Today we spent most of the day traveling from Austria to Italy......specifically Venice! We got a morning train that left Innsbruck at 11:30am......ok so it was morning for us!! :) How would you feel if you got woken up by a malfunctioning air conditioning unit at 3am?? ;)
Our total trip from Innsbruck to Venice took 5 hours. Leaving at 11:30am and arriving at 4:30pm. We did have to change trains in Verona (1/2 hr layover).
The train turned out to be VERY full! Most of the first class was taken up by teenagers packed like sardines into the few compartments of the ONLY first class car. The second class was worse. We couldn't even walk in there as people were standing in the hallway. We were later told that summer vacations were just starting for the university students and in addition an earlier (9:30am) train did not go that day. Good thing we didn't try to wake up for it!!
After having no success finding a regular seat we stumbled upon a dining car and grabbed a couple of available seats there. This turned out to be a very good idea! We were joined by a very nice lady who was in the same predicament as us......no available seat. So all three of us sat together at the same table, ordered some drinks and started talking. I know right......Steve and I talking......how unusual! :) We soon found out that this nice lady (Sonia) is a well known political scientist from the University of Vienna. She does political research, travels around the world, gives speeches and writes articles. She was fascinated (and somewhat perplexed) by American politics of today so she asked us a lot of questions and also offered us her perspective. From our side we wanted to know more about the current political and economic situation in Europe and Sonia was able to provide a lot of interesting facts, information and perspective on that. So we ended up having a GREAT conversation together that lasted for about 2 hrs of the trip! Eventually, Sonia got off the train a couple of stops ahead of us. She was traveling to visit her mother who lives in Italy (Sonia's birthplace) and then going together with her for a weeklong holiday in the mountains.
Soon after Sonia left some new people joined our table. They were a married couple (both doctors) from Germany and Austria. The husband was supposedly one of the experts on chronic pain. We had another great conversation with them! So we have concluded that if you are on a train trip and want to meet interesting people (especially locals) and have some great and stimulating conversations then you should sit in a dining car :)
This area is very reminiscent of California's Napa Valley.........houses nestled in soft mountain valleys with lots of sunshine and grape vines.
Approaching Venice. It was an amazing view! We have never before had the experience of seeing water outside the train window!!!
Trains parked at the Venice station.
And this is what you see right when you exit the station!!
And to eat :)
Our first Italian meal. Yes Steve had BLACK pasta! It had something called "cuddle fish" (?) in it and the waiter explained that it contained squid which has black ink! We were a little surprised at the color but it was yummy!! I had pasta with fresh crab meat! Not surprisingly Venecians eat lots of fish :)
These birds are used to tourists. They sat on the table next to us and waited for crumbs!
After dinner we walked around Venice.
Bride and groom walking outside at the St. Mark's square.
Venice by night!
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