Saturday, October 2

Heading to Lake Como?

Okay...despite all the fun and sightseeing there are a few
minor glitches in the traveling life.
my sleeper compartment

Here's the scenario:

I had (without really considering the consequences)
reserved a sleeper car on an overnight train from
Salzburg, Austria to Lake Como in Italy for 0140AM.

Problem is that I had to check out from my hotel at 11AM.
Leaving my bags in the hotel storage I roamed around
Salzburg all day until close to 11PM when it was time to
go to the train station.  I waited at the track for the train.
The actual indoor station in Salzburg is a hollow
shell as they are under construction so you have to wait
outside along empty tracks in the cold.

0140AM came and went with no train.  It
disappeared off the electronic board.  I went to
try to find out what happened but there were
no open information or ticket desks.  All the
employees were home asleep....lucky them.

Finally at around 430AM I called Elizabeth in
the U.S. and asked her to find me a hotel room
so I could get some sleep.  At this point I was
a ball of emotional jelly due to lack of sleep and food
and frustrated.  Elizabeth and Jim were
came through for me and I left to get some sleep.

Next night I left Austria on another night train
at 8PM.  I gathered that they had changed the track
number for my first train and probably made the
announcement in German...which I don't
really speak...especially when exhausted.

Oh well...the second attempt went fine.  I
had the entire compartment to myself
and got plenty of sleep, arriving in Italy
the next morning.

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