Author: Bill

Arrived after a 5 hour train ride from Munich.   Ubered to the apartment.  In the old town of Prague, the walking section again.   We managed to get into it without any issues.   Made a quick walk after unpacking some things, over to Fat  Cat Old Town for burgers, Quesadilla and a flat bread pizza.

Walked back home and set out for a couple grocery stores to pickup some food for the next few nights.

After a bit of relaxing I headed out to the old town square to take a few pics of the Celestial Clock and the high steeple church across from it while the sun was shining on the western parts of the buildings.

 

 

While there I saw a small booth selling some good looking street food so I headed over.   Got a small order of Hulu$ky  and Old Prague Ham,   Both were delicious.   They had Klobasa but it looked more like a big Hebrew National hot dog than Kielbasa I’ve had in the US.

 

 

The next morning we headed back to that clock and then Kathy and I went over to the Synagoge for a bit and caught a bus toward the Prague castle.   Sort of wish I did a bit more research before climbing a very long and steep set of stairs up to the top.   About 3/4 the way up while pausing to catch our breath I got a text from Scott about the tough climb.   I then started looking at G maps to see if there was a better way down when we were finished as going down these was nothing something either of us wanted to do unless it was the only way.  I found a side gate all the way on the other side of the castle that looked to have a tram stop at around the same height as the castle grounds that we could use to get back to the river.  After lunch on the castle grounds we took the tram back to the other side of the river.  I sure wish I had come up that way too.

The last full day we headed out to find breakfast and after one stop decided to move on to find another which turned out to be closing due to their power being out.   Kathy found us the next spot to try which turned out to be very good.  Scott and I had a great omelet there, and the ladies chose pancakes which no one complained.    Scott & Tami left to go back to the room while we talked to the folks at our next table who were from Chicago but currently were living in London for the last two years with their two young children.   One of them had a grandmother that lived in San Diego.    We left a few minutes later and took a tram that was across the street over to the Rotating Kafka head.   We didn’t stick around to watch the head rotate on its schedule as there were fairly dark clouds moving our way.   We walked back over to the tram to get back to the Charles Bridge quickly.   The tram stop was quite a ways from the bridge and when we got off it started to sprinkle a little bit.  We headed over to the river to walk along it on the way back to the bridge.   It started to rain a bit harder and I spotted a scaffold about 100 meters ahead that covered the sidewalk just prior to getting to the rivers edge.   As we got to it the heavens let loose a torrent of wind and rain.  Phew!   We watched a lot of folks get caught in that squall without a raincoat or umbrella.  Although one older woman’s umbrella got turned inside out and it was toast but she didn’t grok that and she kept trying to fix it.  (that was hopeless)   We stood under that cover for at least 15 minutes of hard rain.   While there I could see a roof or something over by the river which was maybe another hundred meters.   I checked G maps and it turned out to be a restaurant  right on the water.  The rain started diminishing and we “be-lined” for it.   I was a really nice looking restaurant on a barge or something similar.   We got a table next to the wall of windows to have some more coffee while we watched the boats travel up and down the river.  We had a good view from there of the Charles Bridge.   Since it was a close to a couple hours after breakfast we decided to have something, that turned out to be a chocolate tort and ice cream for lunch.   They told us it would take about 10 minutes to bake the tort.   It was a very nice wait while having coffee right on the water with a wall of windows probably 30 meters long next to our table.   Our waiter told us the wall of windows are really doors and open up during nice weather, and also the roof had the same feature.   I was glad they didn’t leak in the rain.   We spent a long time at the restaurant while it kept raining (not torrents now, just a little more than a drizzle.)  We left after the rain stopped and started walking along the river path, dodging a lot of deep puddles due to poor grading.   When we got back to the bridge it was jam packed and we decided to skip the throng of people on it.  Its and old bridge that is now only for pedestrians and it was literally wall to wall with tourists.   We headed back to the apartment

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Around 5pm we started talking about getting dinner as the small tort for lunch was a long time ago.   We chose a Thai place that didn’t disappoint.   Afterward we headed back to the apartment to start packing as we have a 10:30am 4+ hour train ride to Berlin in the morning.

 

Apartment were fairly close to the train station, short tram ride.  Found the App to ride trams the trams and buses all around the city of Munich.   Stayed at the Nena Apartment house, nice 6 story very new building.    Just after checking in we headed out for food.  We found a small French Restaurant about a block up the street for a late lunch.   Very good food, but we all bought entrees off the specials board that had no prices.  Everything was quite a bit more than what had been on the menu’s we had.  Live and learn.

That first evening the fire alarm went off in the building and it took hours for someone to shut it off.  I had to call the property managers to get something to happen.   We went on a walk to get away from the noise.   After being gone for some time we could see it was still going off by the flashing light on the front of the building.

Turkish Bakery diagonally across the street.  Had the best Burek I’ve ever had.   We stopped there pretty often on the way back to the apartment to pick up sandwiches, pizza slices or Burek a few of the days we were in Munich.

We headed out one morning to get coffee in the square across from the Glockenspiel building.  Its quite a cool thing to watch, and goes on for about 10 minutes with a large crowd.    After it was over we made our way to the Hofbrauhaus for beer and lunch.  (Pretzel).

 

Took train to Dachau then a bus over to the Memorial in the concentration camp.   There were a few ovens still standing next to the gas chamber.  It was a somber reminder of what a dictator is capable of.   I left there wondering what might happen at home now that there is so much happening that seems a lot like the lead up to 1930’s Germany.

Japanese restaurant just down the street just outside the mall was very very good.  The service was really fast and the food was very tasty.

Took a morning train from the main station to Prague mid morning.   It was another 5 hours train ride.  But fairly comfortable.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived in Salzburg Hbf and I called an Uber.   (the taxi in Vienna was a rip off charging double what Uber and bolt said it would cost)   It was about a 15 minute ride to the hotel which was on the outskirts of the city.

We checked in.   they told us that part of the city room tax paid for transit passes by the guy behind desk.  It was  for all public transit in Salzburg. Wow.  We were informed at checking that Breakfast was €20 unless you ordered it the night before, then it was €15.    We took advantage of the €15 deal for the first day to see if it was worth it.  It was decent so we stuck with that for the rest of the time in Salzburg.   There were a lot of restaurants nearby but they didn’t open till after 8 or 9am, a bit late when you have a tendency to wake up around 6am each morning and needed a jolt of coffee to wake up.

We found out that the free transit was a recent change in Salzburg, having your room tax pays for free access to all public transit the whole time you stay in Salzburg!   We took advantage of that!  Many times

We stumbled upon Mozart’s birth place, on our walk to the castle/fortress.  It was mobbed so we go away from there a quick as we could.   We found a huge square with lots of building surrounding it with a spectacular view of the fortress on the cliff.   We headed over toward the Funicular to take us up to Fortress Hohensalzburg  Amazing views from up there.  It really had a commanding view of the whole valley from inside the fortress.   It looked huge on top of that small mountain but when you walked around it, it wasn’t nearly as large as it looked from the bottom of the hill down by the river.   We spent a couple hours wandering around up there.   Great views in all directions.

We then took the funicular down to find somewhere for lunch, preferably inside as it was lightly raining when we got out of that.   I located 220Grad, it looked too newish but  was pretty good.  Although the place next door looked much nicer to me there was no availability for inside seating, only outside at that time.   We found a chocolate shop on the way back toward the river and the gals bought some and shared with us.  I was really good.

Early the next morning Scott and I took a trip to see the Eagles Nest,   a few buses to get there,  which was supposedly only 30 clicks away.  It seemed a lot further when we finally got there a couple of hours later.  Bus from hotel to train station, then find Bus 840 to Berchtesgaden,  then find bus 838 to Obersalzburg, then wonder over to another station to buy tickets and then onto an Electric bus that took us up the mountain to a parking lot in front of a long walking tunnel thorough the mountains core that lead to an Elevator that took us up to the Eagles Nest perched on top of the mountain.

What a place on top of that mountain.  Scott had us toast Easy Company from the 101st airborne division for liberating it.  (He never watched Band of Brothers!)  We spent a good couple of hours up there drinking beer and taking pictures.    We had to reverse the process to get back down.  And when finally back in Bertchesgarten we got on bus 840, but going south instead of north.  oops, took an extra 45 minutes to get back to Salzburg.

The next morning a Marathon messed up traffic getting to town and it (the bus) left us off far from the stop it should have.   A lot of the roads were closed for a marathon that morning.  We got off and I had to figure out how to get from there to the river via google maps.   As we walked up this narrow lane we stumbled upon Tami &Scott coming out of church right in front of us as we walked toward the river.  They had left an hour or two earlier and I thought they were on the other side of that river after getting a text from them a few minutes prior.   We had been planning on going to an Outdoor Concert, but it was canceled due to rain.   We walked over the the Big Cathedral and they all went into it to take a few pics.  By this time I was church-ed out..

Dinner at Schlemmerkuchl  just a short walk from the hotel down a small residential street for last night in Salzburg, it was amazing!

 

 

We left Budapest on a Railjet train from Keleti Station.  And we were due for some, luck it was there an hour early so we could board, stow our luggage and enjoy comfortable seating while we waited to leave Budapest for Vienna.   For this trip we booked in Business Class, which was one step higher than or usual 1st class seats, for an extra €9.  And they were very fine indeed.   Instead of being right across from your seat mate, you were staggered giving everyone a lot more legroom.   That was very nice feature,  we have these booked from Vienna to Salzburg and from there to Munich four days later.  From Munich we  are back on EC type trains that are no where near as comfortable.

Tami &Scott booked a separate place in Vienna as their son Chas was in town, we booked a place that turned out to be about as bad as it could get.   The room was the size of a closet,  a small closet.  In order to sleep on the bed, the far person would have to climb over you.  There was no other way to get to that side of the bed.  This was nothing like the pictures of the room we booked.   To add to the ambiance there was a very noisy macerator placed just behind the toilet bowl that turned on as you flushed.  Also, the place seemed like a fire trap,  it was like a maze to get to the rooms, must have been 15 doors to go thru to get to the elevator and a few more doors to find the room.  If there had been a fire in the night, I’m pretty sure there would be no chance of finding the stairs in the smoke, I looked for them but was unable to find which door they were with the lights on and no smoke!   I started calling around and after a couple hours found another place for the 4 nights in Vienna and we Uber’d over there.  For the same exact money we got a very nice hotel room about 5 times the size (a normal budget room)  with a very nice bathroom and a shower about as large as ours at home.  (5’x5′)  It was also right next to a Tram stop.   The folks from the prior place would not give me my money back.   I am going to leave reviews of them everywhere I can,  I felt like I was defrauded by their fake pictures.

While working on finding a new place to stay I found a highly rated Mexican joint and we walked over and had dinner.  We were pleasantly surprised by the food.  Reminded us a bit of Chipotle back home.  On the walk over I spotted a hotel that wasn’t on the google map for hotels.  It was called the Orient Hotel.   I walked inside and it was an odd looking older hotel, lots of red velvet.  I asked the guy over in the corner if it was a hotel and he said it was a “special” hotel, they only rented rooms for 3 hours at a time.

Tue Next day we had great Goulash at a small sidewalk cafe a short tram ride from the hotel and later for dinner we found a Chinese joint that was really good.  I had to figure out how the public transit worked in this new city.  They don’t have tap 2 pay here yet.  Each train has a ticket machine at in one of the front tram cars.   It worked well, but was a bit difficult to use as the tram is moving by the time you find it.  There was a button for English and 2 senior tickets were €3 for your trip and most of the time the machine let you tap your card to pay.  (tickets were only good for one direction of travel)  not for a certain amount of time like in other cities.   After doing the ticket machine a bunch of times I decided to give the Phone App a try, it was much simpler and you could get the tickets prior to boarding so it was was easier to do right there at the stop while waiting for the next tram to arrive.  (there were a lot of trams, they arrived never more than 6 minutes apart)

Wed, we took the tram down to the center of town and wandered around the palaces and gardens till lunch time and then hit up a place I had wanted to go since seeing a video of it probably 25 years ago.   The City Center Cafe.  It did not disappoint.   Quite a beautiful place and the food was excellent too.  Our waiter seemed to be able to read our minds too, no small feat,  I cannot remember that ever happening before, anywhere.

We had tickets to a concert in the Musikverein (Vienna Music Society) which turned out to be very odd.   There were two sections to the building and we were in a smaller venue with a small band, maybe 7 pieces.   It started out great but after 15 minutes they stopped and left taking their instruments.  About 10 minutes later more performers came out than there were before and also a woman without an instrument.  Turned out she was going to read us a book while the band looked on.  Occasionally she would stop and the band would play 15-20 seconds of music and then she would start again.  I have no idea what she was telling us, just a lot of guttural utterances.   We took off at intermission, which didn’t come quickly enough.

Thurs, we laid low today and snuck out for lunch to an amazing little Viennese joint.   We got the mixed grill plate to share and I was shocked how much food they brought.   We had a lot of leftovers, but no fridge to bring it all back to.

Friday morning we packed up and hopped on the tram toward the Rennweg tram stop, got off and  walked about 100 yards over to find the connecting tram stop.   I thought the R3 was another tram or bus, but when we got to that tram stop I could see on schedule for that stop there wasn’t a R3 or similarly numbered tram or bus on the sign,  rechecking G maps I could see I was not exactly in the correct place, very very close, but not quite on it.  We had to backtrack a 100 feet and found a walkway that led to the entrance (completely unmarked) of a Metro station (Subway).   We fumbled around to figure out what platform by watching what direction the trains were going.    Then an R1 train pulled in and I checked on the schedule,  it too went to the Central Vienna Station and we jumped on.  Kathy barely in tow.

We arrived a few minutes later and proceeded to take a myriad of lifts and elevators to find platform 7.   We were a bit early so stopped at a cafe inside the station and I drank a Cafe Americano. (the closest thing to Coffee from home)

We met Tami and Scott up on the platform were the mentioned they were in coach 37 (we were in coach 27) I asked if he was sure as earlier in the morning when I looked up the train configuration online there wasn’t a coach 37 listed.  But there was a sign on the platform showing a coach 37.   When the train pulled into the station we could see there wasn’t a coach 37.   Luckily about 15 minutes later they added a bunch of other cars (another #27) and they were told that 27 was really 37 on the new additions so they got on for the 3 hour trip to Salzburg.

 

 

Arrived by bus Thursday late afternoon, it was long and fairly uncomfortable and to make things so much better with some women yelling at her phone (on speaker no less) most of the 4.5 hour ride.    When you’re 6’5″ tall riding the bus truly sucks..

 

Took a Tram most of the way to the apartment then hopped on a bus right there that took us to within ~100 feet of our apartment doorway.   Little did I know then that there was a bus stop right in front of our door to the building.  We figured that out the next day.

We went out for dinner that first night and found Kismezo right around the corner.  I had a great Goulash that was more like soup than what I was used to.  But it was great.

Friday morning we had tickets for a guided tour of the Hungarian Parliament building.  Wow was that a nice building.   It was a great tour.

Then we headed over to the Funicular to see the city from higher up and check out the castle that is there.   Long line for the Funicular, and its a short ride up.  And it was about ~$30 for the 2 of us.  Not exactly a bargain for a few minute ride.  Especially considering folks over 60 ride all public transit for Free in Budapest!  The funicular isn’t public transit apparently.

After the funicular we took a tram over to a Goulash restaurant that had a lot of good reviews.  It wasn’t nearly as good as the prior evenings Goulash.   There was way more potato than there was meat in it.

That evening we headed over to the Ruin Bars for a drink then walked back toward the apartment looking for a place to eat.  Quite an interesting joint those ruin bars.   I thought it was a bunch of bars in the area, but instead ita a bunch of bars inside a bombed out building.   We had a beer and a Aperol  Spritz.  We ended up at a Greek joint on the walk home,  I had a Giro Plate and Kathy got a Falafal Plate.    After we finished we walked the rest of the way back to the apartment which was just a couple more blocks.

We ended up back at Kismezo for lunch on Saturday.  Kathy had a burger and I had the goulash again.

Saturday evening we booked an after sunset one hour cruise on the Danube to view the city lights after dark.   It did not disappoint!   The skyline at night is gorgeous and the Parliament building is the gemstone on the river.

We found that Taxi’s here in Budapest are pretty cheap.   Only cost us $8 from the waterfront to our apartment.  And it was the same rate for any size vehicle including a 6 passenger van.  The app to use here is called Bolt.  Uber is quite a bit more expensive to use here than bolt we stuck with that while in Budapest.  They probably just mark up the regular rate that bolt charges for their cut.

 

 

 

Tram right outside the station went directly to the plaza where our apartment was located.  One of our easiest transfers so far.

Lots of stairs to get up to the elevator.  UGH.  When you filter on apartments for elevator to upper floors in the booking.com app I never expected a 32′ climb to the elevator from the ground floor.    We had something similar in Chur Switzerland.

We wandered down to a Ramen place on the other side of the square with great ratings but they were full and we hadn’t made reservations.   The next night we walked over and had one of our best meals.  That first night Kathy and I went to a pancake restaurant just a few hundred meters in the other direction.  It was mobbed, but we were able to score seats right away as a couple got up as we were walking in.

Pancakes for dinner were amazing

 

 

Huge outdoor market right behind our room.   Then underneath that was a meat and bakery market, huge.   Coffee at a bar with everyone drinking beer at 7am..   And that Croissant with bacon bits on the top, was over the top tasty.

Walking tour with Darko was great, he really made the city come alive.  The witch catcher was nothing I had seen before. And the cannon blast was a bit out of the ordinary.   The view up by that was pretty nice.

 

Took the tram to the bus station not far past the train station.   Bus ride from hell to Budapest was next.

 

Th

We arrived at the Slovenia train station after taking the 12:52 IC train from Trieste in first class seats that were closer to second class than the first class seats we had gotten accustomed too.  Wondering if this will be the norm from now on.   After getting off we found a taxi that got us to the walking area of the old town.  Then a short “slog” to our hotel called Kollman Rooms which turned out to be a walk-up, lots of old wooden steps that were not level.   The rooms were very modern inside but the but the building was pretty old (like everywhere else we’ve been so far on this trip.

Julija  Restaurant one block from the river and our hotel.  I had Goulash, Kathy had the Duck.  Both were superb.

Joe Peña’s Cantina y Bar for lunch the next day with Tami’s friends who are living and working in Ljubljana for their church.  The Fajitas were very good.  But not spicy, bring your own favorite hot sauce with you to Europe.  Nothing so far has had anything that could remotely be called hot or spicy.

That evening we had Burgers for dinner and somehow found a real gelatto place (with the covers) about 500 meters down the river from our hotel.

This is truly a walking town,  no cars are allowed in the old town walking area.  Which is a fairly large place.

It rained most of the time we were here.

We were getting ready to check out after paying for late checkout and I happened to notice the walking area electric cart parked next door to hour hotel.   I quickly ran outside to ask the driver if he could take us to the tain station, he said what I thought was Yes.   I ran back in, told Tami and Scott and asked them to stall him while we got our luggage and brought them down all the stairs to the ground floor.   He waited, took our baggage, loaded it on top of T&S’s and we climbed aboard and off we went.   I wasn’t really sure where he would actually take us as I wasn’t sure he really understood what I was asking.   That Walking area ride service driver took us all the to the train station on a very rainy day.  That really ended our stay in Ljubljana on a high note!

 

Walked less than a hundred meters from the train station to our B&B Hotel.  Pretty nice for such an inexpensive hotel.  That was very nice as we were schlepping our bags.

Had a walking tour setup for 2pm, a couple hours after arriving.  Not the best plan but we did it anyway.   Trieste isn’t a large city, but it sure does have a complicated history.   Lots of lovely buildings and waterfront.  The buses are aw-sum but the drivers think the gas pedal is just on and off…  no finesse at all.  herky jerky while you are trying to tap your credit card to pay.

Kathy slept and rested most of the first and second days there.   (smart)  When the 3 of us got back from the walking tour we were exhausted. (don’t get old)  That evening I found a small Italian Trattoria with great reviews just a few hundred meters from our hotel.    It turned out to be the best dinner so far (one month already in Italy) and we’ve had a lot of excellent meals here.    It may have had something to do with the two big glasses of wine or beers.  Not sure.   Its called Salsapariglia Italian Ristorantino – Trieste Restaurant if you ever get to Trieste.  Small place and you probably need reservations.  (we did as it was Friday night)

Saturday, Kathy and I bused down to the center of town for lunch and afterward I took the Tram di Opicina (old tram up to the town of Opicina, steep climb that uses a pusher tractor on the steepest part, closest to downtown.)   Its crowded and uses Tap 2 Pay.  ~$1.70 each way depending on exchange rate.  Its got history if you want to read about it.   I took the bus down as it was uncrowded and had Air Conditioning .

The next morning our checkout was unusually late for Italy, noon!  Our train leaves just before one pm so kind of perfect.  But we do get to Ljubljana close to 4pm.

 

Arrived at Santa Lucia train station on a Frecca from Verona and started looking around for the #1 Vaperetto to get to the apartment.   On our way to the ticket booth we were stopped by the Policia and asked for our tax payment paperwork to be on the island.  We told them we had rooms and had already paid.   They said fine, not even waiting for us to find the email that was sent to us to prove the taxes were paid.     We found the ticket office and it was 9.5 Euros each for 75 minutes on the “bus”.     After getting the tickets we walked over to the Dock E, a short way to the platform to get on the next “bus’.   At the validation machine on land there were a few guys trying to look official with lanyards and some white card with something written on them.  They grabbed our tickets and validated them and then grabbed our luggage and rolled it onto the dock.  Then the clowns came to me and showed me a receipt for 50 Euros and said we had to pay for our luggage.   I called their bluff when I stood up saying lets get the policia to straighten this out.   As I walked out behind them up the gangway, one guy turned to me and said, Never-mind and they all walked away.   A few moments later when I turned back around after getting back on the platform they were all gone, no where to be seen.   No an auspicious start to our stay in Venice.

Got on the next Vaporetto and with in minutes it took us to our stop.  We walked off and went down a very narrow alley out to one of the larger streets and maybe 100 yards to the right, I stopped to determine where the door to the apartment was.  Then I guy standing there asked if I was william…  He lead us to the room and explained everything we needed to know.   This place even had a washing machine, GREAT!   We were tired of washing clothes in sinks when a laundromat wasn’t convenient.  (which was a lot of places)

Anyway, this is one of the nicest apartments yet.  We are on the 6th floor, but no real view to speak of.  Nice elevator were all four of us could fit in at once (not many of those. (Only 2 if you had luggage)   The bedrooms were Miniature with that capital M…   It had a nice living room and small kitchen,  but as we are finding almost everywhere, no Microwave.  So far, only the apartment in Genoa had a Micro.   There seemed to be plenty of outlets in the kitchens.  But not many in all the other rooms.  I think the standard in the us is an outlet every 6 feet,  I think in Italy, its maybe every 20 feet, if there is a standard.

First afternoon walked over to the Rialto Bridge, it was mobbed as expected.   Went back to the room for a nap.  Later went out for dinner as a small fish place, but none of us had fish.  The pasta was very good though.

Second day we left early for St Marks Square.   Not very crowded.  Saw the Bridge of Sighs again.  Then they went into St Marks church.  (I was church-ed out by then)   I walked over to the bell tower as there wasn’t much of a line.  But I wasn’t planning on going up into it as I assumed it was a zillion stairs up.   When I asked how many steps up, they replied no stairs,  they only allow folks on the elevator..  YEAH!!   I ran over to the ticket line, of about 6 people and within minutes I was whisked to the top.  What a view of Venice and the surrounding islands.  So glad I asked.  The rest of the day we just wondered around the alleys and canals.   On the first afternoon we took a Service Gondola to get back across the Grand Canal where our apartment was located.  Talk about tippy canoe…  (wheres Tyler?)

That afternoon we set out to find a good gelatto shop on the island.  From what I could tell there were two of  them.  (viewing the pictures on google maps) we headed over to the service gondola with Tami and Scott.  It seemed even tippier… if that’s a word.   You sit on the gunwales, which are about 5″ wide.  Its quite a rocking thing as all the Vaporetto and boats motor by causing all sorts of waves..    One thing you will notice in Venice, there are no straight routes to anywhere.   Lots of T intersections on the walks where you must decide which way to go.  You must have a good sense of direction as the narrow walkways don’t allow much GPS signal to get to your phone.   Its quite an experience you just have to like, otherwise its a bit frustrating.  I love it, apparently the only one who does in our group.  About 8/10th of the way to the first listed shop we lost two of our group to go back and take more pictures of the Rialto bridge. (I was done going back into that chaos)  We had already been there 3 times during our 2 night stay.  (which only gives you one full day in the city)  About 5 minutes later we found the 1st shop,  they did not sell any gelatto, none it was a pizza shop.   It was another 5 minutes of walking to get to the other one that was in the train station.  We got there,  Luckily Kathy found a church just prior and wanted to go inside.

There is a chain of Gelatto shops called Grom that has the non tourist gelatto.  (In the covered pots)    We enjoyed our good gelatto and then bought tickets to ride the Vaporetto back to the apartment.

The next morning we had an early train to get to Venice Mestre (on the mainland) so we were able to purchase tickets at the machine on the dock for the Vaporetto ride to the Train Station,  board a Regional train and in Mestre we caught the Frecca to Trieste.

 

 

We road a Frecca from Milan to Verona Porto Nuovo station,  our apartment was near the big Porta Nuova city gate, just a short walk from the train station.   It was a very nice place with a large living room.  We have not had livings rooms in the apartments we have stayed in till this one.  Most just had uncomfortable chairs in the kitchen area.  This place was large.   The first evening there we had great pizza, but the ladies said their pasta wasn’t up to snuff.   Kathy and I went back the next night for pizza.  It was great again!   Note to sell, ask them to cut the pizza to make it easier to eat, otherwise they do not cut it, requiring you to find a knife somewhere.

The next morning we headed to the Arena, at what is now the center of the old town.   Looks a lot like a short version of the Colosseo,  but was missing a lot of the external cladding as it had collapsed during a long ago earthquake.   From there we headed out to look for lunch as we weren’t wanting fish and chips.   We found this great little spot with a large outside patio covered by very big umbrellas.  Kathy was not  interested in the 4 P’s for lunch and got a nice looking salad.  I ordered a Panini,  one of the P’s.    Pretty good,  when finished we were just a short walk to the Arch where the walking tour starts.

Had a great walking tour with a really good guide that explained all the history of the area.   This picture is of the gate where we met the guide.   Verona is cool town, but the Romeo and Gillette stuff is all a scam.  As they were fictional.  It was incredible to me that the gullible folks paid to stand in line to see the balcony.

Walked over to lunch, Kathy had the no PPPP lunch.

Wandered over to the 2 hour walking tour.   The guide was very good.  We visited lots of landmarks including the Romeo and Gillette house. (all fictional)  You will see the ruts in the roadway below the gate from carts and roman chariots.

Ended tour an walked to the bus stop to get back home, but a different bus appeared and we got on by mistake.  Ended up a good distance from the apartment so we had a 15 minute walk instead of the 4 minute walk if we had waited a few more minutes more and took the bus that went right behind our apartment.   But because of that bus stopping far away we did get to stop and sit-down at an outdoor bar and spend some money on wine and bottled beer as our dogs were barking after walking a lot that day.

Took an Uber to the Verona train station as a nice treat to start the day for the trip to Venice as I knew getting around Venice with luggage would be challenging.