Public Transportation

THE OTHER DAY I was sitting on the commuter train minding my own business when a 20-something male plopped down on a chair directly across from me.  He placed his bookbag on the seat next to him.  He unzipped it and pulled out two giant plastic rubber gloves, like the kind you might see a cleaning lady wear. He carefully stretched them over both hands...and then, extremely slowly and deliberately, he used his right gloved hand to gently lift open the trash receptacle below the window next to our seat.  His approach was so cautious that it was almost as if he expected a horrifying creature to jump out at him.  He lifted the lid only a centimeter or so - wincing sideways as he did, and then suddenly, as if satisfied it did not contain said creature, flipped it close, took of his gloves, and then promptly got comfortable and went to sleep. 

Public transportation has its idiosyncrasies.  That's actually a part of the commuter train experience I look forward to - the Train Culture.  And as I look back, it seems like our children have had plenty of opportunities to experience that too.  I was looking through our photos not too long ago and was surprised to see how much we've experienced.  

Waiting for a regional train in France. 

A day's worth of subway tickets in Paris. 

Camden checks out the sign and the board (not pictured) at an U-bahn (Subway) stop in Berlin. 

A Subway zooms buy....I am honestly not entirely sure where, I think also Berlin. 

Waiting for an Italian regional train to take us to Ostia Antica in southern Italy. 

First in line for a Vaparetto - a Venician water taxi - in a late evening tour of Venice.  

A glass-covered Water Taxi in Berlin on the Spree river.  It was so hot inside of that glass Tylenol pill....

Zooming along the causeway from Padua to Venice on an Italian regional train.  

The expansive Nation subway station in Paris.  

City XPress, and ironic name for a gondola ride to the top of a mountain in Austria. 

A toy explodes in a powdery white mess on an otherwise pristine Roman subway.  

On a Deutsche Bahn short hop train to Deidesheim for the Christmas Market. 

Funicular!  Don't remember where, but it is fun to say Funicular! 

Horse and Carriage in the birthplace of Mozart - Salzburg

Frankfurt Flughafen, watching the 767 load up and waiting to board.  

Taking the ferry across the IJ in Amsterdam. 

Waiting for the metro in Amsterdam's Central Station. 

Riding a cog train to the Mer de Glace in France

A large nearly vertical gondola in Chamonix, France

On the Ferry across the channel

The famous red double-decker busses of London (see the telephone booth?)

On "The Tube" in London, arguably the worlds most well known subway. 

Aboard the Renfe Spanish regional train

On the Barcelona metro. 

This is really just a sampling of the times when I had my camera handy.  It doesn't include the French TGV, or the Deutsche Bahn ICE trains, or the gritty public buses in Rome, or the time we were jammed into a French regional train and Jazzy screamed for mommy (who was crammed into a distant corner) for 20 minutes straight, or the time a bus broke down in Rome and we got kicked off and stranded, or the time I had to have Melissa and the kids come pick me up at a small town train station an hour away from our house because the track was suddenly and mysteriously closed.

Public transportation has its idiosyncrasies.

Austria Gallery: City of Salzburg

City of Salzburg, famous for scenes from Sound of Music, for the birthplace of Mozart, and now a huge tourist draw.  It wasn't bad, but I think we sort of left with the feeling that once you've seen one Altstadt - you know, with the cathedral and the shopping area an that old castle nearby - they start to all look the same.    But that isn't to say it wasn't worthwhile, especially for the view from the fortress above.   Full size slideshow in Picasa.

Destination Salzburg

THERE IS A GREAT IRONY REGARDING THE GERMAN AUTOBAHN.



The legendary autobahn, with it's glass like surface,  portions with no speed restrictions, and populated with sleek powerful BMW, Mercedes and Audi's....frustratingly often stands at a complete bumper to bumper stop.   Occasionally it's due to road construction, sometimes due to accidents, and sometimes - maddeningly - it screeches to a standstill for no particular reason at all.  We made it worse on ourselves by deciding to travel on a holiday weekend to Salzburg, driving through München during commuting hours.     On this trip we found ourselves the ultimate butt of the joke, at one point  staring at an unlimited speed sign posted on the shoulder to the left while sitting on the road at  a complete stop, watching other drivers around you get out of their car to stretch their legs. That is not an exaggeration.

Nonetheless, we lived through that part.  Our destination for this trip wasn't so much Salzburg.  Rather, we went to the Alps to see the mountains.  Our kids have never see real, honest-to-goodness mountains with snow capped peaks. Unfortunately, what we saw instead on our first day were clouds.   Funny thing about staying in a picturesque valley in the Alps, on a cloudy day it pretty much looks like a cloudy day in Iowa.    We passed that day with a trip underground tour of a Salt Mine (which was actually pretty interesting), and an worthwhile (yet still unsatisfying) visit to Bertchesgaden  and Königssee.

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The draw at Königssee is to take an electric boat tour across the clear, high altitude lake, hear a bugler demonstrate the echoes from the mountain cliffs, and visit the remote church of St. Bartholoma on the opposite shore.  In Bertchesgaden, the thing to do is to hitch a ride to the top of the Alps to visit Hitler's Eagles Nest, and Alps retreat built for him for his 50th Birthday.  We skipped all of that due to the inclement weather and uncooperative 3 year old and opted instead for a short hike.



Day two was a visit to the actual city of Salzburg, a popular tourist destination made so by the von Trapp family of Sound of Music Fame  and a less famous musician by the name of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Day three, the clouds parted, and the high alps came to full view.  That day was for us was full of Austrian Alpine cliches...green meadows, snow capped peaks, emerald rivers, rides on cable cars up the mountains, and sunny afternoon by a crystal clear Alpine lake.   It might be  cliche, it might be stereotype, but it was nonetheless amazing....too hard to describe really, so instead we'll post a couple of photoblogs in the next few days of our tours around the area.