Train trips

For all the tales of Europe's efficient train system, I was surprised at the diffficulty of figuring out how to travel long distances, how long it takes to travel, and the fact that it costs an arm and a leg. Flying is definitely the way to go. Less flexible, but cheaper and faster. My train experiences in Germany have been good. When they say they will arrive at 2:00, they are on the money or even sooner. When they say they leave at 6:28, you can bet that at 6:29 that train has left the station.

However, as I'm just now finding out, international travel is a whole new can of worms. I left Stuttgart on a night train to Milan last night. I figured if it's a night train going a long distance, it must be a newer one. Not so, the train was more ghetto than I had feared and complete with a complement of suspect characters. Fortunately, there were many cars and few passengers so I was able to claim a six-seat cabin to myself and tried to get some sleep. At 2am, we crossed the border between Germany and Italy. I know this because customs agents stormed the train with flashlights, yelling for passports. At 4:30am, a police squad with a german shepherd passed through every cabin looking for drugs. At 6am the customs agents swept through again. I did not try to go back to sleep.

In Italy, the trains make an attempt to follow the schedule, but there are inevitable delays. Between Milan and Nice, I change trains twice in small Italian towns. My first connection gave me 25 minutes between trains, but the arriving train was 19 minutes late. I had to run as fast as I could, laden as I was, to check which track to go to and then to make it there. That took me five minutes, and the train left five minutes late anyway. Which brings me to my current problem: Right now, I am on a train that left five minutes late, headed for a connection that only originally gave me nine minutes. If this train makes regular speed, without delay, that gives me only four minutes to make the connection. If the next train leaves late, I'm safe. If this train doesn't make it in time, I'm in trouble.

I made plans. Tonight I will be in Nice. In two days I will go to Rome. My train travel days have been carefully allotted to take me where I need to go without leeway. I like to have plans, and I like to have backup plans. But here there is no backup. This is the last train to Nice tonight (a three hour trip), and I don't have a ticket travel day to spare for tomorrow. My ticket from Nice to Rome has been bought and paid for. I hate the uncertainty. I might be stuck in a rural Italian town at the base of the Alps, far off the beaten tourist track. I might have to find a bus or something to take me the rest of the way. Or I might find myself walking blindly around in the dark in just a few hours. Well, I'll have to get to Nice one way or another.