Summer Phase I - Rail Travel

Alrighty! I spent the last 3 weeks traveling through Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, and that constitutes Summer 2012 - Phase I. An important note, I can't seem to post photos from the iPad, and I don't have a real computer during my travels. As such, you can find photos from my trip up on Facebook. Here's an overview of what went down: First off, I just BARELY made the plane. That's really not a pleasant experience, but it all worked out, so I can't complain much. Though there were 3 kids from SF behind me on the flight who argued the whole ride then started yelling "We're all gunna die!" during landing. Kids are so sweet.   Rome was AMAZING!  There are a thousand truly impressive things there in the realms of art, architecture, and history.  Sebastian and I were there long enough to take it easy, too, which was nice.  It helps make the trip more enjoyable if you can sit down every now and then. :-p  I especially liked the Vatican (esp. St. Peter's Basilica).  There's a certain gravity to it that's really impressive.  Also, we went to a less-visited church in the south of the city that had carvings of about 12 famous figures at about 1.5x size.  The place was impressive because the statues were so engaging and the whole place was well'lit with natural light (unlike most dark churches).   Venice was nice, but it's more an attraction as a city than a city with attractions.  Well, part that, and part labyrinth. We wandered a lot and got lost more than once.  We took a boat out to Murano, where they do glass blowing.  Sea Beast was pretty psyched, since that's his latest hobby.  We got lost late Saturday night, and there was some grumbling among our group (Bas and I met up with William, Larissa, and Katie from TBP in Venice), then when we got back some Italian kids were making a huge rucous at the hostel campground which almost lead to a fight with some testy Austrailians.  Great times.   Then was Florence.  We Saw the David; it was pretty cool, though I think the partially-finished Michaelangelo works leading up to it really make the experience whole.  You sort of get an idea of the process. (These were works he started for a Pope then was told to put on hold to paint the Sistine Chapel.  Interesting tid-bit.) we went across the river (out of prime tourist zone) and visited the Piazzale Michaelangelo (back in tourist zone), which has an excellent view of the city. On a recommendation, we wandered from there to the stadium and found a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, where I had the most delicious mushroom risotto. Actuall, food and gelato (which Sebastian and I tested daily for the good of Science) were reliably good in Florence, especially outside the tourist zone. We visited the Uffizi, where the famous Venus is displayed. There's actually a relief version next to the piece so you can feel it if you're blind. I'd never seen that before. From Florence we jumped to Zurich, where we stayed with Sebastian's aunt. The first night we tried fancy whiskeys and I slept on fur. Wow. We had a day of rest then met the folks from TBP for a trip to Luzern (or "Lucern"). We took a cable car up into the alps and ate at a little alpine inn with a traditional mountain singing quartet (like yodeling!) - totally sweet. We spent a day rolling around Zurich on rented bikes then Sebastian and I were off to Singen! We stayed with Sebastian's grandparents in Singen, but we travelled most of our time there. The first day we went to Stein am Rhein, a pretty little river town, then the Rheinfall, a big waterfall on the Rhine - this was totally awesome. The next day we went to the Hoehntwiel, a ruined castle overlooking Singen. After that we went back to Zurich and took a day trip to the town of Glarus and the lake in the mountains above it. The Alps are really something. They're SO tall, and they rise so suddenly. Absolutely spectactular. Finally, I took a train from Zurich to Delft. It took abou 10.5 hours, but I had a Eurail pass for most of it, so I only really paid 15 euro for the whole trip (excluding the pass, which I'd already bought). I got off in Delft and walked over to Marcio's, and I'm staying there until we depart on the Epic Bike Journey - which begins tomorrow! Between arrival in Delft and arrival at Marcio's, my dear moose Moholt disappeared... I don't know if he stayed on the train or fell out of my pocket on the walk, but he's gone now... Alas.