We arrive in Verona with an adventure

Just a quick update to be filled in later.

We got up at 6 AM after another late nightvisiting with the Pastoras in Neu Anspach, Germany. After nearly tearful goodbyes among the kids who had become fast friends, Bernhard drove us to the main train station in Frankfurt, and got us completely situated on the train. He even showed us how to read the train schedules to find our correct train, car and seats. This was just the very last attentive and careful act of hospitality in four solid days of amazing care. Because our Eurrail pass was good for first class seats, we were very comfy on the train, other than being very tired.

We rode south through Germany through some great scenery, and switched trains in Basel, Switzerland. We then entered the Alps, and saw classic chalets out the window, with steep rolling green hills and giant snow capped behemoths in the distance. After several long tunnels, we emerged on the italian side of the alps, and continued on into the the very hot, cigarette smoke filled Milan train station.

In Milan, we only had 15 minutes between trains, but we had an edge: the conductor had told us exactly which track to go to for the train to Verona. Only, he was wrong. While we ate ice cream from the vending machine, our train pulled away. >We got on the train that had just come from Verona (headed to Turin), only to find someone in our seats. We checked the destination, learned of our error, and ran for a different track. We got there too late, but the tourist information guy pointed us to another train that was leaving in just a few minutes. The conductor looked a bit disgusted at us, but took one look at the kids and waved us on the train. It turned out to be a second class train with faulty air conditioning, but it was headed the right way.

As I type this, the girls are in bed after a shower, Escape from Alcatraz is on TV behind me in the lobby (dubbed into Italian, of course), and Annie has a bottle of nice red wine we bought from the Tratorria where we had a pizza and pasta dinner waiting.

Gotta go!