Rain, Luggage and Ugly Americans

Munich to Bologne---change to Rome...
Breakfast at the Alpha was lovely. They had scrambled eggs, a variety of breads, including sweet -even chocolate. They also had a section of traditional German food - meats/sausage/cheese/breads and yogurt with museli. The tables were covered with white linens topped with pale yellow linen. The coffee was strong and came in little pots with small pitchers of milch. Our waitress was Vietnamese seemed very grateful for the tip we leave behind. The walk to DB was easy enough, but the stuff weighed us down...I pulled two roller bags with stuff attached and Mat pushed Kathy who is carrying a bag full of documentation, one full of meds, and one full of electronics.

We found our Gleis (platform ) 13 and then waited for the train. The Germans are so organized they had a map of the cars on wall --- so that we could find our car number and stand next to it. Kathy bought first class tickets so that we would be comfortable on this long part of our journey ---The cars have an isle along the side and the compartments have six seats each with comfortable headrests. There are overhead baggage racks -- which are tilted upward so that the baggage will not shift and fall on your heads.
As we travel southward the countryside is still very German. ..... the villages all have a center and a beautiful church spire. I wonder if the spires are indicative of denomination....We traveled through the alps down toward Innsbruck, Austria. The roofs of the houses look like Spanish tile --- but instead of half rounds they are patterned in rectangles.

As we cross over into Italy several things are apparent The trains are less well maintained -- or perhaps they are just older. The buildings also look older perhaps less cared for. There is more graffiti. Perhaps we are in more industrial areas. The hillsides are dotted with little towns and there are the charming steeples ever present. Some of the towns have obvious ruins of castles in evidence. The further south we go the the more the steeples begin to have Romanesque qualities.

We seem to be entering Trento from a part of town that is like what you would expect to find in a bus station in America, a homeless man was curled up on one of the benches and his belongings were in a shopping cart --but he was the first homeless person I have seen. Outside the station are many motorcycles, the most common means of transportation on these narrow roads. It has been raining fairly hard off and on. Each country seems to have a different system for waste. Italy also has people sort their waste in public places into cans, plastics and paper. Here instead of bins there are little donuts with plastic bags attached beneath.

Luggage is a real problem...we have too much when we start to move around. I have just one bag ---on wheels. Kathy has four and Mat has two --- it is quite a choreographed event to get these off the train and organized so that we can push Kathy in the chair and I can take Kathy's and mine and pull the two with bags on them making them into rolling carts. \

It has been overcast all day with no visible sun and still it is quite cool, I caught a cat nap and started one of Mat's fantasy books -- a series I had been thinking of reading for some time.....the Wheel of Time series.

Most of the agriculture in Northern Italy is vineyards ---along terraced hillsides. There is no restaurant on the train -- apparently it broke down and they detached the dining car --- but no one told us that so it is lucky we had made sandwiches at breakfast and also we had fruit. Our traveling companions are a Korean businessman who attended a Solar symposium in Munich and was now taking some vacation and and Italian who said not one word but was texting.

The Korean was very amiable and we had a good visit about his company.
We arrived in Verona a city of beautiful rolling hills with the cypress trees pointing skyward. Magnificent old buildings...but we had to change trains in just 15 minutes so we began about five minutes before schlepping the bags to the exit of the train. We had a great Conductor who helped with the chair and then gave us directions on how to get to our platform.....THANK God the train we needed was just on the other side of the platform where we arrived. It was a Eurostar train --- which means luxurious and fast.

Two Americans sat across the isle from us. They were an interesting pair. In their 50s or 60s..the man is wearing jeans, a fine Italian shirt -- He has his Bose earphones on and his wife has a 3 or 4 carat emerald wedding band surrounded by diamonds. They sit in single seats. Our seat mate from the train to Bologne -- fell backward against the man as he was trying to get his luggage down -- this guy is the kind of fellow who would give America a bad name-- He rolled his eyes and made negative comments. His wife suggested the guy was not out of line and this fellow was O.K. To which he responded that "He was clearly out of control" Later he made a bid as they were playing cards and when she didn't hear -- he spoke in a very intimidating manner to her.

After a severe downpour we arrived late in Rome and took a cab to the Hotel De Vittorie not far from the Vatican. It was too late to do anything so we went next door to the little restuarant and had a wonderfully prepared Italian meal. We started with the Fresh mozzarella, cheese and basil salad, Then neopolitano spaghetti (it was a huge portion so mat ate at least half of mine. Matt and I shared a grilled Chicken Breast -- and Matt had the chocolate torte while I had a cup of co fee--- now off to bed and tomorrow we visit the Vatican and then on to the Cruise Ship!