(My scanner isn't cooperating at the moment, so it may be tomorrow before I get the day's photos uploaded ...)
Sunday, March 16:
Our last day in Venice. This was our favorite city out of all the places we went. It came at the perfect time in our itinerary—after the chaos of Rome and the non-stop sightseeing in Florence, and before the hustle and bustle of Paris. It was so relaxing and quiet and we loved it. Our train for Paris didn’t leave until 8 p.m. (a night train, we had a sleeping compartment, more on that later) so we checked out and left our luggage at the hotel. We shopped for some souvenirs, ate lunch at our favorite restaurant (we'd had dinner there a couple of nights before) and just savored our last few hours of Venice. Finally, we headed for the train station to catch our train. We got there at about 7, and the train was already there so we were allowed to board early.
Our compartment was interesting—very small but definitely better than trying to sleep upright in a chair. There was a small bench with room for both of us to sit, plus a sink and mirror, a rack to hang clothes on, and two bunks on top for sleeping.
In the photo at right, Bobby's hand is resting on the sink, which had a cover so you could also use it as a small table. The bunk pictured on the left is above his head in the photo on right. There was another bunk above where you see the clothes hanging.
It was neat though—the car attendant brought us drinks, we were able to brush our teeth, change into pj’s, and enjoy the ride. Of course this train seemed to rock and lurch more than any other we rode, so we woke up a lot throughout the night. That was OK with me, because every time I woke up, I would climb off my bunk to look out the window and see if I could see anything new ... there was a full moon so we were able to see a lot, even in the dark. (To this day, whenever I look out a window and see a bright full moon, I think of Europe and this train ride.) We think our route took us through the southern part of Switzerland—lots of tunnels and mountains. In the morning we watched the sun rise over the French countryside while our car attendant brought us croissants, coffee, and orange juice. Ahh, the life. We arrived in Paris at about 7:30 a.m.
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