We had made reservations with OBB Austrian Federal Rail System to leave from Padova at 14:08 to go to Innsbruck. We got to the station on time only to discover that the train was not listed anywhere, the personnel from Train Italia could not help, they had no information.
Finally after insisting that there had to be a train, we had tickets, one Train Italia Official told us that, yes there was a bus to Verona with the sign OBB on it. So out the station we go and start looking for this bus, No bus, what to do, we decided to take a taxi to Verona, the distance is short about 55 min trip all together on the highway, the cost 160 Euros extra. Our taxi driver was doing about 220 km per hour.
Verona Porta Nuova Station standing by the DB car.
What a pain, nowhere on the OBB web site does it explain where the bus is etc. It also fails to tell you that the famous bus leaves Padova train station 30 minutes before the actual phantom train leaves. On the other hand the web site of DB, the German Rail system tells you this. You see the train is in fact the express that goes from Verona to Munich via Austria. But then why are the Germans more forthcoming with info than the Austrians? It’s probably cultural.
Austrian OBB locomotive pulling a German DB train. Verona Station.
Anyway all this to say is that we missed our train departing Verona by minutes, because in the Verona Porta Nuova station, this train is not announced either.
The information desk will tell you that all German trains leave from Binario 1 or 3 and the representative of the other train systems is on Binario 1. You figure it out, dear client, don’t you love it, unresolved issues about moving borders from the First World War some 93 years ago.
So finally we boarded the last train at 16:59 and left promptly first stop is Rovereto, which is a small town in the Dolomite mountains, next lovely Trento, then beautiful Bolzano also known as Bozen, this was part of Austria until 1918, all great wine country of the Alto Adige or Süd Tirol. On to
Bressanone or Brixen, Fortezza or Franzensfeste, the famous Brenner Pass which is the border between Italy and Austria way up in the Dolomites and steps away from the Alps and finally Innsbruck. We will arrive at 20:30 some 2 hours late. The unfortunate part is that we missed going through the mountains in daylight as planned, which is very picturesque at this time of year with all the snow high up in the Austrian Alps.
Strangely enough our train has no restaurant car, no bar car, nothing to eat or drink, snack's are advertised and the prices of food and drinks are the same as Canada’s Via Rail, is there a conspiracy here? Probably. I did ask the conductor about this situation given that the entire train ride, if we went all the way to Munich would take about 7 hours. The conductor apologized and said it was DB Rail management who had decided at the last minute not to provide anything given that the train was almost empty. Still to me that is irresponsible and probably contrary to safety rules.
When we got to Innsbruck, our hotel is just across the street from the train station, The Grand Hotel Europa is a wonderful hotel, impeccable service, the rooms are ultra modern, with lots of facilities. The hotel itself is more than 140 years old, but the owners have take great care to maintain it and done it with great care and good taste. See www.granhoteleuropa.at
What impressed us the most was that the next morning we sent out laundry to be done at 8 am, it was back in the room all neat and clean at 10am, I can honestly say that never in 45 years of traveling around the world have I ever seen this.
We met friends on arrival last night and went to dinner at a wonderful Tapas Bar called TAPABAR on Marktplatz, see www.tapabar.at great food and excellent Spanish wines.
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