A big day of travel

Today was my 'monster' day of travelling. I was meeting up with dad at the end of today in Arinsal, which is a tiny town about half an hour north of Andorra la Vella, the capital of Andorra. Yes, here's how to Google it because you don't know where Andorra is: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=andorra

This necessitated getting a train from my accommodation to the airport, a flight from Rome to Barcelona, a bus from Barcelona Airport to Andorra la Vella, and a local bus from there to Arinsal.

I'd bought a train ticket the night before, and the trains are quite frequent to the airport (every 15 minutes from 5:30am). The train left on time at 7:30, and I got to the airport in plenty of time for my flight with Vueling. Vueling is a Spanish low-cost airline with a base in Rome and Barcelona, so I thought they would be organised. Eeeeeeh! Wrong answer.

I arrived at the check-in area, where there were two separate queues - one for bag drop, one for check in. Both were so long I couldn't tell which was which, until I was told that I was in the check-in queue, not the bag drop queue (I had checked in online the night before).

Both European flights I got were completely paper-free - Vueling and Airberlin both accepted the mobile boarding pass at bag drop, at the gate, and on the plane. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER VIRGIN/QANTAS/JETSTAR/TIGER!

I was waved into an express queue, because the normal queues were moving a little slowly. The 'express queue' had about 10 people in it, and we were waiting in that queue for 25 minutes. Go figure. I went through in about 60 seconds, if that. Bloody novice travellers!

Having joined the uber-long security queue, I realised as I got to the front I had a full water bottle. D'oh! By this stage all my 'stuff' was in the box, and I was ready to quickly nick off to the rubbish bin to empty the bottle, less than 100m away. The nazi in the security queue made me pack all my crap BACK INTO my bags, go and empty the bottle, and rejoin the back of the queue. NOT HAPPY!

Vueling's flight schedule is identical to those in Australia. Our '1 hour and 50 minute' flight was delayed by 20 minutes leaving. Announcement: 'flying time 1 hour and 20 minutes, we will arrive 5 minutes early!' Congratulations, Vueling:

Our ride to Barcelona

After flying over the Tyrrhenian Sea and the island of Sardinia, we arrived in Barcelona, and to Vueling's largest terminal. We were dropped on the middle of the tarmac, to get a bus past about a dozen other Vueling planes. The terminal was actually quite nice, with lots of duty free shops but it was a wide-open space and not packed with people.

At the baggage claim (one of 18 in just one terminal!) I met an Australian girl who had been waiting 15 hours for her luggage from Paris. She was only staying in Barcelona for one day, and Vueling had promised her 4 times that 'it would be on the next Paris flight'. She was one of 20 people from 3 flights from Paris waiting for their bags. And Vueling said they required receipts for food reimbursement, but security wouldn't let her out, and then back in, to buy food, and the only thing in the terminal were receipt-free vending machines. Ouch!

I again had the magic touch, my bag was the second one out. After asking the information desk where I could find the long-haul bus terminal, I headed in the general direction and found the bus stop. I was originally supposed to wait nearly 4 hours in Barcelona (in case the flight was delayed) for the bus, but there was one there leaving two hours earlier. With my atrocious Spanish, I eventually found out that I could jump on the early bus.

The travel time to Andorra was just under 4 hours. In that time, we passed through some spectacular scenery in the Pyrenees:

The Pyrenees opening out

Once we arrived at the bus station in Andorra la Vella (which was very busy, because there's no airport or train station in the entire country), I managed to find the local bus stop, where I waited about 20 minutes for one of the local buses. The buses are quite small, seating about 40 people. Eventually the bus showed up and a hair-raising half-hour later I arrived in Arinsal. The bus stop was right outside the hotel!

I signed in to the hotel, and found out that dad had stayed here for an extra night. Dad eventually got back from a walk 'up the hill' across from the hotel, and after a couple of hours we headed down to the in-house restaurant. As part of our hotel rates, we managed half-board for an extra €5 per person. It was an amazing investment - it's a full 3-course meal every night:

Tonight's menu

I had the Putanesca pasta, grilled pork chops and lemon sorbet. The quantity was amazing, and the quality was pretty good for the price we paid.

That's all for today from Arinsal, until tomorrow, when we're planning on a hike (or walk) in the Pyrenees.

Trip Report - Frecciargento

Today was my last high-speed train, for this journey anyway. I got a Frecciargento (literally "Silver Arrow") from Venice to Rome.

I had decided to walk the 20 minutes or so to the station, rather than pay the outrageous fare for the water bus. Once I got to the station, I had about half an hour before departure. For those that aren't aware, a fair amount of toilets in Europe charge an entry fee - the ones at the station in Venice charge an outrageous €1. The one on the train was free.

Once the train arrived, everyone piled in. I had reserved a seat, which apparently everyone on the train had done. Santa Lucia was literally where all the tourists got on, while all the locals got on at Mestre and Padua. All the American tourists rudely crammed their luggage in the overhead storage, leaving no-one with any room to put small bags. Bloody Yanks! The seats were about on par with the ICE ones, with a small fold-out table in between and minimal legroom:

A seat on a high-speed Italian train

Once the train filled up in Padua, everyone was crammed in quite tightly. The train was basically full until we reached Florence, where almost every tourist piled out of the train again, leaving it quite empty. We got to stretch out and enjoy the Italian countryside as it rocketed past at 250km/h:

The southern Italian countryside

Apparently the names of the three high-speed trains in Italy are based on their speeds: Frecciarossa (Red Arrow) is the fastest at 300km/h, Frecciargento is in the middle at 250km/h and Frecciabianca is the slowest at 220km/h. We wound up in Rome about 5 minutes late, having mostly made up a 15 minute delay in Florence:

Frecciargento leaving Rome Tiburtina

I spent the rest of the day chilling in the apartment in Rome. I'll have a detailed report from Rome tomorrow. Bye all!

Trip Report - ÖBB overnighter

My overnight sleeper experience was massively improved today by my realising that the train departed Westbahnhof at 8:56pm, not 9:56pm. That could have been awkward.

This was my first time getting an overnight sleeper train for the purpose of getting from A to B (yes, mum, there was "that other one", never to be spoken of again). I had no idea what to expect, and bought a whole bunch of food beforehand. I stocked up on dinner with a noodle box, and stocked up at the train station on a few different pastries, as well as some fruit.

When I arrived about 20 minutes before departure, I was confronted with a weird-looking ticket, until I realised that 403 referred to the carriage number. Why they aren't just 1, 2, 3 I don't know. I'd booked a 3-seater sleeper for myself. Once I found the correct compartment, I discovered that while it was fine for me, it would be a little cramped if three people booked into one compartment:

My room for the night

I also discovered that breakfast was included with a sleeper room. Great - my pastries live to fight another day!

The breakfast menu

There was a single conductor for each carriage, meaning that there was one conductor for about every 20 passengers. Further down the carriage was a family of Americans. The three daughters were going on a lightning tour of Europe as a post-graduation holiday - just like me. I talked to them for a while after we left Vienna, talking about what we had all done and what we were doing next.

There were quite a few stops between Vienna and Venice. Most of them were short two-minute stops, but there were a few longer stops as well - in Salzburg for an hour and a half, in Villach for an hour and in Tarvisio Boscoverde for 25 minutes. At about 11, I sat down and ate my noodle box for dinner, after the conductor brought around a small fruit salad:

Noodle box for dinner

It's now half past nothing in the morning, and we've been in Salzburg for about half an hour. The station is actually quite busy early in the morning, with several trains to other places in Europe:

Half past nothing in Salzburg

After the conductor turned down the bed in my compartment, I settled into a fitful sleep. I didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but it was still better than nothing. I had to get up a few times to silence some creaking noises supplied by the wardrobe and window shade.

At about 5:30 in the morning I lifted the window shade to some absolutely spectacular morning fog in the north of Italy:

The rolling Alps in the morning

The conductor told me there would be a significant delay between Udine and Treviso as there was track work going on. Breakfast ended up being a solid spread, with yoghurt, hot chocolate, juice, bread rolls and various spreads:

Breakfast translated to the plate/tray

Once we passed the Alps, we started getting into flatter Italian countryside. As promised, we crawled very slowly between Udine and Pordenone. The delay ended up being over an hour and a half - lucky I didn't have to be anywhere in a hurry!

The bridge connecting Venice to the mainland is a fairly long one - it gives you a good indication of just how isolated the city is. We pulled into the station and disembarked to searing sun, which was better than the spits of rain in Udine:

Made it to Venice!

I took the water bus from the station to my accommodation in Zattere, on the south of the island. At €7 for a one-way trip, I will be making the 25-minute walk to the train station on the way back.

See everyone from Venice tomorrow!

Trip Report - ICE

Today is my second high-speed train experience, this time with ICE, the Deutsche Bahn's national system. After arriving at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof around half an hour before the train was due to leave, it took a while to find the train, which would arrive at one of the 26 (!) platforms, as part of a service originating in Munich.

The ICEs are still in their original red and white paint scheme, whereas the French have changed from their orange and grey to a blue and grey. The TGVs are also much shorter, as they have two decks instead of one. Our ICE had 14 carriages including a restaurant car and the two locomotives. We passed some trains on the way that had three 14-car sets, for a massive 42-car passenger train! Hence even the small regional stations are ridiculously long. I also noticed that the ICEs are a bit noisier than the TGVs.

The train arriving at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof

Our train arrived on time, and it took me a while to find somewhere to stow my suitcase - the designated luggage racks were full. I eventually asked a lady, in German, where I could stow my bag. To my surprise, the overhead racks were large enough to fit my suitcase in. It was a good thing I paid the extra €4.50 to reserve a seat, it also guaranteed me a table to work at. This train was also much busier than the TGV, and it also took a bit longer to travel the same distance, mainly because it had several more stops. We stopped at Hanau, Fulda, Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe, Göttingen, Hildesheim and Braunschweig.

Before we arrived at Fulda, it was announced that there would be a second delay of 10 minutes. To say that one male passenger was upset would be an understatement. He smashed his fist against the seat in disappointment, then made a call to whoever was picking him up in Fulda, starting the conversation with "Diese scheisse Deutsche Bahn". Some passengers had to calm him down. He was upset at potentially missing the start of the soccer game. Really?

The scenery on this trip was also not as nice as the trip from Paris. There were many more tunnels, and more fences and the like blocking the view. When we did have a view, the trees and bushes were a lovely shade of green. Germany has also embraced clean energy much more than Joe Hockey and the rest of Australia - there were many instances of wind farms and solar farms right next to each other, including one absolutely enormous one just south of Berlin.

I was worried about transport to my accommodation in Mitte when the final station was announced as Berlin Ostbahnhof. I needn't have worried - the train also stopped at Spandau and Hauptbahnhof, the latter of which I was originally due to get off at.

The weather got progressively worse the closer we got to Berlin. It hadn't rained up until this point on my trip, but there was a light drizzle as we went past Braunschweig. The sun peeked out from the cloud a couple of times, but that was as good as it got until we reached Berlin, when blue sky started to break out. By the time I arrived in Berlin the clouds had all cleared and the sun was shining.

See everyone from Berlin tomorrow.

Trip Report - TGV

Today it was time to leave the City of Love behind and meet up with my host family from Frankfurt. To do that, I had to leave the apartment, and Hassib and Kamel, at around 8 in the morning. That's one of the great things about European inter-city trains - you can get there as late as you want, so long as you don't miss the train.

I ended up arriving at Gare de l'Est around 30 minutes before departure, where they hadn't even announced a platform yet. Once they did, I boarded the train and found my seat. The French train system is so good that each seat has a tiny LCD display showing whether the seat is reserved and, if it is, where the passenger is getting on and off:

The French really know how to do it

There were only three stops on the way to Frankfurt - Saarbrücken, Kaiserslautern and Mannheim. We went at a decent pace for a while, and I was thinking we were going at a good pace. Then we hit second gear. And third gear. And fourth gear. All at once. There was a sudden 'whoosh' and instead of going at 100km/h we were instead doing 300. I hadn't experienced that before.

The scenery on the way was absolutely gorgeous. Once we reached Germany, the only discernible difference was the presence of German flags instead of French ones. We also slowed down between Saarbrücken and Mannheim. Also on the tracks were yet more 40-carriage-long trains double stacked with cars.

We passed within inches of sheer cliff faces and whooshed past pine forests, country roads, and all-around greenery. There was even the occasional golf course. While we were going slower we passed through some picturesque towns. My favourite was Labrecht, which was entrenched in the middle of a valley with massive hills all around it.

We rolled into Frankfurt one minute late, which is probably a disgrace to the French public transit system. I expect the prime minister will resign tomorrow.

Bis zum nächsten Mal everyone, I'll catch up tonight.