The day after the Grand Prix we left Eddie and Ellen in Bergamo (they were heading off to Florence via Milan) as we were off to Venice. We had really only planned ahead as far as the Grand Prix in terms of our accomodation and the place that Ed and Ellen had stayed at when they were there was booked out. This meant we would have to take our chances when we got there. We were a bit concerned as both our guide books said cheap accommodation there is hard to find. The train had to cross over a large bridge [View Full Entry]

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We decided to catch a train into Italy from Lucern rather than going backwards to Zurich. This meant we had to change trains at a little place called Arth Goldau. While there was a timetabled connection of 4 minutes, we thought we would play it safe and catch the train before. However we needn't have worried. Switzerland appears to have excellent timetabling with the local train getting in 4 minutes before the international train and departing another 4 minutes after (so stopping for 8 minutes). This gives plenty of time for people to change to and from the international train without [View Full Entry]

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Rather than go back to Zurich to catch the train to Milan we decided we would instead head out to Lucern which was also nearby. Lucern also has a large lake and a river and two old medieval wooden roofed bridges which cross the river with old paintings above it. Lucern also has some remaining fortifications located above the river which we went for a short walk along before walking back to the station to catch the train to Milan. [View Full Entry]

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The train ride from Munich into Zurich was another comfortable and pleasent trip typical of all our experiences on German trains. However, when we went to eat at the on-board dining car we found the prices of the meals to be unusually expensive which was a sign of things to come in Switzerland. When we went to prebook our accommodation for Zurich we found everything to be very expenisve. Oddly we found there to be no cheaper hostel type places in the city centre, only luxury hotels. This may have something to do with Zurich being a major financial centre rather [View Full Entry]

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The train trip from Salzburg to Munich should have been straight forward as the two cities are not very far apart and there were many trains going between them. However, when we boarded our train we went one stop to the German border before the train terminated and we thought we would have to catch a bus as we recalled seeing something about a bus on the destination sign back at Salzburg station. However, we couldn't find when the bus for Munich departed from and when we asked at the border station the person said it would not be covered under [View Full Entry]

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We left Ljubljana relatively early in the morning (for us) so that we wouldn't arrive too late in Salzburg as we only had the one night there. Unfortunately as we neared Salzburg HBF (station) the weather started to change and as we got out at the station we noticed it was a lot colder than when we boarded in Ljubljana. Salzburg HBF was quite a large station and was a bit like a maze with walkways going everywhere. There was a main concourse on one side, subways underneath with a pedestrian area in the middle with terminus platforms at either end [View Full Entry]

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The train trip to Ljubljana was quite short and we had a compartment to ourselves, which made it quite a pleasent trip. When we were interupted by the border control people, we got the Slovenian stamp which showed that we were now back in the EU. Again we had not booked any accommodation in Ljubljana before we arrived as everything on the internet looked either too expensive or too far away from the city centre so we decided to again try our luck with tourist information at the station. But before we did that we were expecting to have to change [View Full Entry]

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Leaving Split for Zagreb we got to do something we hadn't done for over a week - catch a train! After a lot of recent travel on buses, it was good to be back on the trains with the freedom to stretch our legs. The train from Split to Zagreb was only a short two carriage train, but it looked like a modern high speed train rather than the older looking trains we saw in Bosnia and Serbia, and best of all it had air conditioning that worked! Also, rather than have a dining car like the luxurious German and Austrian [View Full Entry]

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Our full day in Split started by paying a visit to some Roman ruins nearby at the former settlement of Salona. It was very hot out there with little shade, but it was quite interesting seeing the remains of the amphitheatre and some other buildings. After catching the bus back to Split we explore the basement level of the former Diocletian palace. Whilst the above ground levels have long since been demolished and replaced with more recent buildings, the basement level still exists beneath the old town. It was fun walking around all the underground rooms. The above ground area of [View Full Entry]

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We had been planning to travel to the island of Hvar by ferry from Dubrovnik, however when we asked about the ferry we found out it only went two days a week and the day we wished to travel was not one of them. This meant another long bus trip instead, direct to Split! This bus trip took about 4.5 hours and involved travelling up some long, winding and narrow sections of road. At one stage we had to stop whilst another vehicle coming the other way down the hill had to reverse so we could get past. Coming off the [View Full Entry]

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