Update: Woke up this morning, said our goodbyes to Vernazza with lattes on the harbor (even Kelly, hehehehehe totally making her a coffee-drinker) and checked out of our pensione. We waited for our train to Moterosso at the station -- Sharon read Peter and the Starcatchers, while Kelly and I played connect four -- and got on the train when it arrived. We had 25 minutes to get our tickets to Milan (where we are connecting to Venice) -- no problem, right? HA! So the ticket machines here don't have an option for eurail passes, so we had to wait in a line for the ONE ticket attendant. The SLOWEST ticket attendant ever. We waited.....15 minutes until our train.....10 minutes till our train -- woman is arguing with him.... 5 minutes -- three kids need two tickets and one eurail pass ticket and he is not understanding. We're next....2 minutes, "TWO EURAIL PASS TICKETS AND ONE FULL TICKET TO MILANO CENTRALE, PER FAVORE!!!" "...the one....at.. Teeeeeennnn ....fiiiiiiifty-fiiiiiiiiiive...?" "THE ONE THAT IS COMING RIGHT NOW, YES!!!!!! JUST PUT IT ON THE CARD!!!" We had to run like crazy and we JUST BARELY made it. SO! Now we're on our way to Milan and then Venice with our adrenaline rather higher than usual this morning.
Update #2 although we were on the right track at the right time, we apparently got on the wrong train. Maybe ours was late? We have no idea -- we were so freaked out that we would miss our train, we apparently didn't look at updates? But WHY ON EARTH would you have two DIFFERENT trains on the SAME platform at the same time?!? We ended up at a random train station, thoroughly confused and where noone spoke English... My Italian is basically profficient enough to order and be polite, not enough to figure out what on earth went wrong. We had to wait another hour or so, but we finally got on a train going to Milan and we also got our tickets from Milan to Venice. We're now on the train (whose inside looks like a Hogwarts Express with its compartments and food cart -- although less cool and magical), but we're going to have less time in Venice. Also, every train around ours on the schedule was delayed, so we were having a TON of anxiety waiting for this train. Hopefully we will not have anymore drama, but I will keep updating. Now I'm pretty excited to just get to Vienna.
Update #3 train to milan was 8 minutes late, so we 7 minutes to validate our tickets and RUN to the train. We jumped on an a minute later, the train started. I swear, my nerves.... Now we're en route to Venice! I'm reading about coffee in Vienna to pass the time. Looks amazing!!!
Update #4 We had a nice dinner in Venice and now we're on our overnight train to Vienna. Funny story: We paid for couchettes (so we could sleep overnight - hotel and travel in one!), but Sharon was in a different car than us -- She was in 401, while we were in 402. Turns out, the train company messed up and 402 is a car full of seats instead of couchettes! HA! Ha ha ha.... So everybody in this car is angry, and no one has come to compensate us in any way? So, this discomfort is an interesting way to end this rough day. Trying to sleep.... on a chair in a train. Dandy! Ummm, will keep updating... We may revolt.
Update #5 We made it to Vienna! Sharon kindly switched with me, so I could have a couchette (I am miserable trying to sleep in a chair) and I had a pretty decent night sleep -- not the best, but at least I slept. Kelly and Sharon slept in the seats for a while, and then at 1245am, they had everyone get out of their car so they could put a couchette car on the train. "It will only be 15 minutes" they said, "have some frizzante wine." Well, the wine was warm and they had to wait for over an hour, but they got couchettes! Luckily, we all were served breakfast and got off the train on time (even though it was stopped for an hour with the couchette car mess). We got to our family-owned pension, and a lovely Austrain man checked us in (they were in the middle of a gorgeous breakfast...I love places where breakfast is included) and we had our first stroke of luck! Although we arrived two hour ahead of check-in, our room was ready! Relieved, we walked up a bunch of steps to our room and collapsed on the beds. The shower and WC (bathroom) are shared with the whole floor, but I snagged the shower and washed all that travel day off of me. Now we're taking a breather before taking Rick Steves' city walk of Vienna! I'm so excited to be here! As I ate breakfast on the train, I passed the time gazing out the window onto the beautiful scenery -- green hills, fields of flowers and idyllic homes. We're in Austria! Guten Morgen!
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