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| Chin running through the fountain |
We made our way over to the United Nations building and took
some pictures from the outside. The
Unite Nations building had this 3 legged chair that symbolized something. The plaza also had small water fountains
shooting water every few seconds. I told
Chin to go run through the plaza before the water started to shoot again. She actually did it!
We then took a tram to the train station where we booked our
trip to Milan and our trip after that – Milan to Zurich. That part of the morning went extremely well
until we wanted to head down to the lake.
For the 3rd time on this trip my GPS stopped working
on my phone and I couldn’t figure out any trick to get it to start working
again. The GPS seems to have some
connection to a data connection which doesn’t make sense to me because I can
sometimes get the GPS to work even though there is no map overlay. Eventually
it kicked in but not until after 20 minutes of looking like lost tourists. The lake was very close but after previous
issues Chin was leary of just walking a direction with no map.
We made our way to the water and took pictures of their huge
water spout. I wish I could tell you
more but I have no idea why they have it.
We walked further down where I went to checkout this tiny lighthouse
with an even better view of the water shooting up. Turns out that the pier to get out there is
what they call a beach. People
everywhere sunbathing on gravel or wooden piers. – no sand anywhere. Lets add on to the weirdness by putting a
fake iceberg in the water and surround the shore with pictures of cold things
like walruses and snow cliffs. I’m not
sure if that is what the Swiss call humor but it was weird.
We walked back to the train station and on the walk we
stopped at a grocery store to pick up lunch and at a souvenir shop. We made our own sandwiches from stuff we
purchased at the grocery store and ate it outside of a starbucks. We wanted to use the wifi.
We did catch the right train and headed to Milan. While we did everything right once again even
the best thought out plans can be thwarted.
Let me first say that I still love taking the train system. It’s just a much better experience than
flying. The view of the mountains and
the rustic villages is amazing. The
broken down train that we ended up on..not so amazing.
Speaking of broken down trains, yes our train really did
break down a few hours north of Milan.
The train officials allowed us to get off the train and we were able to
walk around a bit. Nothing was ever
explained to us in English but in a nutshell it seems this section of track had
some issues prior to us getting there. One
individual on the train said the train he was on last week broke down in the
same area. It seems the train ran out of
electricity. We assume there was a short
in the line somewhere and once the train hit that short it switches to battery
backup but without picking the electricity back up the batteries eventually run
out.
There was a train depot where they stopped the train and
eventually I was able to overhear someone speaking in English. They explained that buses were being sent to
pick us up and take us to the next station.
This was never officially explained but I went back to the train to
quickly grab our luggage and then head out into the mob of people. A bus holds
~60 people and there are several hundred of us on the train and they were only
guaranteeing 1 bus to pick us up. A film
director could have been in the windows overlooking the crowd filming a
disaster movie with all the yelling and shouting going on.
Once again, nothing is actually explained to us but as we
know you just use some common sense and go with the flow. When the first bus shows up there is a mad
rush and as usual there is some pushing and shoving and some yelling going on. We didn’t try to hard to make it to the first
bus but thankfully there was another bus that showed up. The second bus arrives (they must have needed
at least 4 in my estimate) and we are able to get on at the last second. I almost got held back by a train conductor
but I jostled away to get on when he had to let go of me to argue with someone
else.
Waiting for that second bus there was an incident with the
same person who was trying to get on the first bus. Screaming and yelling in thick Italian. Guess he pushed some female who was yelling
back at him. Then a train conductor came
over and got into the guys face screaming just as loudly right back. While the fighting was going on I couldn’t
help but think to myself about all the Italian sterotypes all coming together
at this very moment.
It was a coach bus but we were all packed in. The bus takes us to the next train stop
called Domado which is a few hours North of Milano. We’re let off of the bus and then we just
follow the crowd to another train.
Again, nothing is explained and we just assume we are on the right
train. We did our best to decipher if we were on the
right train but was never able to verify. The train looks 50 years old. Windows are open, no A/C and it is hot as
hell. You know it is hot if we think
it’s hot. I’m thinking this is a reserve
train that they are putting us on. The joke is on me. HA!
This is an intercity train which stops at EVERY stop in between Domado
and Milan Central. Probably around 50
stop. It at least felt like it. It was so bad that people were standing in
the aisles because there was no room. We
snagged some seats when we got on but the train wasn’t prepared for all these
extra people.
The train finally made it into Milan 3 hrs after we were
suppose to get in. The funny thing is it
didn’t drop us off at our destination – Milano Central. It dropped us off at another train station
called Garibaldi which wasn’t too far from Milano Central. As usual this is not explained to anyone nor
is it explained how one gets to their final destination. We’re not even sure if the fare to Garibaldi
would have been covered with an existing ticket. First, we check to see when the train leaves
to go to Milano Central. No train on the
track and no message on the board.
Our second option was to find bathrooms. We proceed to the
bathrooms and paid our 60 cents a piece.
I don’t know what that 60 cents paid for but it surely wasn’t spent on
soap and towels. When we are finished
with the bathrooms we head back to the board to see when the next train to
Milano Central is. Sure enough, it NOW
says it is running late and we have to run back to the same track. I’m running
ahead of Chin up some tall stairs when I see the asshole conductor sitting just
at the front door finishing his cigarette.
He sees me and immediately closes the door and locks it. Chin is yelling at me to push the button on the
door to open it but it was to no avail.
Chin said the conductor smiled at her when they were taking off which
means he did it on purpose. I hope the
asshole falls in front of a train next time.
Part 2 of the quest to get to our hotel starts off with us
heading to the metro (subway). Here, we
could have gotten subway tickets to get to our hotel. We even confirmed on the phone the metro stop
with the hotel. Once again luck was not
on our side. Our credit cards were
giving the ticket machines error messages and the only Euro’s we had were 20€
bills. The machine doesn’t give back
more than €10 Euros in change. We find a
lady upstairs who wasn’t able to give us change and ofcourse it is so late that
all the stores have already shutdown. We
decide to wait for the next train to Milano Central because we didn’t want to
risk the chance of getting lost in the dark walking. An hour later we catch the train to Milano
Central and then we are able to walk to our hotel just a quick 10 minutes away
from the station.
The hotel is a Crown Plaza and the workers there were very nice. We asked for a suggestion for a restaurant and unlike Geneva we are directed to a restaurant just down the street. The food was amazing. We had a calzone and pasta and finished it off with the best Sorbet on the planet; or at least on that city block. Seriously, the sorbet was out of this world. We headed back to the hotel to crash at our now normal time of around 12:30 to 1 am or 00:30-1:00 on the 24 hour clock.
It was another 100+ photo day. Here is a link to all the photos from that day: Day 10 Album
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| Geneva by the lake |
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| Geneva |
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