The 11:45 Frecciarossa to Venice     I’m not big on birthdays, especially my own. In fact I’d wish they all just go away. Being non-social I just don’t like being the center of attention. And that pasted smile I feel compelled to maintain throughout the singing of Happy Birthday hurts my face. But the way this […]

  Photo credit: Carol Madigan  The remaining two days in Milan were to be framed by sightseeing, namely the Duomo de Milano, or the Milan cathedral, a castle and a basilica, neither of whose names I’m not bothering to look up. I’m not whining, mind you. I am quite happy to sightsee with Carol, because I […]

   As nicely located as our apartment was, there was no discernible couch, as had been pictured, and the programmable thermostat was set too low. It was cold. Carol theorized the bed was convertible and maintained that theory even after the manager assured her it was not. As we unfolded the bed and the couch began […]

The 9:20 to Ventimiglia The 11:03 to Milan     Our second the-train-is-the-destination experience would not alleviate my mounting fear that European rail travel had caught Covid. Worse, it had come out of it the way American rail travel had come out of its own golden years. Meaning, Europe was becoming Amtrak – or worse? (Spoiler alert: there’s nothing worse than […]

   A renovation architect once explained to me that the heavy aching in your legs when traipsing through a museum is a real physical ailment known as “museum fatigue.” “It’s a physical reaction to not knowing where the end of the museum is.”  I have a particularly acute case in that my legs will grow heavy […]

   As a general rule on the road, Carol and I don’t engage strangers in conversation. I studiously avoid it; Carol merely doesn’t seek it out. In this, it is more or less the position we maintain at home. In the going on five years we’ve lived in our mobile home community, I still don’t know […]

   Corresponding to what I like to do first when exploring a new location, Carol and I boarded the Ligne 1 tram just down from our hotel, and rode it to its terminus in each direction. The idea is to find something of interest along the way, and then ride back there to explore it in […]

The 10:34 to Marseilles The 14:57 to Nice    If this first rail trip is any indication, it might be that my previous experiences with Eurail already represent a bygone era.    The first clue was that the Marseille train lacked both a club car or even a beverage cart. Not that I had planned to pop […]

   A five euro tab for café creme, croissant and fresh squeezed orange juice beat the hotel’s 15 euro charge for a full breakfast that included a rubbery plain omelet and cold pancakes, and we are off to the Musée des Arts Forains (The Fairground Art Museum). According to the English language handout, actor and antique […]

   I woke up on our first full day in Paris with no wifi, and worse, could not figure out how the shower works. It’s embarrassing to have to explain this to the hotel clerk, who was working off the same wifi as I interrupted her, and then having to explain to this American how […]