Well, David and I are now two countries apart in Europe. It is very sad! Who made these plans anyway? He left in the car around 8:30 this morning, then I finished packing, checked out of the hotel, and headed to the train station at 10. Four weeks is the longest we've ever been apart, and wasn't easy for either of us to say goodbye.
He wasn't sure how far north he would drive today, but just called me about an hour ago from Essen to say that he was going all the way to Amsterdam! That's a long drive for one day, but it does help when you have a good car on the Autobahn. He expects to get there around 8pm.
As for me, I've not had a terribly enjoyable day, but I've successfully arrived in Pavia and that's the main thing. First, I arrived too early at the Zurich train station and found there was no place to sit, so I had to carry my heavy bags around for a half an hour. Lame!
I was also really hungry, because breakfast at our hotel was 34 Swiss francs (about $36) so we had gone without, and I didn't have much Swiss cash left to spend in the station. But I eventually found a bread roll (0.80 CHF), a Coke Zero (3.50 CHF!), and a bench outside the station, where I watched taxi drivers smoke and argue with each other.
But things improved a lot when the train arrived. I had sprung for a first-class seat and was very glad I did - despite lots of people on the platform, my car was nearly empty for most of the journey.
And I had a great seat by myself next to the window. Sadly the scenery wasn't as pretty as I'd expected, mainly because it was rainy and wet, there wasn't much snow yet, and the main towns along the route weren't terribly attractive. But it was hardly ugly and I did see some very cute cows, bouncy lambs, and crystal clear streams. And I had a good book to read, so the 3.5 hours to Milan went quickly.
However, the train arrived in Milan 10 minutes late, which left me only 5 minutes to find my next train to Pavia! How very Italian. The first train arrived on Platform 4 and the next train left on Platform 21, which is at the other end of the station! And it took me a minute of squinting at the departures board to even figure out where to go. But I ran it, dodging around crowds of people with suitcases, and just made it. Phew.
I ended up sitting next to the same friendly Italian lady who had sat near me on the first train after getting on at Como. The first-class cars in our second train consisted of closed compartments with six facing seats; we shared ours with a few Italian young men. She chatted animatedly with them the entire time, and I didn't understand much since I have almost no Italian. But based on the plentiful body language and the few words I do know, I'm pretty sure that at one point they were discussing the nature of Milanese woman ("aggressive but beautiful") and later they speculated about whether I was English or French (I was just happy she referred to me as the senorina instead of senora). The heat was cranked all the way up in the compartment, which was rough after my sprint through the station, but I was only on that train for about 20 minutes.
The Pavia train station, my destination, was a bit of an armpit. I was glad to leave it. My hotel is only a block from the train station and I found it easily. It is very clean with new furniture, but spartan and very small! It's just a little bed and a little desk in a tiny room, which is quite a change from the big rooms I've been enjoying, but it's really all I need for one night. And it's good to save some money since David and I are paying for separate hotels the next few days. But I've booked a nicer hotel in Parma tomorrow night, which I'm really looking forward to. :)
My closet for the night
The desk - I've squeezed my computer in next to the TV.
I had arrived in Pavia at 3:30; thanks to the end of daylight savings time, that only gave me an hour and a half for sightseeing and photography before it got dark. But I made the most of it, even though it was raining pretty hard.
So far the city hasn't turned out to be a whole lot better than the train station, but it's not too bad. There is graffiti absolutely everywhere - on every wall on every street in town - and some dodgy teenagers and men hanging about, but there are lots of respectable people out too and I generally have felt safe. Today is All Saints' Day, a major national holiday, which probably didn't help my first impressions of the city - almost all stores and restaurants are closed up.
I only managed to see one of the three Romanesque churches in the city (which are the reason I'm here), but I'm glad I did - it was spectacular and really cheered me up! It's called San Michele Maggiore and dates from the early 12th century.
The golden-stone facade was spectacular even in the rain and fading light, and there were lots of great things to see inside. Best of all, photos were allowed and nothing was roped off - I could even go up by the altar, which is very rare. Magnificent.
Safely back near my hotel soon after dark, I started to look around for dinner, but failed. Absolutely everything is closed. I did find a bakery that was open, though, and got two cannoli. I left the gun. Finding nothing else, I reluctantly went back to the train station to get a Sprite Zero and olive-oil crackers to round out my dinner. Now I'm in for the night and intending to go to bed early.
Tomorrow morning I'll try to get up early, finish my photography work at the Pavia churches, and get on a train for Parma around 11am. It's supposed to rain again tomorrow, sadly, but hopefully it will at least be a little less. Bonna serra!