On the Way Home

Sorry for having left you in a cliffhanger. (Thanks for the reminder Dustin!) Yes, I made it home safely, but there were some highlights on my way back. So going four days back after our barbeque , when I was still in Milan, Adam and Heather were busy packing for their trip to Manchester, England, and I was packing for my trip home. We were leaving Italy the next day, only I would have to leave several hours earlier. Reason being was I had to take a train from Milan to Frankfurt to catch my flight. Adam sacrificed his sleep to get me out of bed (he knew my bad waking tendencies) at 5:30 am and drove me to the metro station. He also packed me a lunch (with Heather's delicious chocolate cake!) for my train ride. I made it to Stazione Milano Centrale with 15 minutes to spare for my 7:25 am train to Basel, Switzerland. It was so cool to see the landscape change within an hour as the train climbed into the Alps. Boy it was something to behold the jagged peaks and emerald lakes nestled in the valleys. I could only imagine what it would look like in the winter with snow capped mountains. The buildings--farmhouses and other village buildings--were constructed of wood, which was different from houses on the plains. However I could tell I was still in Italy from the train station names. But once the train got into Switzerland, the buildings were quite distinct. They had interesting overhung roofs that had a particular curved profile. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. It was very much how I had pictured tiny Swiss villages in the Alps. Yes, there were cows on the pastures.

I got off the train at Basel, which was a city of 731,000 on the French and German borders in northwest Switzerland. It was noticeably different from the rest of Europe because the streets were clean! Plus the weather was much more pleasant, a reprieve from the hot sticky weather! Although I was in the city centre in the middle of lunch hour, there wasn't a crazy frenzy of traffic and pedestrians. Rather, the city moved at a leisurely pace. And there were very few traffic lights because traffic itself was light. It was really relaxing to walk around the city and hang out before my train to Frankfurt.

The southwest part of Germany was fairly flat and pastoral. Most of it was farmland split up by gravel paths on which people biked. Ah, so very European! The train pulled into the Frankfurt Airport Terminal before the actual Frankfurt am Main station terminus (as it had stated on my ticket) so I quickly jumped off. It was a pleasant surprise how convenient the train was. I'll really miss the European train network because it was a breeze to catch a train and go to another country. And it was a really comfortable ride thanks to the well engineered shocks and struts on the train cars.

My flight was not too eventful, thankfully. I managed to sleep a good chunk of it. And when I got home 10 pm, I was able to sleep some more before work the next day!

Europe was indeed a blast! I had lots of good memories. Thanks to friends over in the UK and Italy and friends like you who read my blog and emailed. There were many things that I learned on this trip. The main thing was the difference in thinking and culture between Europe and North America. There were pros and cons to both. Just from travelling around a bit, I've compiled a list of places I'd like to visit on my next trip to Europe--Switzerland is definitely on the list! I will miss being a tourist as well and sipping on beer on the side of the road. Ah, good times.