Trip to Europe

[Bob Collins]

In Sep/Oct I will be traveling with my better half to Prague, Budapest, Croatia, Florence and Munich. All travel except getting there and home and the ferry trip across from Croatia to Italy will be by TRAIN!!

Anything special I ought to be looking for regarding the trains, in the way of photo ops, other than the usual tourist stuff?

Bob

 

[jkristia]

sorry - I can't help with any info, but it sure sounds like a great vacation, enjoy your trip.

Jesper

 

[Bob Collins]

Thanks Jesper. I too think it will be a great trip. The other couples we travel withalso enjoy the train, so I had the opportunity to do some other train travel in New Zealand, Australia and the UK. I lived in Germany years ago and did a lot of train travel in those days too. I figure that during the course of the entire trip we will be on the trains for a total of about 30 hours, and the way I have set up the schedule it is all during daylight, so there ought to be some spectacular scenery along the way.

 

[jkristia]

I sure would like to drive through Austria and northern Italy by train. 25 years ago when I was a small kid in Denmark, my family vacationed in Austria many times, always in the Kuffstein/Innsbruck area, and I just fell in love with the Alps. I have promised my wife next time we go 'home' to visit my old mom (in Denmark) we will spend 2 weeks in Italy/Austria and maybe England, maybe I can even convince her to go by train /

Remember to post some pictures when you get back, maybe you will even get a chance to take some pictures in Kuffstein or Innsbruck

Jesper

 

[Bob Collins]

As we travel north from Florence to the Munich area we will go through Innsbruck. It will be 30 years since I was last there for the 1976 Winter Olympics. We lived in Munich at the time so it was a relatively short train ride to Innsbruck for us. We are actually going to spend a couple of days at Bad Reichenhall, Germany, very near Salzburg, Austria and Berchesgarten, Germany. We have friends there who we also haven't seen for 30 years.

Should be a great trip.

Bob

 

[interurban]

Sounds great Bob, Lots of pics please.
Last time I was over there was 1971.

Have a safe trip. I will be in Vancouver for eight days in September. :thumb:

 

[Ralph]

Excellent Bob! Sounds like a great trip. Photos are a must!!!! My wife and I will be in Italy the first two weeks of October, mostly in the Tuscany region but we plan to take the train from Florence to Pisa and perhaps from Florence to Venice. Your Alpine scenary will be more breathtaking but I'll take some pics of what I see on the rails.
Ralph

 

[Bob Collins]

I am in the process now of trying to decide on a replacement for my very old first generation digital camera. Have my eye on a Kodak EasyShare 6490, which has a 10X zoom that I think would be great to have. I'm just not certain I have the PC with the power to support the software. I'm checking.

Bob

 

[Badyin Macfadyi]

Hope the weather improves for you by then; Lots of roads closed due to washouts in S. Germany and Austria

 

[Bob Collins]

We also have our fingers crossed as we leave for Praha in less than 3 weeks. The only area where we will be that might be of some concern is southern Bavaria, but it will be more than 6 weeks before we arrive in that area and hopefully things will improve. Bob

 

[yellowlynn]

camera

Bob, you haven't said if you got that Kodak 6490 or not. I've got one and I love it. The only problem with the 10X zoom is you have to be really stedy. The dock is really nice to keep batteries charged, but it is just as easy to use a reader or plug the camera directly into the computer.

Lynn

 

[Bob Collins]

I have not gotten the camera. Time has just slipped away from me and there have been other priorities. I'll limp along with my Kodak DC 210 which has actually given me excellent service. I'll put the 6490 on my wish list!!

Bob

 

[RailRon]

Bob, I hope that this will be a very interesting and beautiful trip for you.

The only area where we will be that might be of some concern is southern Bavaria...

After extreme spells of rain and thunderstorms we had major floods and landslides throughout the Alps. The catastrophe hit Switzerland, Austria (Tyrol) and Southern Germany (Bavaria). All in all, in many villages in the Alpine valleys thousands of houses were destroyed. But you can relax - although in certain places the damages still are very visible, almost all traffic lines (road and rail) have been repaired. The international lines are all open again, so your trip will not be disturbed.

However, on your RR trip through the Alps (Florence - Brenner pass - Innsbruck - Salzburg - Munich) probably you will note some fresh scars along the mountain slopes. Well, that's another way of 'Mother nature' to show us, who's the real boss on this globe!

But you're really in for a beautiful rail trip. I don't know the Czech and Croatian railroads, but I know by experience that the international passenger trains of the the other countries (Italy, Austria, Germany) are great to ride. You also made an excellent selection of some very beautiful cities to visit. Enjoy your stay in merry ol'Europe!

Ron

 

[Bob Collins]

Ron;

Needless to say we are excited about the trip. We depart one week from today on the adventure. I get the impression from our Croatian Rotarian hosts that we will also have the "opportunity" to travel on a number of ferries as we move down the Croatian coast from Pula to Dubrovnik and then to Ancona, Italy. I agree, all in all, a great trip.

I lived in Munich 30 years ago, so am looking forward to returning for a day or two to look around.

I'll try to get a few "train" pictures to post here when I return.

Bob