It's a long way

Well, here we are, back on the road again.  Or should I say back on the go again.  We're crossing another adventure off of our bucket list and also helping Bill's sister, Shirley, with her bucket list.

We left Seattle on Iceland Air, 7 hours later landed and had only a 40 min layover. At 6:30 am the Iceland airport is teeming with people changing planes and a lot of Icelanders going to Europe. Passenger waiting lounges don't exist, just long lines  before the gate. So standing around in the hall, basically. Next flight to Frankfurt, GER was only 3.5 hours but worse for Gail than the longer flight. We now had no space between us, seats were uncomfortable and she hadn't slept on the way over and wasn't going to be able to sleep now. Finally, Germany. We tried to take care of some business, get cash, get a cell phone, get train schedules. Got most done, no phone though. Took some buses to another terminal for trains and shuttles to the hotel. Lots of construction and going in circles. Our hotel, Ibis, is a pretty generic chain, like Super 8, but it was a bed.

Luzerner Chugelipastete

Sleep was on and off and next morning we rode in circles again, back to the train terminal and headed for Zurich, Switzerland, about 4 hours. Nice train, pretty uneventful trip. Had to make a trek to the next hotel, again nothing special but a bed. Luckily, we were really close to several eating places and we stopped for beer and food at the Knob House, each tried something different.

Schnitzel with fries

Innerschweizer Bauernbratwurst

 Quaint little restaurant that had a 4 or 5 older (retirement age) gentlemen sitting around a table drinking a few beers.  One waitress and a chef and the place would only seat about 30 people.  Very quaint and when the waitress wasn't busy, she was sittin' with the old guys!  I just found that interesting and respectful toward men that were old enough to be her grandfather.

OK enough about that.  The next morning up and walk back to the Zurich train station where we had reservations to Rome with a train change in Milan.  We were on a Swiss train for the first leg and it was very comfortable, again in first class.  I think the only difference is that the seats may be a little softer.  Well, once we got to Milan, stuff hit the fan!  It's a very big station and we weren't sure where to go so found an information person and he looked at our ticket an sent us to the wrong train.  We were supposed to be on the train headed for Naples, then Rome and he sent us to the direct train to Rome.  Anyhow, found our seats on the Rome train and that's when we were told by other passengers that we were on the wrong train!  Well, of course the train we were supposed to be on started moving just as we got to the closest door.  Now what???  We were directed to another train to Rome but the conductor said we would have to pay an additional 8 euros to change our tickets and he didn't know if he even had enough seats for us.  We then went and stood in line at the railway representative desk to see about changing the tickets.  When it was finally our turn we tried to explain that her colleague
sent us to the wrong train and there was nothing she could do, just find the next train and get our tickets changed through the conductor.  Grudgingly we did that and after getting bumped from seats several times by people with reservations we finally got some seats and still ended up getting stuck with the 8 euro (  X 3 passengers) fee to change the tickets.  It was explained that the extra fee was because our tickets were issued by Switzerland, not Italy.  I THOUGHT IT WAS "EUR-RAIL".  Plus, we had to make reservations to ride the Italian trains at 33 Euro apiece.  So, we learned a couple of lessons.  1 - Make sure when you make a reservation you have enough time to make a connection. and 2 - always find a restroom before getting on an Italian train!  None of the toilets on the Italian trains worked!  Enough ranting for now, we made it, a few bumps and now the real fun will begin

Yes, even here