Around the World: The Brenner Pass

March 18, 1992

It's absolutely amazing what a quiet night in a room to yourself will do for a tired girl.  Well rested and freshly showered, I'm heading back into Italy to travel through the Brenner Pass to the tiny town of Merano.  It's not an easy place to get to, requiring transfers in Fortezza and Bolzano before arriving in Merano.

Autobahn through the Brenner Pass.
Photo courtesy Wikipedia Creative Commons

The Brenner pass is the lowest of the few mountain passes in the Alps that connect Northern Europe with the popular Mediterranean destinations in the south.  The view is breathtaking. The surrounding mountains are enormous and still full of snow.  Around every corner is a castle more beautiful than the last and the hillsides are littered with vineyards and cattle grazing fields.

Merano is a quiet, peaceful little town of little boutiques and cafes.  Thinking I have just enough time for an ice cream and wiener shnnitzel from a street vendor, I arrive at the station just in time to watch the last train bound for Innsbruck pull out of the station without me.

Merano castle, vineyard and mountains.

Where there's a will...

A train leaving in half an hour arrives in Bolzano at 20:40, another leaves for Brenner at 20:43 and arrives at 22:15.  From Brenner, another train departs at 22:20, and arrives in Innsbruck at 23:10.  In Brenner, three German skiers and myself have to negotiate two freight trains and five rail lines to just barely make it to the train in time.  Once I finally arrive in Innsbruck, I learn that the last bus going near the hostel left half an hour ago.  Fortunately, it's only a thirty minute saunter.  The time passes quicker with a frankfurter to nibble on.

• ¤ •

"I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it."

~Thomas Jefferson

Around the World Innsbruck

March 17, 1992

Just before the Italian - Austrian border with a little over an hour left in the trip to Innsbruck, an empty couchette becomes available.  I pull out the seats and get some sleep in between several ticket and passport checks.  When I wake up, I discover that I have overslept Austria all together.  I'm in Munich.

Luckily, a train is departing for Milan through Innsbruck shortly.  I jump on and finally arrive in Innsbruck.  Tourist information is of no help.  Instead, I am given directions to go down the street and around a corner to find a map.  Realizing that these are directions to become completely disoriented, I head back to the train station where I find someone who knows where the youth hostel is, how much it costs and gives me a very basic map of Innsbruck with just barely enough information to find it.

At the hostel, the room is cheaper than it was quoted at the train station, so I opt to call this place home for the next two nights.  Tired, but curious, I head out to explore the town.  The old part of the city is really close to the hostel and so very old world Bavaria.  It's very quiet wandering through the cobblestone streets with a stunning view of the Alps on the horizon. 

Innsbruck, the old city
Photo courtesy American Greetings

Groceries include wine, crackers, chocolate and juice.  Tried to call home, but the phone ate my 10 schillings and cut me off even though I called collect.  I try to fight off the fatigue with some knoedel soup, dumplings in a thin broth.  Very delicious, but only makes me more sleepy.

Innsbruck and the Alps.
Photo courtesty travelBBB.com

It's not long until sundown when I wake from a two hour nap and decide to address some laundry fermenting in my knapsack.  My room has a sink so I gather up my socks and a skirt that smell strangely of fish.  After rinsing the clothes three times, I lather up some hand soap and scrub my socks and skirt before rinsing everything clean.  The rungs from the top bunk bed serve as a convenient clothesline to dry everything overnight.  The hostel has a laundry service, but after rinsing out my skirt, I realize that had I chosen that option, everything I own would now be stained purple.  I also would have missed the sock stalactite art I've created out of the adjacent bunk bed.

It's almost 8pm and I can keep my eyes open no longer.

• ¤ •

"Our way is not soft grass. It's a mountain path with lots of rocks. 

But it goes upward, forward, toward the sun."

~ Ruth Westheimer

Around the World: Milan & Venice

March 16, 1992

Milan doesn't offer much for the wayward tourist, but still interesting to wander around for the morning.  Explored a small museum / fort and "Duomo", a beautiful cathedral. 

Milan's Duomo Cathedral

The detail in the cathedral's interior and the stained glass windows for each station of the cross are brilliant.  Found a little grocery and bought some supplies to eat on the way to Venice.

Interior of the Duomo Cathedral

 Venice is a stunning city full of artsy boutiques and oozes with creativity.  Everything from finely detailed trinkets to glass work, to jewelry, paintings, clothing, Carnevale masks.  The only way to travel around Venice is by foot or by boat.  The first floor of Venice's older houses are completely submerged leaving staircases and windows under the water line.  The city continues to be threatened by floods that raise the water level by a few inches following certain tides.

Venice Gondola and Gondolier.
Photo by SwilkArt

I'm happy to have finished my tour of Italy in Venice.  At least I'll leave Italy knowing there is much that is good about this boot-shaped country, most of it north of Rome.  Accommodations for the evening will be another overnight train that arrives in Austria come morning.

At the train station, I join a large queue of people trying to make travel arrangements or, like me, trying to figure out why their train is late.  The timetable says my train departs at 8pm, but there's no sign of it.  The young Japanese girl and her mother in line ahead of me want to take the train to Greece, but the clerk won't let them.  He tries, patiently to explain that there is no service on this line, but the daughter doesn't understand and keeps showing him that there is, in fact, train tracks that go from here, through Yugoslavia to Athens.  Finally, both parties in this discussion are exasperated with each other when the mother finally asks, "Why can't we take the train to Greece?"

"Because," the clerk bellows, trying to contain his frustration unsuccessfully, "There's a war on!"

Now, it's my turn.  Amused from the previous exchange, and trying to lighten his irritation, I approach him with a welcoming smile and inquire about the train delay.  "This is incorrect," he says, scribbling on my timetable, "The train will arrive at 8:30 and depart at 10 p.m."

So I wait.

A typical couchette car provides seating for 6 people.
The seats on one side meet up with the seats on the
opposite wall to create beds for 3 people.

When the train arrives, all the doors to the couchettes are locked.  Finally, a conductor informs me that there are seats available in the car ahead of this one.  The train is full and I am sharing this couchette with an older man from Miami and an American soldier, both on their way to Munich.  The other two girls sharing this couchette preclude the possibility of stretching out for some sleep.  

• ¤ •

"There's something beautifully soothing about a fact - 

even (or perhaps especially) if we're not sure what it means."

~Daniel J. Boorstin