Day 6 Trains ain't trains

Today marked the start of our two week Eurail pass that means we can travel First Class anywhere across 18 countries for $A 600 . We start our journey at 9.18am and head south.  Our first change after about 30 minutes goes almost to plan. We have 6 minutes to change platforms and although we get lost for a little while and head the wrong way we quickly realize our mistake  and make the train with at least a couple of minutes to spare. This train trip lasts for about three hours and takes us from the middle of Switzerland to Milan in Italy. The scenery on this trip is picture postcard perfect- as the train snakes its way through valleys flanked by enormous mountains  covered in snow. Blue lakes and brown chalets are the only interruption to the white of the snow. At the end of each valley you wonder where the train can go next, and the answer each time is through the mountain as tunnels of 5, 10 and 20 minutes take us to the next valley. For the second time on our trip  we climb higher than the clouds and again glorious bright sunshine is somewhat of a surprise.

At Milan we again change trains and Richard is distracted trying to find an ATM ( as we need Euros now not Swiss Francs), and we board what we think is a one-hour train to Bologna. The sign on the platform says Bologna but on the train we start to have our doubts. Firstly the carriage is filled with young partygoers who we guess are returning from Milan’s new years eve celebrations. Secondly we hear the conductor announce the stops and there are a many before Bologna. We belatedly realize that instead of catching the sleek intercity train to Bologna we are on a grotty 3 hour local train.

Train travel in Europe is almost foolproof.