Spring 2012-Europe, Part 1 of 4

Whew, yet another trip (no, I am not complaining, especially because I planned this trip from scratch and now I feel like a real travel pro) and thank God all went well and we are back in one piece because so many things could have gone wrong!

The Preparation

Part 1

I began researching and planning for this 13-day mid-May trip only in the second week of March. I had to learn so much about the best way to travel in Europe by train. But all those hectic hours I spent planning and coordinating the MYRIAD parts involved in such travel paid off. Now, I can write a whole book!

The trip involved flying from New York to Venice, Italy, and flying out of Paris, France. In between is where I wanted to travel by train. During my research phase, I came across terms like EurailPass, TGV, SNCF, Inter-Rail Pass, etc. This made my head spin. One thing that became clear from all this spinning was, I had to fairly quickly decide what I wanted to do, because, during peak season, which begins in May (later I discovered that admission rates at various places of interest went up on May 1), train seats and choice hotel rooms go too fast. Even as I tried to understand the implications and wisdom of obtaining a rail pass, I also had to decide which places I wanted to visit. After much contemplation, research, serendipity and signals from my gut, I chose Innsbruck, Austria, Munich, Germany, southern Bavaria a.k.a. God’s own country, and Zurich and of course our pre-determined book ends Venice and Paris, the raison d’etre for this trip. Ultimately, Innsbruck was dropped, as the train timings seemed inconvenient.

I worked under a terrible time constraint, so a word of caution to the wise: Be very diligent about the places you want to visit so you can buy the right kind of EurailPass in terms of number of countries and number of days of travel. Based on our hurriedly yet diligently compiled itinerary, we bought a five country, five-day pass from the Germany-based Raildude.com, whose owner Peter Freisberg is a very friendly and knowledgeable guy.

It is impossible to work out every single step but draw up as detailed an itinerary as possible. For instance, once I reached Munich, I was able to add Salszburg to my itinerary almost spontaneously, but couldn’t do the same with respect to add Strasbourgh, France, though I would have spent no more than 3-6 R/T euros per person for a first class ticket and it would have made for a nice one-day trip from Paris. The weekend we were in Paris was a long weekend in France as well and so no last minute reservation was possible. Ever train in every single direction was booked solid. In a way, this turned out to be a blessing, because there were places in Paris we were able to cover, including a leisurely stroll along Champs-Elysees from the Louvre on the “extra” day.

Part 2:

Booking your hotel/apartment:

Some of it was good planning based on experience, some of it was pure luck, but we ended up booking excellent accommodations: In Venice, on the canal, and close to the Vaparetto stop Arsenale and within walking distance to St. Mark’s Square. In Munich, a stone’s throw from the main train station, in Konstanz, Germany, after diligent research, also close to the main train station, in Paris, a nice www.waytostay.com apartment in Montmartre with a view of the Sacre Couer from our living room. Working backwards, this was the first accommodation that I booked. I had a feeling, Paris needed a minimum of four days. We got into Paris on the 23rd night and left on the 28th. I had thought that I’d be getting into Paris on the 24th morning, as my itinerary had not been “fine-tuned” at that point. When I booked my Paris stay, not all places I’d visit were in place yet on my itinerary. Originally, I had paid close attention to only the main grid of my travel. But once my final itinerary was in place, it turned out that I had to get into Paris the previous night, and this forced me to book a hostel room, which I did promptly at Le Montclair right across, by design, from my four-night stay apartment. It was a fun experience, though initially, I wasn’t sure if we would get enough sleep given the noise level at the hostel, which died down by 1 a.m. and we were too beat anyway. Next morning, after a nice free breakfast at the hostel, all I had to do was roll my luggage (we traveled light which meant just two carry on’s and a small back pack each) across the street to my Waytostay.com apartment on the 6th floor of 25, Rue Hermel.

Part 2

What luggage to carry and what to pack: Though, at this point, I myself could be selling luggage because of how many suitcases and carryons we have accumulated in our attic over the years, I still had to get new luggage because of the utmost portability convenience I wanted in my luggage. In April, we got ourselves two carryons that also had back straps. The straps came in real handy when we had to change trains four times between Fuessen, Germany and Konstanz, Germany on the border of Switzerland within three-six minutes at each station. Each change included going down 25-30 steps and climbing back up the same number. Here is an anecdote (from the get go I was nervous about the strip between Fuessen and Konstanz) fit for a movie script, possibly:

Fuessen, east of the Bodensee (Lake Constance: http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/map/google_map_Bodensee.htm) and 90miles from Konstanz our destination on the 22nd bordering Switzerland, as has been reported by so many people who have visited Fuessen, was stunning and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. On the 22nd, once we got to the ticket center for the castle visits in Fuessen, we bought our tickets for the Neushwanstein Castle 11:25 English tour, and since we had time, we decided to make the steep climb to the castle. The journey took your breath away in more than one sense. Flaunting my hand-made Burano lace umbrella I had bought in Burano on the 18th, I made it to the top. The charming guide at the castle spoke very good English and the tour was not rushed in any way.

All went well and we took the 14:06 as planned after having lunch at restaurant across from the bus stop and buying a cute, genuine Black Forest handmade cuckoo clock at the lodging’s store.

On my train schedule, the short intervals I noticed between train changes on different platforms made me nervous. At Kaufbeuren we had only 3 minutes. The train from Fuessen pulled in a bit late. Still we made it to our train bound for Lindau. The train stopped at Immenstadt and when it left I noticed that the car in front of ours was missing. I wondered why, and so I asked an elderly couple in our car, who spoke no English, if the train was going to Lindau. They said no and tried explaining something in German. Anyway, cutting to the chase, we got off at the next stop, took a train back to Immenstadt, waited for about 90 minutes, took the next train to Lindau. Then changed at Friedrichshafen for Radolfzell (I couldn't even pronounce these names right). Divinely beautiful as this journey was, the train got stuck in between and this meant we would miss the connection for Konstanz at Radolfzell. I decided to pray. It paid off. We reached beautiful Konstanz at 8:05 as opposed to 6:16. At Immenstadt in our hurry, and not knowing the same train would split up and going in two different directions, we got into the wrong car.

Well, we live and learn!

Then changed at Friedrichshafen for Radolfzell (I couldn't even pronounce these names right). Divinely beautiful as this journey was, the train got stuck in between and this meant we would miss the connection for Konstanz at Radolfzell. I decided to pray. It paid off. We reached beautiful Konstanz at 8:05 as opposed to 6:16 had we not sat in the wrong car. At Immenstadt in our hurry, and not knowing the same train would split up and go in two different directions, we got into the wrong car and not understanding German instructions from the driver, we ended up not changing cars.

In Konstanz, I discovered conveyor belts for carryons alongside the staircase. How 'bout that?

We could have quite easily cut the journey short had we taken a ferry across the lake, but our primary goal was to experience the lake from the train. Boy, it was some experience!

As for things that went much more smoothly:

On May 16, we flew Delta out of JFK to Venice. The journey was comfy, the flight attendants were courteous and we got our vegetarian meals (Asian seems to be the best choice) per our request. From Marco Polo Airport in Venice, around 11:30a.m., we took a bus to Piazzale Roma and from here No.1 vaparetto to the Arsenale stop a two-minute walk to our B&B Casa Faveretto booked via www.Venere.com. Our view was partially blocked by the software company Oracle’s ship that was moored before our guest house. The America’s Cup World Series was on from May 15-20 and Oracle was a sponsor. I was unhappy about the partial blocking of my view.

The combo bus-vaparetto ticket was 10 euros a piece to be used (validated) within the next 90 minutes. The postcard-like, sweeping panoramic view of the variegated buildings, the once-upon-a-time-but-now abandoned homes now converted to hotels or museums or government offices, of rich 16th century Venetian merchants on the S-shaped Grand Canal is breathtaking and magical. It was a fairly long, delightful, many stops ride since our stop was almost at the end of the line.

By now, being experienced travelers, we covered quite a bit quite promptly on the very day we landed in Venice. Before leaving New York, I had bought a ticket (free with a two euros service charge for two) to enter St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice so we could avoid long lines. Our designated time was 3:25 but we were early and were able to enter early. Again, the basilica too was a breath taking and a neck straining experience. Here is a link to St. Mark’s Square: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piazza_San_Marco. After the Basilica, we covered the square itself taking pictures of the human-pigeon interaction, waited on line for about half hour to go up to the top of the Bell Tower, befriended a nice young couple (seemed like they were just friends traveling together) from England—she was black and he white—and it was wonderful to be able to communicate in English and not in any made up sign language, and then, after buying our tickets, went up to the top by an elevator. The 360 degree view of Venice from the top was spectacular though the Grand Canal itself was nowhere to be seen! The huge bell above head in the Bell Tower was truly humongous.

Our next stop was the Doge Palace (Palazzo Ducale) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doge's_Palace,_Venice. I was recovering from jet lag, so sitting up on the bench in the Great Hall I took a power nap. Visited the famous prison and the Bridge of Sighs as well.

On the 18th, we bought a 12-hour pass to visit Burano and ended the day with a trip on the Grand Canal. We skipped the “run-down” Murano as I am not a fan of watching glass works being made and nor were we going to buy anything to carry back with us. I already had a cute Murano glass pendant sold to me by a savvy New Yorker, a former principal at a school, who had a jewelry sale at a friend’s place in my town selling some of her own collection from her extensive travel and some purportedly designed by her. Moreover, I had heard so much about Burano, I simply could not resist visiting this fishing village and as a tourist one has to choose. On the boat, we met a garrulous New Zealander who has been traveling for about six months now. She reminded me of someone I know but I just could not figure out who. She was from Corpus Christie and the 2011 earthquake seems to have reminded people to live each day to its fullest. Her revenge was travel. In fact, we had met a couple at dinner the previous night who also were from New Zealand.

The heavy-set, garrulous woman talked about her brother who went to Princeton and is now the chief Economist in New Zealand. She also talked about New Zealand’s participation in America’s Cup. An hour or so later, we ran into her on the handkerchief-sized Burano near a tiny bridge across a tiny canal from where a vegetable vendor was selling produce not particularly inviting, as they were neither very fresh nor laid out well, at exorbitant prices (8 eruos for a kilo of cherries, which interestingly looked luscious and deep red) from his wobbly little colorful boat, and exchanged pleasantries.

Lined with modest colorful homes (they belong to local fishermen and they are colored because they can be easily identified at night by the returning fishermen), narrow canals, miniature bridges, and lots of restaurants, a few delis and souvenir shops galore, Burano is like a recreated village. My shopping included a square tapestry of St. Mark’s Square and a cute, hand-made beige lace umbrella that really came in handy on that bright sunny day. When I returned home in New York, I realized that the tapestry my sister had brought for me from her European tour in 2010 was also that of St. Mark’s Square but it also covered the frolicking tourists from the past in gondolas. My plan was to hang my new tapestry next to this but now I am not sure about my plans for it.

On our way back, we stopped by at Lido, yet another beautiful island gem in the Lagoon and which is where the Venice Film Festival takes place. Because of the American Cup, which was in full swing by now, there were no boats from Lido to Venice beyond the eastern tip till the evening. We took the 5:30 boat and made it back to Venice, and ultimately, to our home base Casa Faveretto. After getting dressed we went out for dinner, which turned out to be not a pleasant experience because of poor quality service and “prejudices” by the Bangla Deshi owner against Indians. Regardless of what passport one holds, or how long one has been away from one’s native country or how different your ways may be from the native country’s inhabitants of 40 years ago, one never knows how one is going to be perceived.

Next day, our final day in Venice, we walked from the north eastern tip of Costello Sestieri (district) to the north western tip of Sestieri where the train station St. Lucia was, covering several spots of interest along the way like the Jewish Quarters in Cannaregio, a few former palaces, numerous little gulleys and finally, had a simple but delectable panini lunch near the Rialto Bridge which we crossed once again later from San Polo Sistieri: http://0.tqn.com/d/goitaly/1/0/b/B/-/-/venice-sestieri-map.png. Apparently, all of Venice is just the size of New York City’s Central Park. That night, enjoying the cool breeze, we took the vaperetto to St. Lucia and dined near the station under a clear sky sitting on a bench along the Grand Canal. Our train run by Deutsche Bahn bound for Munich left nearly 20 minutes late!

Ciao!