Train from Verona to Munich

This is one of the most scenic rail routes in all of Europe. We were headed through the Italian and Austrian Alps on our way to Southern Germany. The mountains that you can see in the distance, through all of the train station's cable network, are the Dolomites. The trains stop anywhere from about one to three minutes, and they will not wait for some Travel Clown to take a picture. So, no running through the train station for a clear shot of the Dolomites, this is what we get. Steve learned from his adventure from Sicily to Naples to never get off a train that you need to be on (see previous blog).

Here is a quick shot of Vienna, Austria, through the train's dirty window. It looks like a great place, and has been added to the "1,000 Places We Must See" list. The "1,000" is just a working title, we think the list may contain more places than that!


The train into Munich rolls though beautiful mountains, and then into the rolling green hills of Southern Germany. We passed through some towns that we plan on returning to in order to see the famed castles that this part of the world is known for.

On this ride, we shared a compartment with two people. One was a lady, from Northern Italy, who also spoke fluent English. She was very nice, we hope. She heard our panic about still having postcards with Italian stamps, and knew we could not mail them from Germany. We would have to risk getting off the train, finding a mail box, and getting back to the train in the aforementioned 1 to 3 minutes. We think that if the Conductor did see one of us running from the train, with our big striped shoes, red nose and rainbow wig, that he would probably immediately close the doors, hit the whistle, and get out of there as fast as possible to make sure we did not get back on. "All aboard! Except you, postcard carrying clown!"

So, this lady volunteered to take the postcards since she was getting off at the last stop in Italy. If you did not get a postcard from us, then this lady threw yours in the garbage next to the mailbox. Sorry!


The other compartment mate was an Italian gentleman who worked for Porsche, a German automaker, so he traveled this route many times. Steve asked if had any free samples, say a Turbo 911, black, but he just gave his last free sample away. He was not fluent in English, but could definitely get by. With the help of his Italian to English dictionary he was carrying, he helped us with Italian words, and we help him with English.

We had a great time talking with him, he provided some very interesting insight on Italian culture compared to our own. He was obviously a very busy man, with two cell phones constantly ringing. He was also changing "SIM" cards that let him make local calls from each area as the train passed through.

One call was his wife, and during that conversation we heard something that included "....due americanos...", meaning two Americans. We joked with him that we heard him say that, and hoped that what he was saying was "all good". He explained what he was saying to his wife, "I am sharing the car with two Americans, they are very nice and have made this ride special". It was nice to hear, and those were our exact thoughts about spending time with him, and all of the people of Italy as we left the country.

Maybe now was the time to check back on those free Porsche samples?


We were excited to arrive in Munich, we could see that the architecture had changed a lot from what we experienced in Italy. We rolled our bags to the hotel, and were off to find our first beer garden!