Holiday Travel is Awesome, Part 3 (of 3): "Where the hell is the train?"

(This is part 3 of this story. See part 1 here and part 2 here.)

Here begins the the only fun part of the evening. Walking around Verona (yes, the same Verona where Romeo and Juliet were so unhappily in love) was quite lovely.

(Below) Shannon trying to enjoy streetlife in Verona, around 11pm on an icy December Sunday night.

(Above) Christmas tree, shuttered Christmas Market, and the old City Gate in Verona, Italy

The streets were decorated for Christmas, there was a public outdoor ice skating rink next to the giant Christmas tree, and a flashy lingerie store located immediately in front of the giant Roman amphitheater.

(Below) Verona: The 3rd Largest extant Roman Amphitheater (holds 20,000 people, still used today), next to a swanky lingerie store.

We would like to go back there in the daytime and/or summer. Unfortunately a sign at the train station that we only sort of understood (our Italian isn’t very good) seemed to warn that they would close the train station at midnight. How could they close the train station at midnight when a train was coming at 1am? Whatever, stranger things have happened, so we hustled back to the station.

At around 12:30 am the Caribinieri (Italian cops…but there are several different layers of Italian cops, and I think these are the lowest on the totem pole…somewhat like traffic cops) closed down the waiting room, kicking everyone out into the train platforms. It was interesting seeing another woman waiting for our train spend 10-15 minutes arguing with the Caribinieri about how they couldn’t just close down the station and make us wait in the cold. (They apparently could, and did.) I don’t think US cops would let someone argue like that…they’d just arrest her for disturbing the peace or something.

Oh well, we could wait 30 more minutes. There was another German train on the platform parked and waiting, whose sign said it was going to Innsbruck and then Munich, just like ours was supposed to. I tried to ask the conductor if this was our train, but no. Weird. This phantom train wasn’t even on the train schedule. Our train was delayed. And delayed. The new time came and went, and they didn’t bother putting up new delays on the board anymore (that would have required there still being employees at the station). There were some families with small kids waiting who were dressed worse than us, unprepared for the subfreezing weather.

We were so tired. We were so cold. I ran up and down the length of the train platform a few times in a pathetic attempt to get warm. The train didn’t come. The other train to Innsbruck was still waiting on the platform. Something strange was going on. I had a revelation: on our way to Istanbul on a previous trip, I knew our train split up at some point, with half the train going to Romania. Maybe this was the same thing, with this train waiting to join up with our nowhere-to-be-seen train. I tried asking the conductor in my foggily-remembered German (with the aid of plenty of hand gestures). “Werden dieses Zug und die anderen Zug zusammen sein?”

Ja?

I was right! “Können wir on dieses Zug warten? Es ist nicht so kalt.” Yes! We could at least wait on this other train, where it was much less cold!

I went out and tried to explain this (in German) to the others waiting for the train, especially the man with the 3 small underdressed children. Another man tried to talk to me in Italian, but I couldn’t explain, so he found a man who spoke both German and Italian to translate (welcome to the Tower of Babel). Everyone piled onto the second train to wait, cramming into the hallways and baggage areas. I can’t believe that the second train had been there for hours and no one else from the train had offered to us to wait onboard (it was only us left at the station) and that no one else waiting had tried to ask what I did.

Our train finally came, only 1.5 hours late (now 2:30 am). Finally, warmth and some sleep! Except not really. Our reserved couchette seats that we paid $50 extra for? “No, they are full,” reprimanded one stern German conductor. She didn’t bother explaining to us where we should go, just seemed annoyed that we had the temerity to want to use our own seats. There were some “regular” seats available in an unheated car, but those cabins (and their occupants) smelled too horrible. After standing around confused and tired for 30+ minutes, and seeing that no one from the train was going to offer us any direction, Shannon and I decided the least unpleasant option was to sit on our luggage in the overflow bicycle storage area. At least it was heated and didn’t smell bad. Welcome to life in steerage.

Shannon, in steerage at about 3 am.

Eventually the one friendly conductor (who I’d seen earlier arguing with the nasty female one about the need to find somewhere to put the family with 3 small children) found a few seats in a heated compartment (not our couchettes, mind you). I managed to get an hour or two of fitful sleep, though I don’t think Shannon did. I tried to set my alarm for what time I thought we would be at Innsbruck, but we had so many delays it was futile. Hopefully they would announce the stations. Nope. At one point I looked out and realized we had stopped at Innsbruck. Shit! Race to throw on shoes, grab luggage, and jump off the train before we ended up in Munich.

Helloooo, Innsbruck! The train station in Innsbruck had heated waiting rooms (even the bathrooms were heated!) and wi-fi available for free from a café. If we’d been stuck for hours at the Innsbruck station, life would have been much less unpleasant. We quickly walked to our hotel as the city woke up, getting there at 6:30 am, only 8.5 hours late. Looks like a nice town – we looked forward to exploring it eventually.

The lovely morning view of Innsbruck from in front of our hotel.

Three cheers for Innsbruck's Hotel Breinössl. Though their front desk had closed at 11:00pm, they left us a key (at this point they had re-opened for the morning, but we hadn’t expected that). The room was much nicer than we expected too. We showered, had our free hotel breakfast, and crashed.

By the time we got to Innsbruck, Meghan & Justin had already left for Vienna, so we didn’t get to meet up with them, but we would have been too exhausted to ski anyway. Sad. Maybe next year.

So, our misadventure by the numbers…

1 canceled flight

1 closed airport

1 delayed flight

2 canceled trains

3 delayed trains

2 hotels booked that we couldn’t use, in 2 different countries

2 couchette seats that we paid for but didn’t get (Deutsches Bahn, I’m coming after you!)

No Venice.

No visit with friends (which was most of the point of this trip!).

8+ hours spent waiting in subfreezing temperatures for trains that wouldn’t come.

Snow? Not that much snow, actually. Where is this big storm? We’ve only seen a few inches anywhere we’ve been.

On the plus side, Verona seemed nice. Oh and it sure is nice to finally be in Austria.

Happy Post-script: I’m writing this 24 hours later, and life is much improved. I much prefer being in Austria than traveling to Austria. After our morning nap, we had a nice stroll through some Christmas markets in the impossibly cute old town, drank hot mulled wine, and took in a Christmas concert at a local church. We had a really hard time staying warm all day…it was cold (about 20° F), but not that cold. I think all of our energy reserves were just shot. Today we slept in, and the sun is shining. Maybe we’ll do some skiing this week, but right now that sounds too cold. Happy update…we just found out the Venice Hotel did not charge us! Thanks, Ca’ San Giorgio! Please give them your business!

We expect to spend Christmas in Salzburg, trying to avoid any unnecessary train travel. We hope you’re all with the people that are important to you over the holidays! Frühe Weinachten!