Day 8 All Day Travel, Cinque Terre to Utrecht; June 23, 2008

How many different modes of travel can one person do in one crazy long day? We decided the number is TEN different legs, because that's what we did yesterday! 14 hours in transit, oh my heck we're tired!
This was our Monday:
1. Cinque Terre regional train to Sestri Levante
Lots and lots of tunnels, because the mountains drop right down to the sea, and the train wants to travel on the flat! Tunnel through every mountain. When we get an opening to the sea, it's glorious!
2. Sestri Levante to Genoa, regional train (read, slow and makes tons of stops)
Gorgeous views of the sea and the Italian Riviera. Lots of yachts on the smooth blue sea, purple bouganvilla and flat-topped pines, and sun-drenched houses of yellow, tan, pink, and coral hues all crammed together. Red tile roofs. Genoa is the home town of Christopher Columbus, and you can understand why he loved the sea. It is so beautiful here!
3. Genoa to Milan, faster IC train. Nice airline seats, everyone has a seat reservation.
Traveling north now, through open fields and small Italian workaday towns. We try to sleep sitting up facing strangers in the seats across from us. Hmm . . . not very successful.
4. We're in Milan, let's take this chance to go see the Milan Opera House! Maybe the greatest opera house in the world. In an 1880's building, with a lovely ballroom on the second floor similar to the Paris Opera House. We eavesdropped on a lady giving an English tour to a couple in the next box. Fabulous horseshoe shape, five tiers high, red velvet draped with gold. The stage area has all been redone to make it competitive with other worldwide opera venues. Stage area is as large as the audience, and can have 3 separate sets going at once. They have over 150 feet of fly space, meaning they can raise very tall sets up into the rafters with a touch of a button. For theater people, this is way cool. I really enjoyed it because I've heard about this place forever, and I finally got to go see it!
Took the Metro subway from the train station to downtown Milan.
5. Had lunch in a huge glassed atrium in the center of Milan. Right in the center, 80 feet to the ceiling, and we found the prime table. The stores facing us were Mercedes Benz, Louis Vuitton, Prada, and us. Guess where we ate? McDonald's! Absolutely prime real estate, the atmosphere was fabulous, and the price was right!
Did our spin on the testicles of the bull in center of the atrium. Supposed to bring good luck!
Dashed back past the white marble Milan Cathedral on our way to the Metro back to the train station.
6. Took a big shuttle bus from the station to the airport: the Malpensa Express. I like the jazzy velvet seats and the footrests! Stash your luggage underneath, this is like a tour bus.
7. Checked in for our EasyJet flight to Amsterdam. This was definitely not easy! The airport was packed, there was no place to sit, they changed our gate 3 times, and it's cattle car seating like Southwest airlines. AACK! They piled us all in low-slung busses to take us out to the plane.
8. Flight from Milan to Amsterdam. Quite pleasant, only 90 minutes. Shelley wanted the aisle and I wanted the window, so we got a great lady between us and yakked up a storm. She's from Utrecht and gave us can't-miss-it directions to our hotel. Well, we missed it. Anyway, she is a translator from German to Dutch, and she edits and translates for an auxiliary services health magazine.
9. VISA cards have given us grief this whole trip. Sometimes one of ours will work. I don't think it's really the fault of America First. I think VISA International is doing wierd things, taking money from savings instead of checking, then switching it, etc. We finally got train tickets from AMS Schipol airport to the central train station in Utrecht. What a wonderful ride!
The train was new and sleek with a pointed nose, smooth and clean and fast. It was 9:00 at night, and the light was golden and it played sunset symphony for an hour as we sped through the countryside.
I love The Netherlands! The old parts of the cities look like right out of the year 1600, with tall skinny buildings and canals everywhere.
The rest of the country is absolutely like living in Tomorrowland! Fast trains link the cities, busses run on their own dedicated roads, and there are huge modern buildings everywhere. The flat ground is landscaped with many uniform rows or trees, and the green flat ground is still laced with canals.
10. Arrival in Utrecht. Finally! The station is really an upscale shopping mall, with the trains coming in underneath. We try to follow the several sets of directions we have. we walk about a mile, and finally see the sign four our hotel in an unexpected spot. Try to check iin. Confusion. Guess what? There ar two NL hotels in Utrecht! We are supposed to be at the other one!
We finally give up and have the desk call us a taxi. Mercedes Benz, nice taxi. I thought it would cost more, but it was only €7.50. We finally arrived at the correct hotel, in the center of the old city, and right across the street from the oldest church in town.
So that was our ten travels for the day! May you always have shorter travel days, and may they be as varied and exciting as this one was!