Denver to Italy then..Tren Italia Milan(Milano) to Venice(Venetzia) in Misc. Thoughts opinions, the whole trash can.

Travel can be a wonderful thing… or the demons come out to derail you. NOOOOOO is the BNSF in charge of airline travel.. They are stalking me.. I am retired .. Work with me .. it’s a tough crowd.

Denver:
United…Where did this company go? We departed, and arrived on time at Newark Airport. We walked to the terminal. The International departure..No biggie. We find our gate. OTG (On The GO)… Beer !!! Joy and it is right across from the departure gate.

Newark: Well the “on Time departure” was 2 hours and 30 minutes late. Reason .. mechanical problems with the original jet. I respect that. Not like the rails, where, leave with what ya got. LOL. Another Jet came in from the Far East. went to be inspected and readied for our flight. It was readied and towed to the “NEW” departure gate. WALK WALK WALK…wonderful Walk!!!. Who cares took… GASP!!! NOOOOOOO!! 5 minutes. Still delays ect, so who cares, but it is cutting into our Milan to Venice train time.

Milan, Italy:

Well we made it. BUT..after passport check and the bags arrived..30 minutes later, we’re time crunching here. Bags and off to a taxi. Loaded up and to the train station. Well Malpensa Airport is like DIA (Denver International) it’s way out there. It is about 30 minutes out. Our driver says I’ll try my best to get ya there.

A Wild Mouse ride from Malpensa to the train station to Milan. He got us there with 7 minutes to spare. Pay the ride, a tip and here we go. We find the gate and the track. My wife says “I don’t know”. Okay Dumb ol Rail 101 kicks in.

I say..”The Conductor and his brakeman or assistant is on the platform. Grab ‘em and tell them”. She speaks Italian. “This is your coach, board Prego!!”( Prego is please in Italian). Wow one minute to departure. We’re on and in our seats. I have the lone seat..apart from the others, but hey I can get into the “rail mode”.

The train is about 15 to 20 cars, a mixture of first and second class coaches. There is an electric locomotive on each end. Our first class coach, is next to the rear locomotive. The Pans (Pantagraphs) are up on both, drawing current off the catenary. The slack changes are gentle, and I can feel the acceleration and retardation, via the locomotives, and when the brakes come on. Frank Kasulas told me 40 plus years ago, “Jack ya can feel it in yer ass” Yes he was right, and I still feel the slack changes. Its a Locomotive engineer thing.. You hogheads that read this know what I am talking about.

I notice the Italians paint the web of the rail white…I have no answer to this. Internet dummy maybe. The track is in great shape. Well, they run freights at night, and they aren’t like our trains over here. Plus they don’t have 17000 to 18000 ton coal trains and 12000 to 14000 ton grain trains, along with heavy manifests, beating the shit out of the track.

We get asked for tickets during the trip. Since all four are in one sheet, it is shown and all is well. About an hour and a half out, a brakeman comes through. They talk to each other via cell. He has a set of what I would call a coach key and switch keys. He locked the doors next to the motor. So you can’t get out of that door, but walk through the coach and depart from there. They don’t tell anybody, they just do it. So some tried, and went up to leave the train. LOL gotta love it.

So arrive Venice train station. I say, this guy locked this door we need to de-train on the other end. I get the looks. Some other passenger pipes up and says we can’t get out on this end. DUH!! I think, while either changing ends, and doing inspections, they don’t want people getting in the way.

Was a good ride.........