Med Trip - June 20 - 21

Start of a major travel day. We were off at 6:45AM. Of course, this was the day the alarm did not go off and we only had 15 minutes to get ready. We walked to the Termini train station in Roma for our train to Milan. It was a nice train and fortunately had a food car, so we could get breakfast, a choice of croissant or chocolate sprinkled pastry. We got to Milan and checked in our bags, a cost of 12 euros for storing two suitcases a few hours. It was sunny and hot. We asked someone if we could walk to the centrum, where the old part of town was. (Milan was a very modern city with tall, creative glass towers). She said to walk down the street for 10 to 15 minutes to get there. We did so and saw nothing interesting. There was a city relief map that made no sense to us so we asked some women nearby. Only one spoke English, but knew nothing. Jo asked
A cop, who sent us down a road that led nowhere and if you ask me, in the exact opposite direction. We finally gave up, as time was short, and walked back to the station, stopping for lunch along the way. We were all so thirsty, that large half litre beers were now becoming standard. Milan was a bust. When we retrieved our luggage and were going to the train, we had another incident. At the car we were to get on, there were a few young women, one blocking the doorway. She insisted on helping get the suitcases onto the train, even though everyone emphatic that their help was not wanted. A man on the train warned sister G to check her purse because one of the women was trying to reach into it. The older woman then asked for money. We refused, and when a train official was approaching our car, they quickly disappeared. Our train ride to Zurich was awesome. We had many great views of mountain villages and churches in the Alps. When we got to Zurich, we wanted to make sure we did not have a repeat of Milan, so we went to the station info desk. It was here we learned that Switzerland still had its own currency, the Swiss frank, and in order to store our luggage in lockers, at a gross cost of 9 franks for only less than 3 hours, we had to buy franks first. It bought some at an exchange machine, spending 20 euros for 16 franks. On top of this, the machine converted my euros into US$ to charge my account, and then my bank will charge an exchange fee to convert the US$ to Canadian. A very expensive storage, and I was still short 2 franks! I did manage to buy these at a bank exchange office. We then went for dinner and discovered that Zurich is very expensive, even though the restaurants accept euros as on par with franks. (The exchange machine didn't!). After dinner we were going to pay by visa, both because BIL and I were running low on cash, and we did not want to have franks. We were told that the credit card machine was down, and only cash could be accepted. They were very apologetic but too bad. I used all but 1.10 euros, and told her this could hamper our chance of buying breakfast on the train. Not happy. However, the city was beautiful, and we spent what little time we had enjoying the sight. Then it was off to our night train to Amsterdam. I was shocked when the train arrived. It was an old clunker, that wheezed and creaked. We had a sleeping compartment with six little bunk beds, three on each side and it was dark and dingy. We went to a sitting car until close to midnight before turning in. We slept in our clothes. It was hot and stuffy. The train made stops throughout the night. It lurched and rocked. Sleep did not come easy and Jo and I had no idea how much sleep we got. We were awake frequently. We were even interviewed before bed by a Swiss journalist doing a story on the fact that the German rail company was eliminating night trains at the end of the year. We were relieved when morning came and we could get up. We arrived in Amsterdam at 9:34AM to overcast skies and drizzle. Seeing Amsterdam again was comforting and even a sense of homecoming for both Jo and I. The vehicle we rented may have been smaller than what we ordered, and it took some time to cram four large suitcases and four adults into this thing. We arrived at our new place, adjoining two story apartments on a farm property in Wesepe, just north of Deventer, Holland. An deal pastoral setting to relax and end a vacation. We went to the little town to do some grocery shopping and were confronted with finance issues again. They only accepted cash. Now I suddenly remembered what I hated about our last trip to Europe. The other was the showers. The shower stall was open with no door. It came with a squeegee for drying the floor and walls with afterwards, as the shower would wet half of the bathroom floor. I could see that beating Jo into taking a shower would become very important.
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