Day Thirteen
Alright, the jerks we had to share a room with were....well, they were jerks. I can ecuse them coming in at one in the morning and making the room smell like Smirnoff Ice, but the guttural burping and Loud Exit at 5:30 am are what pushed me over my I am amused/I am annoyed threshold.
ANYWAY, its off to Switzerland, the land of watches, pocketknives, cheese, and switzers, whatever those are. Actually today's entry has very little to do with switzerland, and more to do with riding trains. Lots and lots of trains. Oh, and boats! We got up from our tabacco-emanating hostel and went straight to the ferrey station on the Rhine. We get to ride FREE with our rail passes, woohoo! So Rob realizes that he wants to feel healthier by eating more fruit, etc. Stuff besides pastries, is he crazy? Off he goes and I wait by his bag. Six minutes is plenty of time to go and buy some fruit before the Only Ferrey Of The Day leaves isn't it? It seemed like a good idea at the time. Five minutes. Four Minutes. Where is he? The lady is looking at me and pointing at her watch, which is apparently German for "Where's your friend? We won't wait for you." I shrug, which is American for "Shut up, I am working on it." Two minutes. Wait, what happened to three, that's not fair! One and a half.....there he is at the end of the close! He's sprinting! Just in time. Wow, that was almost another missed ferry (we had intended to leave yesterday).
Three hours on the ferrey. We were the only people under fifty, besides the guys playing accordian and sax. I fell asleep four times. Nice.
Then the trains. Not much interesting here, except that during our hour-long transfer in Stuttgart Rob was feeling "cold", which is not a good omen considering what a nice day it was. He got some Cocoa, and I got a croissant and what looked like a juice box labeled "Apple T". It turned out to be tepid artificially flavored sugar water with tea extract. Gross. Tossed it.
And this was the best part of the day: in between Stuttgart and Zurich, a uniformed man approached us on the train and said something in German. Rob asked him, in dutch, if he spoke English (figure that one out). He didn't speak a word of English. Kindly middle-aged German couple to the recue! They translated: "would you like to consume something?" D'oh! We had satt down in the dining car by mistake, and to make matters worse I had covered our little table in brochure clippings with which I was making my own postcard. We declined consuming something, and started gathering up our stuff. The couple asked us if they could buy us something, and we politley declined. They insisted. Well, alright then. I had some fizzy water and Rob had some not fizzy water. We talked to the couple for a while. Wow, free drinks. What a country.
One more transfer. Swiss franks from ATM. Hostel.
ANYWAY, its off to Switzerland, the land of watches, pocketknives, cheese, and switzers, whatever those are. Actually today's entry has very little to do with switzerland, and more to do with riding trains. Lots and lots of trains. Oh, and boats! We got up from our tabacco-emanating hostel and went straight to the ferrey station on the Rhine. We get to ride FREE with our rail passes, woohoo! So Rob realizes that he wants to feel healthier by eating more fruit, etc. Stuff besides pastries, is he crazy? Off he goes and I wait by his bag. Six minutes is plenty of time to go and buy some fruit before the Only Ferrey Of The Day leaves isn't it? It seemed like a good idea at the time. Five minutes. Four Minutes. Where is he? The lady is looking at me and pointing at her watch, which is apparently German for "Where's your friend? We won't wait for you." I shrug, which is American for "Shut up, I am working on it." Two minutes. Wait, what happened to three, that's not fair! One and a half.....there he is at the end of the close! He's sprinting! Just in time. Wow, that was almost another missed ferry (we had intended to leave yesterday).
Three hours on the ferrey. We were the only people under fifty, besides the guys playing accordian and sax. I fell asleep four times. Nice.
Then the trains. Not much interesting here, except that during our hour-long transfer in Stuttgart Rob was feeling "cold", which is not a good omen considering what a nice day it was. He got some Cocoa, and I got a croissant and what looked like a juice box labeled "Apple T". It turned out to be tepid artificially flavored sugar water with tea extract. Gross. Tossed it.
And this was the best part of the day: in between Stuttgart and Zurich, a uniformed man approached us on the train and said something in German. Rob asked him, in dutch, if he spoke English (figure that one out). He didn't speak a word of English. Kindly middle-aged German couple to the recue! They translated: "would you like to consume something?" D'oh! We had satt down in the dining car by mistake, and to make matters worse I had covered our little table in brochure clippings with which I was making my own postcard. We declined consuming something, and started gathering up our stuff. The couple asked us if they could buy us something, and we politley declined. They insisted. Well, alright then. I had some fizzy water and Rob had some not fizzy water. We talked to the couple for a while. Wow, free drinks. What a country.
One more transfer. Swiss franks from ATM. Hostel.
posted by T.R. at 8:53 AM
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