Trip Day 17 - on to Germany

Wednesday September 28

Ok, here we go. I am not sure whether this was our "water bus" or one like it. We had no problem to find our way from the hotel to the station to catch this public transportation. Vanessa had given each of us a card which was good to take these for 48 hours. We had no need to use them before though.

The stop had a waiting place with a roof.

The tide took only a few minutes to the translation. I think it was the 4th stop. We had plenty of time to find our way.

Our train will leave Venice S. Lucia at 07:57 am. We had bought the train tickets all the way from Venice to Germany from RAILEUROPE before we ever left on our trip for $211.75. Not bad.

In our train and pulling out.

Our hotel has given each of us a breakfast box. Not bad. Nibbles, juice, and a bottle of water.

We arrived Milan Centrale pretty much on time at 10:25 and are supposed to leave at 11:10 am.  

It was a bit awkward waiting around because for the longest time we didn't know from which platform the train would leave. But it was all ok.

Ah, this especially was the part I was so looking forward to and wanted to go by train rather than plane.

At one point we felt that we could do with a bit to eat. The ticket controller told us that there was a restaurant carriage in front. James went on his way. But it was 7 carriages away. He did come back with something we shared. 

This is really self-explanatory. Across from us sat a lady living in Zürich and she talked with us about all the tunnels in this mountain. Quite impressive. I took the photo of the screen which told us what the next station would be and other important information.

The Gotthard Massif, also Saint-Gotthard Massif is a mountain range in the Alps in Switzerland. There are several tunnels and passes. The Gotthard Base Tunnel, which will take around 20 minutes, is 57 kilometers (35.4 miles) and is the world's longest railway tunnel. Very impressive.

Oh, btw, in Italy we had to wear masks in the train. In Switzerland we could take them off, even though we sat with the same people. 

And yes, had to take a VIDEO at one point. It is still not very good but the photos really doesnt do the experience any justice. 

We were supposed to be in Zürich at 14:27 and the next train was leaving at 14:37. We were worried about the 10 minutes but all went well.

We know Schaffhausen (still Switzerland) very well. One of the plants of James' company was here. I remember at one visit I was sitting with the girls across from the waterfall on the terrace in a café waiting for James to be finished with his meeting. Luckily it was a day with sunshine. 

The funny part in the train was that in Switzerland we didn't have to wear the masks but as soon as we were over the border into Germany we were told it was time to put the masks back on. Of course it is all ok with us. We were rather careful on this trip anyway when we were in a big crowd. 

Finally! We were on time in Singen (Hohentwiel) at 15:30.

Yeah, the weather kept getting less and less nice as closer we got. We hope it is not staying that way. 

Our friend Corry picked us up from the train station and took us to her and Werner's home but I forgot to take photos the rest of the day. I was too excited to see our friends again. There is more to come though!