle of the street in Chur.
Gare du Nord, station for the EuroStar. Love the bear!

 

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Off-season pleasures

12 Nov
Off-season travel usually means planning a trip around indoor activities, i.e., museums and churches. November in Roma has been glorious, so much so that I almost feel guilty knowing what the weather has been like in Portland. Tuscany was equally mellow and we were pleasantly surprised to find Lucca wreathed in fall color whereas Roma is drab. In Roma, the leaves simply fade to yellow and give up, falling into the path of AMA street sweepers.  Lucca’s trees give a bit of a show. Nothing like my native Minnesota, but quite pretty. (Click on any picture for a larger view.)
I’ve always said that it was not worthwhile to go to Pisa and waste a vacation day. Having visited — and being glad we did see The Tower — I would still advise those with limited travel time to spend their precious days elsewhere, but it was fun to see the iconic leaner. We were a 20-minute train ride from Pisa and the weather was perfect, so why not?
We also made a trek to the beach at Viareggio. I  expected more, expected to be wowed, alas the beach has not much to recommend it. However, the beautiful weather had us in shirtsleeves seaside before Noon. It’s not our beloved Cannon Beach, but it’ll do in November.
Lucca surprised us in many ways. After the costumed crowds cleared out, we found a walkable, shoppable little town, with affordable restaurants, inviting stores, and well-preserved buildings. Our B&B was from the 14th century, handily updated for modern living. This is a delightful place for a two-or-three night stay.

 

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Costumes, Comics and Games in Lucca

5 Nov
The train to Lucca from Firenze seemed crowded, but then it was a holiday, Ognisanti or All Saints’ Day. Still, the costumed young people (and occasional adult with a modest devil’s horns headband), seemed a bit odd the day after Halloween, especially since Halloween is not a big deal here.
Walking toward the famous wall that surrounds Lucca, the crowds were clearly large. Perhaps due to the spring-like day we had on November 1, people were lounging in the wide grassy lawns and parading on top of the wall in throngs. I found myself worrying that Lucca was just a little too popular and we would not enjoy a stroll around the mighty wall as intended. 
The gang from the Big Bang Theory would be at home here.
The gang from the Big Bang Theory would be at home here.
We struggled up the stairs inside the wall with the hoards of arrivals who were now clutching panini of porchetta or mortadella eating on-the-go. It was a conga-line of people, from bambini to nonni. What the heck was going on?
What was going on was Day 4 (and final day, grazie a Dio!) of Comics and Games 2015. This is the Tuscan equivalent to Comic Con. As we wound our way through the narrow lanes searching for our B&B (XIII Century building!) we encountered more characters, some elaborately dressed, some less-so, but an ever-growing crowd of people searching for their favorite animators, authors, artists, game designers, movies, merchandise, and whatever they could get their hands on to eat or drink. 
Characters were happy to stop an pose for pictures.
Characters were happy to stop and pose for pictures.
After checking in, we could not resist the impulse to venture into the streets and see this event. We were swept into the crowd, surging through the streets. It reminded me why I don’t go to crowded places unless I have a reserved seat. 
This was like a passaggiata that went out-of-control.
This was like a passaggiata that went out-of-control.
We did bear up for about an hour-and-a-half, but the crowd was so dense that when we did see a place for coffee or lunch (15:30 and we still had not eaten) it was mobbed with super heroes, bananas, princesses, or invaders. It was fun to see the costumes, and the crowd, being overall nerdy and geeky, was very polite but it gets tiring to swim in a school, especially upstream. 
Luckily by 19:00 the event was over except for the cleanup, which would go on for days. We departed Wednesday and there were still event tents all over the city. We might have missed some of the charm of Lucca, but had anyone told us Comics & Games was on, we’d likely have changed our trip. Sometimes ignorance is bliss and you stumble into something interesting. 
A few more pictures for your enjoyment. Click on any picture for a slide show. 
Yes, there were some children, though far outnumbered by costumed adults.
Star Wars featured prominently due to the new movie. The Bistrot served the usual Italian panini.
Everyone in costume loved to pose.
Even super heroes get lost.
Every major street was clogged with foot traffic. Luckily, Lucca is almost car free.
This store changed it’s name to “Haven for Nerds.”
Cartoon chair, Euro 1200.00.
EMTs took to the streets on foot. No room for an ambulance here.
Enormous crowd. We did not even dare go up on the wall.
Bananas!
Robot handbag, anyone? Leather shop in Lucca.
Poor puppy was forced to drag a (soccer) ball-and-chain.
Even stores got in the spirit, here “Minions” in a woodworker’s shop.
Harry Potter characters were prominent.

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We have time…

13 Oct
…so we went to Paestum. 
The good things:
Temple of Ceres.
Temple of Ceres.
  • Very old Greek temples, still standing. One is from 550 B.C! Amazing!
  • Inexpensive lodging at a rather delightful little place. Euro 73.00 per night including an Italian-style breakfast.
  • An excellent — who’d have guessed it?– restaurant right next door to our hotel. Truly a fine meal, nice people, very raffinato (refined, elegant). In fact, we will return this evening. And they give a discount for people staying at our hotel. 
  • There is a nice museum with well-preserved artifacts.
  • It was not crowded and the weather was darn-near perfect.
The drawbacks:
  • It takes a long time to get here. From Roma, door-to-door took us 7 hours including 2 buses, 1 Metro, a Frecciarossa, a  Regionale and a 20-minute walk. There was a fair amount of waiting time, partly due to guasto (malfunction) on the rail line. We also got to had to stand up all the way on the Regionale. 
  • There’s the archeological site, the museum, and that’s about it in Paestum.
  • There’s the mare, but the seaside here made the town of Seaside, Oregon (not my favorite place) look like a high-class resort.
  • We stayed one night too long, it seems.
A few hearty souls at the beach. In summer no doubt it is crowded.
A few hearty souls at the beach. In summer no doubt it is crowded.
Sad little seaside Paestum. I am sure it is lively in the summer, but I suspect it still feels sad.
Sad little seaside Paestum. I am sure it is lively in the summer, but I suspect it still feels sad.
We seldom go anywhere for one night. In fact, the only place I can think of that we did that was in Tivoli for the summer lights one August. And Tivoli is a hell-of-a-lot easier to get to than Paestum.
We have also seen the impressive Greek temple and ruins in Segesta. Perhaps if one has not seen those, this would knock your socks off. My socks are still on. We did get to be the first people in the archeological site, which was pretty fun. The tour groups showed up about 10:00 as we were exiting looking for an espresso. 
A tour group passes through the archeological site.
A tour group passes through the archeological site.
Maybe I am also jaded by the dead kitten I saw along one road and the dead rat along another. I have not had the misfortune to see roadkill in all of our travels. This in contrast to meticulous care to remove trash in the ruins.
Temples are lighted at night.
Temples are lighted at night.
If one were to want to see Paestum (and I understand why it would still be a draw despite my commentary), I would recommend a day trip from the Amalfi Coast or a one-night stay. The nice thing about staying a night is getting to see the temples lighted, and also seeing the site in both morning and afternoon light. We are not people who read every display in a museum or poke into every corner of a site. (Three hours at Pompeii was plenty for us.) If one does like to explore a bit more, perhaps Paestum would warrant more attention. We are happy we came, but a little bored as I write this. I am very happy we did not divert a vacation day-or-two when we were working. But we have time now.  
Surveying work in progress. Only about 30% of the site has been excavated.
Surveying work in progress. Only about 30% of the site has been excavated.
Temple of Nettuno.
Temple of Nettuno.
Of course there were ferals around.
Of course, there were ferals around.
A bright spot in the Roman ruins. Only the temples are Greek. The surrounding ruins date "only" to Roman times.
A bright spot in the Roman ruins. Only the temples are Greek. The surrounding ruins date “only” to Roman times.
Ric at Temple of Ceres.
Ric at Temple of Ceres.
Old Roman road to the sea, which was once much closer.
Old Roman road to the sea, which was once much closer. It’s now about a 20-minute walk via modern road.

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Guns and The Top of Europe

30 Sep
30 September 2015.
A man gets on the train carrying a gun. What would you do? If I was in France, Spain, Great Britain or the USA, I would dive for cover. But we are in Switzerland, in the Bernese Oberland to be precise, and apparently, no one bats an eye. Neither did we since he walked in accompanied by another local, and even women pushing babies in strollers were undisturbed by the sight. I am not going to pretend I understand the Swiss mindset or even the laws around firearms. This article from Time magazine on the subject is pretty interesting. I am not sure I am more concerned about the fact he was hunting in an area where people hike or carrying a weapon in public. 
When we saw this guy get on we got the giggles. Can you imagine if this happened on MAX in Portland? This was on the Wengeralp narrow-gauge cog railway.
When we saw this guy get on we got the giggles. Can you imagine if this happened on MAX in Portland? This was on the Wengeralp narrow-gauge cog railway.
Switzerland seems to have its act together. The Swiss have managed to remain neutral in world politics, insulated from European Union issues as they are non-EU, but they take advantage of the Schengen Agreement and the abolishment of internal borders. Still, immigration is highly controlled. They have an admirable environmental record, plenty of water resources, clean air, excellent recycling, a thriving economy with low unemployment. Their public debt is less than 35% of GDP (compared to Italy at 134% and the USA at about 71%). And of course there’s the cheese. High prices do not seem to deter tourists, especially the Japanese who are here in droves and show no reluctance to shell out hundreds of Swiss Francs to see the sights and buy winter fashions. You would not believe the price of a Patagonia jacket here.
Staubbach Falls, visible from our vacation rental.
Staubbach Falls, visible from our vacation rental.
This is our third trip to Switzerland in less than 2 years. Yes, we like it. The food is not as good as Italy, and the coffee almost all comes from a ubiquitous push-button machine found in virtually every café and restaurant. It’s CHF 4.00 for a basic cup of coffee or a single shot of espresso. In fact, everything is quite expensive. While the exchange rate is almost on par with the U.S. dollar, the actual prices are high. A pizza that would cost us about $11.00-12.00 in Italy is about $23.00 here. A small green salad runs $8.50. Wine by the bottle is insanely expensive in restaurants, but one can get a small glass of good local wine for a price less than we experienced in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. Why do we come back if it costs so much? The transportation system, the hiking, the natural beauty: Switzerland offers a lot of what we like to do when traveling. And it works, well, like a clock.
A Jungfraujoch train moves up the mountain. Most of the journey is in a tunnel inside the Eiger and the Mönch.
A Jungfraujoch train moves up the mountain. Most of the journey is in a tunnel inside the Eiger and the Mönch.
I have wanted to go to the Jungfraujoch since Matt Lauer went there in 2011 during his annual “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” tour. During our first two Swiss trips in January 2014 and August 2014, we dismissed the trip to the Jungfraujoch as too expensive. It costs CHF 204.40 per person from Lauterbrunnen in the valley to the Jungfraujoch and back. We learned that with certain types of passes one could pay less, so we vowed “the next time” we would make the trip. This is the next time, so we bought both half-fare Swiss passes and a Bernese Oberland Regional Pass. We had to pay a relatively small supplement to go all the way to the Top of Europe (called so because it is the highest train station in Europe). It was worth it!
Jungfraujoch Railroad - our train ready to depart.
Jungfraujoch Railroad – our train ready to depart.
Rising at 5:00 AM, we caught the first train up the mountain, in total about 1 hour 45 minutes from the bottom of the valley to the Jungfraujoch, arriving just before 9:00 AM. Some of the “tour” is goofy. The giant snowglobe in the Alpine Sensation was unrefined, and the Ice Palace sculptures were not nearly as nice as those at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival of my youth, but the pure beauty of the pristine mountain was the star, and contemplating the building of such a railroad in the 1890s sobering. Thanks to 100 Italian laborers, the tunnel was built.
View from the Top of Europe over the cloud-covered valley. It was very cold outside!
View from the Top of Europe over the cloud-covered valley. It was very cold outside!

We went outside on the observation platform, but the 33 kph winds combined with the -1.5 Celsius temp reminded us a bit too much of our Minnesota and North Dakota heritage. We lasted long enough to take a few photos. Going on the sledding course was out of the question, as was the glacier walk of 1 1/2 hours roundtrip. 
We were at 11,333 feet above sea level. That is lower than the elevation we hiked to in Colorado last month, but a completely different climate. In Colorado, we peeled off layers. Here, I wished I’d had my puffy coat.
Railway Station at the Top of Europe, inside the mountain.
Railway Station at the Top of Europe, inside the mountain.
This was an unforgettable trip and we are glad we did it. Going early was a great strategy, at least with the weather forecast we had. We would be unlikely to go twice, so it truly was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. 

 

 

 

 

People walking on the glacier beneath the Jungfraujoch.
People walking on the glacier beneath the Jungfraujoch.
The Eiger pokes above low level clouds as we depart Kleine Scheidegg.
The Eiger pokes above low level clouds as we depart Kleine Scheidegg after our visit on high.
CHF 30,300 watch available at the highest watch shop in Europe.
CHF 30,300 watch available at the highest watch shop in Europe.
View of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Our apartment is just a bit to the left of the church.
View of the Lauterbrunnen Valley. Our apartment is just a bit to the left of the church.
View from our apartment. We can also see Staubbach Falls from our terrace.
View from our apartment. We can also see Staubbach Falls from our terrace.

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