July 21, 2018

Both of us were nervous about the approaching train journeys. How difficult was it going to be to get two loaded touring bikes on to the train. We knew in Venice there were elevators to get us to the platforms, but how far will we need to lift the bike onto the train!

We stood on platform 6 waiting for the train to come. Then we saw people moving rapidly away from the platform. Ralf asked a fella what was happening, the train had come in on a different platform. We barged our way through the crowd to the elevator. I forgot to mention that only one bike would fit in the elevator at a time. I went first and headed to the first door on the train. Fortunately, there was no lifting involved – roll on and roll off. The train guard was whistling and telling me to get on the train! I had my front wheels on the train and my back wheels on the platform. Ralf had not arrived on the platform and this train was not going without us.

The guard came towards me waving his flag and whistling his little whistle at me.  I told him in no uncertain terms that the platform had changed and my husband was coming with his bike. Fortunately, Ralf arrived at that time and we pushed our bikes on to the train.

We had asked previously where the bike carriage would stop, so that we could be in the right place. Due to the switching of the platforms we were not in the right place for the bikes and had to hang on to our bikes in the train. As people wanted to get off, we had to move from one side of the opening to the other.

We arrived in Bologna and changed to our train to Parma. The train had an area for the bikes. However, we would have had to carry them up three steps. What sense does that make? Once again we were moving the bikes back and forward as people got on and off the train.  Most people were very understanding.

When we arrived in Parma, we knew we had a five hour wait. However, I noticed there were several trains going to La Spezia before 6:00 p.m. I asked at the information desk  if we could get on any of the earlier trains. No such luck, they didn’t have a spot for the bikes.

However, we spotted five guys getting of a “no-bike” train. Ralf chatted to one of the guys who got of the “no-bike” train. They said they had bought the tickets and man-handled their bikes onto the train. They really struggled getting them off the train. I think it was a good idea for us to wait for the “bike” train.

We cycled into Parma and had lunch. I went into the Tourist Information Office and told the woman that we had three hours to kill.  She gave me a quick itinerary of what we could see in that time, including several churches and the park. Parma is a lovely city however, it started to rain so we headed back to the train station.

The area around Parma is famous for ham and parmesan cheese. I had pasta for lunch and they sprinkled some parmesan cheese on it, the pasta and the cheese tasted really good.

The rain poured down for about an hour.  This man decided it would be a good idea to have a shower from the run-off from the dirty roof.  He had come out of the bar,\”not feeling any pain\”.

The train to La Spezia arrived at the platform early. This is the first train where we had to lift our bikes into the train, but we could then roll the bikes into the bike storage area. Fortunately La Spezia was also the last stop so we knew we didn’t have to rush to try and lift the bikes off the train.

This was also the first train that we were able to sit all the way as the bikes were safely stored in the bike carriage.

We arrived in La Spezia at 8:15 p.m. and found the hotel. We must have the worst room in this expensive hotel (NH La Spezia).

By the time we had found the hotel, got settled in we were starving. We went for a walk and found a pizzeria and had a pizza and a beer.

Tomorrow there is a train strike in Italy – possibly no trains to the Cinque Terre!!

If we didn’t have bad luck we wouldn’t have any luck at all.