Thursday, June 8th

When we land it�s now Thursday morning. We have about 4 hours until our train leaves from the Zurich central train station to Milan. We have to go through immigration and customs. The man on duty for immigration sees our US passports and waves us through, not even a stamp or a check of our picture. I�m not happy about not getting a stamp, that�s kind of the fun part with the passport. The luggage comes out fairly quickly and we go through customs. Nobody is even on duty at customs so we�ve invaded Switzerland pretty easily.

We have Euro Select Passes for the trains. This means we have 6 separate days over a 2 month period where we have unlimited travel on those days. A train agent must �start� our pass with the first day it will be used so we find the train station in the airport. German, French, and Italian are the official languages of Switzerland but the agent speaks English so that�s a good way to start. Trains leave from the airport to the Zurich main station every 10 minutes so we catch the next train just down the escalator.

The train from the airport to the main station has two levels but is still crowded. I don�t think we even bother to sit down since it�s only about a 10-minute trip. The main station is pretty busy. We don�t see our train on the departure board so we don�t know what track yet. We don�t have any Swiss Francs so I get out $100, which is about $84 US. We put our luggage in lockers and start walking around the town.

The area around the station is intertwined with overhead wires for all the trams and buses that have a stop at the central station. There are a lot of shops on the streets around the main station and the shops are very busy. We see some spires, probably from a church and start walking in that direction. We get to the river. The water is very clean and you can see clear to the bottom.

We stop at a caf� on the river for some wine. Its lunchtime and a number of business people are here having lunch in their suits. One thing you have to like about the Europeans is that there�s nothing wrong with having a drink during lunch.

We head back to the station to get the luggage and some snacks to take on the train ride. One place we find is only fish. It really stinks but a lot of people are buying fish. The fish that aren�t cleaned and still have their heads on look unappealing. We go next store and I�m surprised to find a small chicken sandwich at the store.

On the train we have reserved seats. The pass we have gets us on the train but unless you reserve a seat you aren�t assured of having one for a trip. It�s a long trip so we made sure to get one for this trip, which was an additional 7 bucks. Of course the train leaves on time so we are now off to Milan.

The train ride is beautiful. We wind through the Alps, go by a town called Lugano which overlooks a lake, by Lake Como and stop at the town of Como. Both towns look very similar with villas overlooking the lake on both sides. We stop at the border city for getting into Italy but again nobody checks our passports once they see that we are from the US.

When we arrive at the train station in Milan we�ve been traveling for about 17 hours. The central train station is a huge building. It looks really old and has a couple of huge Roman horses and soldiers on the top of the building. There�s a huge plaza in front of the station but it�s kind of grimy. There are also a number of people who just seem to be loitering around the station. So while the huge train station is impressive the atmosphere takes something away from the setting.

I booked a hotel (Hotel Gonzaga) only a couple blocks from the train station to make it easy for us to get in and out of Milan. It�s a short walk to the hotel but when we get there we can�t find the entrance. The big sign overhead lets us know we are in the right location. We walk around the block some till we finally see an intercom with a sign indicating you must call to get into the building. The lobby is on the 3rd floor so there�s not much of an entrance; it looks more like an office building.

The room has 3 single beds so that�s good. Luckily the pictures online match with what we are given and there is enough space so we aren�t on top of each other. We take a nap before heading out since from what we know dinner starts late in Italy. The shower in the bathroom is just a shower curtain that cuts off a corner of the bathroom. It�s a small area so I end up breaking the plastic soap dish by knocking it off the shower pipe within 30 seconds of taking a shower. We leave our key at the front desk and make sure that someone will be available late at night to let us into the hotel.

We are going to the Brera district to find a restaurant and some place to hangout after dinner. As we walk along a main street we see some backpackers that have chosen the sidewalk as their location to sleep for the night. There are not a lot of people out walking around until we find Via Brera. The area is about 5 or 6 blocks long with indoor/outdoor bars, cafes, and restaurants. The streets are very tight but pedestrian only so it�s easy to walk around. Close to the restaurant there are a number of gypsies with tables setup to tell peoples fortunes. Surprisingly the gypsies have customers. I guess the sign advertising gypsy fortune telling is true because who would get their fortune read by an Italian. One gypsy uses tarot cards and at least one other is reading peoples hand.

The restaurant we pick has a menu in English so that�s always a plus. You can always identify pasta names but you never know what fish or style of dish you might be getting. Jim and I split a sea bass appetizer, which are thin strips of sea bass in an oil sauce. We split a bottle of white wine. Earl likes butter on his bread so we spend some minutes trying to communicate this to our waiter. We don�t know the word for butter, but the Chinese waitress knows the most English and is able to figure out what we need. I get risotto Milanese style which I find out is a yellow cheese based risotto. Earl gets the lasagna and Jim gets a swordfish cutlet Milanese style (breaded). All of the food is good so we picked a good spot but I can�t remember the name of the restaurant.

As we are eating dinner a large number of Africans start putting down blankets and setting up shop on the streets. It�s after 11pm so we think it�s rather late to start selling knockoff Prada and Guici bags but more and more people are showing up in the streets. By the time we start walking after dinner any area not taken up by outside seating is occupied by someone selling bags, watches and other knockoff items.

We walk around the area some but don�t find a dance club nearby. I end up walking Jim and Earl almost all the way down to the Duomo. We end up in front of the Teatro de la Scalla. We call it a night since we can't find anyplace and take a cab back to the hotel.

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