"It will be romantic," he said.
"It's a true European experience," he said.
"Look at how happy and comfortable they are," he said.
From SBB Website
And from the picture on the SBB website it looked alright.
So I agreed to it. I said we could go on the overnight train from Zürich to Rome.
But when we got to the train station, we didn't have the clean, comfortable Swiss train cabin.
No indeed, we spent an 11 hour train ride in an overheated, noisy, dirty Italian sleeper car. Circa 1948.
And I didn't even take a picture of the shared bathroom. That was just too scary to inflict upon others.
So while GLH peacefully slept, I laid in the uncomfortable berth that was too short. I tried to read with the very weak light, but failed. I listened to the other passengers talking loudly. And in Italian so I couldn't even eavesdrop. And I felt every single bump, rattle and knock that the rickety train could create.
For 11 hours.
Knowing that in 4 days I would have to turn around and do it in reverse.
But I was consoled by this glorious room at the St. Regis Grand Hotel...
And I didn't even mind that GLH ended up having to work for a few hours when we first got there. It gave me time to shower and sleep.
This morning on the train ride back GLH said "This isn't so bad. We'll do it again."
I looked at him and said "You can do it again. I'll take a plane and meet you there."
More on Rome coming soon...
9 comments:
Gotta love those European hotel rooms. Motel 6 it ain't.
I tried to warn you....
Yes, I know. But your warning came after we had purchased the tickets.
Besides, I told GLH that I would try it.
Well, I've tried it. And I never want to repeat the experience...
We took the overnight train to Florence a few years back and had the same kind of sleeping compartment. It wasn't horrible, I'm glad we tried it, but...I'll (hopefully) never do it again!
sissy.
Hey Anonymous, also known as my brother!
You can call us "sissy" after you try it yourself.
Until then, keep it zipped!
Love the shot of the hotel room. Glad you got away and enjoyed it all but the train car.
This is your brother, who is normally known as Anonymous. Although, I imagine, others may also be able to post as Anonymous. And it was one of those others who posted the "Sissy" comment.
I enjoy makng fun of people, but try to avoid insulting them. And when it comes to trains, I would never call someone a sissy. Mostly because they scare the bejeebers out of me. Back in the late Eighties, I took an overnight train from St. Petersburg (then called Leningrad) to Moscow, and was terrified the whole time.
Riding the damn things is bad enough. Doing it in the dark is much worse. To get my mind off being on a train, some friends encouraged me to tell a story, and suggested telling one about Santa Claus. Unfortunately, the only one I could remember on the spot was the time Santa brought me a train set.
Tell you what, to eliminate confusion, I'll start posting as "Pointless Drivel" again.
Try the trains in India, or sleeper buses in china. The European trains (yes including Italy) are luxurious. India is 8 to a section, no doors, no pillows or blankets, no place for you luggage and every 15min a beggar or kids walks buy selling coffee and wakes you up to ask you. And to top it all off, on one trip it took us 27hours to go 600km! Believe me when I say that I'll never whine about European trains again.
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