Train travel

Santa Maria Novella Station, Florence

We have now completed our travel by train.  A few observations:

• Most comfortable seats - the Italo first class coach Venice-Florence
• Only place there was any security - Santa Maria Novella station, Florence
• Most interesting sight spotted - the Barilla pasta plant and IKEA distribution center in Parma
• Least inviting place for waiting - Venice (no chairs, only one cafe)
• Most complete station - Milano Centrale (well organized, full supermarket, metro station)
• Best waiting room - Valence TGV station (you have seats two stories above the tracks, where you can watch the high-speed trains go zipping by right underneath you)

our train pulling into Florence

business class, Florence to Milan

The trip from Italy to Spain

First Class Coach, SNCF TGV

French Alps

The most interesting thing we saw was at the border crossing between Italy and France.  The train was boarded in Italy by police officers (PAF Police aux Frontier) who announced they were checking passports.  As they came by us, when they saw the US passports, they waived us off and did not even open them.  But in front of us were a group of three blacks and two whites traveling together.  They were examining their passports with a magnifying glass, and asking questions.  When we got to France, the train was boarded by Duane officers (customs) who started asking people to identify their bags.  We expected to have to show them which were ours, but they called out a couple of names, then left.  We suspect that with the recent influx of refugees from both Libya (into Italy) and Syria (throughout Europe) that some borders are being more careful these days.  They did not pull the travelers off the train, so their passports must have passed muster.

The only notice when we crossed from France into Spain was that announcements were suddenly being done in Spanish, English and French.  (On the Milan high-speed SNCF TGV train, we had Italian, French & English; on the SNCF regional train from Chambery to Valence only French was spoken; and on the SNCF-RENFE TGV initially only French & Spanish.) 

vineyards south of Chambery

The tickets on the TGV "bullet" trains were in first class coaches, with assigned seats.  The short connection from Chambery was in second class, but it was still pretty good.  Our car had fold up seats at one end (with hooks overhead for holding bicycles) and racks for skis.  The route took us through some beautiful ski country, including a stop in  Grenoble.









Grenoble

the waiting room over the tracks, Valence TGV station

our train pulling into Valence TGV

It was after sunset when we reached the coast of the Mediterranean.  It had been gray and rainy, so the light level was low and it took a few minutes to realize we were seeing breaking waves.  A week earlier we would have had the advantage of daylight saving time and might have seen some of the coast.

We arrived on time in Barcelona, and got to our apartment before 9 p.m.   With help we got the bags up the two flights of stairs.  IKEA must be doing well here, too.  We recognized a number of pieces of furniture, plates, and silverware.  The apartment even has  a little patio...although we may not use it much since there is construction going on next door.