Jeannie's Travel Addiction

A 7 hour train trip to Venice today – thought I’d sleep but the scenery kept me wired! What a treat! 1st, it was blue skies and sunshine and 2nd, I totally forgot I’d be riding thru the Alps in Austria. It was captivating! Like being in the middle of the Omni Max, only it was real! Mountains on both sides, some tree lined, some beautifully snow topped. Sometimes there was a rolling fog that would creep out between the gaps of the mountains, sometimes we’d be in that fog and barely able to see anything, then the train would go a little higher and I’d see the fog just hover over the rivers and streams at the bottoms of the mountains. And sometimes those streams would run right along side of the train and I could watch it racing by. And of course scattered thru all of it were the darling chalet houses, villages and cows. What a 360 degree postcard!
The train was great also because the 1st class was separate private compartments again and they had huge windows plus mirrors at the top of both sides of the compartments. So I could sit and see the mountains behind me in the mirror and see the mountains in front of me in the windows. Plus, off the subject a bit but I had a great cup of pumpkin soup on that train too!
Then, before I knew it we were leaving the mountains in the dust and we were in Italy – unmistakably! The Italian architecture, tile roofs, the laundry hanging from the windows , vineyards – oh dear – I’d better find my Italian phrase cheat sheet!