Week 37 Wrap Up

I have heard so many good things about Montenegro, Croatia, and Slovenia that I’m really excited about this week! Plus it’s the transition to the train portion of the trip that I’m a little uncertain about how that will go.

(Since you are reading about this weeks after it happened, I’d like to explain that this railroad portion of my trip is exhausting! There are no sea days to really rest and being in a new place every day means that my brain is never on autopilot, constantly having to taking in and process new surroundings and people and languages. Whenever I have gotten some down time, I play mind-numbing games on my phone.)

Schedule

• Thursday, September 17: Kotor, Montenegro

• Friday, September 18: Zadar, Croatia

• Saturday, September 19: Koper, Slovenia

• Sunday, September 20: Venice, Italy (Kind of)

• Monday, September 21: Venice, Italy

• Tuesday, September 22: Florence, Italy

• Wednesday, September 23: Florence, Italy

  
  

Thursday, September 17: Kotor, Montenegro

Here fishy fishy!

Yes, today they offered Fishing as an excursion! Being in Montenegro, where the mountains are high and the water so deep, I expected the fishes to be large. Here is my first catch!

And no, this is not a throw back size. Apparently, it was considered average.

To set the scene a little more, our boat held four (4) fisher-persons and a captain. We cruised out to what seemed to be a well-known fishing spot and dropped our lines. They sank and sank and sank because the depth was about 35 meters (over 100ft). When we got a bite, you almost didn’t even know it with the fish being so small and the line being so long, but even still, I was the first in the boat to catch one! After that, I had no other claim to fame other than catching the ugliest and smallest.

One of the other guys caught two at once! He was also the one who caught the most on our boat, while the biggest went to someone else. Even the biggest was only about 7 inches long. In the end, we caught quite a few, enough for a full lunch, which they cooked for us at this cute little seaside restaurant. They also served us fresh oysters and mussels. I still don’t like raw oysters, but really enjoyed the mussels!

After a full day of fishing and eating, we got back to the ship. Instead of venturing to the city, I headed to get changed because I definitely smelled like fish. Unfortunately, I had already sent in my free bag of laundry and ended up having other do some bathroom sink washing. Yes, life on the road is this glamorous!

I headed outside on the Promenade deck to get some remaining cell service as we sailed away from Kotor and ended up seeing a few fantastic sights! The first was being able to clearly see the Pilot descend from the ship, stepping onto his pick-up boat. In a lot of these ports, a local pilot is required to guide the ship to avoid underwater obstacles. Since they don’t stay on the ships until the next port, they have to get off a ship in a very unique way, which includes climbing down a ladder on the side of the cruise ship and trusting your coworker to hold the smaller boat stable enough for you to safely step from the last rung to the deck of the boat. Once onboard, the smaller boat peels away from the cruise ship back to the port.

The other fantastic sight was the sunset! Tonight’s looked like the sky was on fire! With the mixture of oranges and reds swirling around the sky, just above the horizon.

Friday, September 18: Zadar, Croatia

Since I’m a Platinum member of NCL, we get some perks, including a Behind the Scenes tour on each ship. Because we have port days every day, they had to sneak the tour in on the morning of a late arrival, which is how I found myself getting to see the galley, laundry, and theater all before 9 in the morning!

These areas were very similar to those that I’ve seen before, but I’m still impressed with how efficiently everything is set up to quickly process food, clothing, and entertainment! Along with that, it was obvious that the officers and management are very proud of their teams and everything they accomplish in these small moving cities.

Once we docked, I was corralled to my bus as we were heading to a National Park that boasted having the largest waterfall in the country. When we arrived, the area reminded me of the Iguazu Falls park where there’s a well maintained trail, mostly made of wooden planks, that guide the tourists in a circle around the different features. We followed our guide along the path and arrived at the lowest point of the park, where they had various booths set up where you could buy food, drinks, and souvenirs. The guide said we had 50 minutes here before we’d continue back to the bus. He also suggested that if we didn’t want to wait, we could continue on as there was really only one way out and then we could take our time. I opted for that option, so off I went.

The falls were immediately next where you could see them from the bridge that crossed over the river.

What the guide failed to emphasize was how many steps we would have to climb to get back to the bus. He had implied that the way back was shorter than the way down, which intuitively meant it would be a steeper climb, but it was somewhere between 100-200 steps to climb. (I didn’t count them and Google provided that range.) Either way, it was a strenuous exercise up and I was rewarded with a slushy!

Back on the ship, I headed to Spinnaker Lounge; again to try to capture some remaining cell service. While there, they announced that a Murder Mystery game would be starting soon! Woohoo! (Apparently I really should start reading the daily schedules…) Anyway, I decided to join in and dutifully got my packet of information, sat down, waiting for the game to begin. The staff explained that inside our envelopes, we’d find a few letters, including statements from each of the suspects. There were also a few other pieces of paper with clues. After he said it was time to begin, we began reading. The back story was that a circus performer died while performing her act, but it was likely due to losing consciousness from being drugged. The suspects included her sister, best friend, fiancé, a clown, and an opposing circus manager. Fairly quickly, it was obvious that two of the five suspects were not guilty, so I started focusing on the others. Since we only had 20 minutes to solve the mystery, the coordinator gave us some helpful hints, which then eliminated another of the suspects, so I was down to two - the best friend or the fiancé. The clues pointed to the best friend, but I couldn’t really figure out the motive as what I could ascertain didn’t quite measure up to what I’d consider worth killing for, but alas, I made my proclamation and was correct! The best friend killed her because she was in love with her fiancé and found out the victim was cheating on the fiancé with the clown, so she killed her to get a chance at the fiancé. In my mind, I don’t quite understand what would be enough motivation to kill someone, but it was the answer. Anyway, I won some NCL swag, like playing cards and a little bag.

Saturday, September 19: Koper, Slovenia

Today was an early start with a meeting time of 8am. We were heading to the Postojna Caves, which are so large, they constructed an electric train to move people in and out of them!

The train runs for about 5 km (~3 miles) deep into the mountains before the passengers get out to walk the rest of the way. Now, I have very active situational claustrophobia and yet, I decided to give this a try. Fingers crossed that caves which are so far underground that there’s no chance of escape in the event of a collapse doesn’t cause my mind to freak out, triggering the “flight” of Fight or Flight response (aka passing out). [Post Edit - What is ironic is that I am writing about this while in an extremely long tunnel on a high speed train between Rome and Milan and can feel my anxiety growing the longer we’re in the complete darkness… ]

After going through the ticketing and security process, we loaded onto the trains. These were two by two on little benches, but sat tons of people. I didn’t count, but it was a very long train, which meant that we didn’t wait too long before starting our trip into the depths of the Earth.

I did not hold on tight as the train did not move very quickly, but soon enough, we entered the first of the massive caverns. As we did, the audio guide we received at check-in told us about the formation of the different features. I recommend using Google to find out more if you’re interested as I was definitely not listening one bit. Instead, my head continued to jerk from one side to the other as we passed different areas of interest, including passing through one room that had a giant chandelier installed in the center of with additional fancy sconces on the walls, just like a giant ball room.

Approximately 15 minutes later, we arrived at the depot where we exited the train to start the walking tour. When I read about the adventure, I saw that it included 90 minutes of walking, but what I didn’t expect was the first 15 minutes was almost straight uphill on a wet and fairly slippery surface. Trying to balance my camera, phone, audio guide that did not have a headset (you had to hold it to your ear), and being ready to grab the railing in the event of a slip meant that somethings had to give. Since you are looking at photos, you may have already guessed which of these items was not a priority. That plus my listening skills are pretty lacking when there is so much to visually absorb.

Once up the hill (I think they called it White Mountain), the rest was mostly downhill as we shuffled as a giant mass through the pre-determined route. One of the coolest things I saw was that a Stalagmite and Stalactite were just barely separated and should form a column. As they only “grow” about 1 cm every 100 years, there’s a chance it will connect this century. Just really cool to me how the earth is continuing to grow and change naturally.

Anyway, eventually, we got back to the train stop, where we loaded back on for our journey back out, which followed the same route as the way in. When we emerged into the daylight, I realized that at no point did I feel at risk of passing out in the caves! Woohoo!

One thing I’ve realized about ship excursions is they like to combine two very different experiences into one longer adventure. Today, along with the caves, we also got to stop at a Castle that was built into a mountainside. We didn’t have enough time to go into the castle, so it was just a 15 minute photo stop. On our way there, the guide told us a story about one of its inhabitants where he was an outlaw from the army, so they just decided to stay outside the castle and assume he’d starve to death or surrender. What they didn’t know was there was a back entrance via a tunnel to the other side of the mountain. Because of the different weather patterns, the other side had strawberries earlier than the army side, so he taunted them with fresh strawberries, which obviously confused them. However, at some point, the army managed to bribe one of the servants for information and they were able to shoot a cannon at the outhouse when he left the safety of the castle in the middle of the night to do his business. See, I listen sometimes!

Once back at the port, we still had quite a bit of time before all-aboard, so I headed to the Old Town area to explore, hoping to find some lunch. When I got to the top of the hill (yes, there are a lot of hills in my stories…), I saw a large city square so I headed towards it. In addition to an ongoing wedding, they also had two little cafes, so I found myself a table so I could people watch as the reception continued just outside the church.

There are times when I don’t know what I’m ordering and today was one of those days. However, it was very tasty!

After lunch, I wandered a bit more through the town, but surprisingly, most of the shops were closed, so eventually I headed back to the ship. Slovenia seems like a very cool country to visit longer, so I’ve added it to my Go Back list!

Sunday, September 20: Venice, Italy (Kind of)

I try not to criticize the cruise lines too often, but I honestly don’t know how they can advertise that the journey ends in Venice. It actually drops you off in Ravenna Cruise Port, where it’s about a 20 minute drive to the Ravenna Train Station. NCL offered a bus transport to the station, including one group to leave at 7:30am and the other group to leave at 9am. I opted for the 9am slot, but that also meant I needed to leave some time for delays before my train departed, so I ended up on an 11:30am train to Venice. The fastest route takes about 2 hours and 45 minutes, including one connection. I arrived in Venice just before 3pm. Next up was to tackle how to get to my hotel which was about a mile or so from the train station. There were three options: (1) Take a water taxi directly from the station to my hotel, but this option cost about €100, (2) Walk, but I had my giant pack on and was already pretty tired from the day’s adventures, and (3) Take the water bus, which was only about €10 and had a stop within 6 minutes walk to my hotel, so mixture of both options. I took Option 3. Obviously.

I asked the helpful ticket lady, which platform went to Rialto bridge, because for some reason the platforms are labeled with letters while the routes are labeled with numbers. It is not intuitive that Route 1 leaves from Platform E, but that’s what it is. Anyway, I thought I had read that both Routes 1 and 2 go to Rialto bridge, but she told me to head to Platform E, so I did. When I arrived, there was a very long line. Just like other public transportation options, if the bus is full, it doesn’t stop. There were a few full buses before we’d get to load onto one, which meant the line moved very, very slowly. At one point, that water taxi option was looking pretty attractive. However, I stayed in line and eventually arrive in my room just before 4pm.

This is why I say that I don’t think cruises should be able to advertise Venice as a port since I literally spent almost the entire day traveling to Venice from the ship. So if you are reading this and thinking you’d like to see Venice - fly there.

Anyway, after all of that, I had a quick shower and decided to treat myself to a good meal. Knowing that Italians really don’t eat dinner until after 7pm, I hoped that I could find a restaurant serving dinner at 5pm. Using Google Maps, I found a nice restaurant that had good reviews for their pasta, so I headed in that direction. Another benefit was it was only about 10 minutes from my hotel.

The restaurant has a cute little outdoor courtyard which had a few other tables seated, so I wasn’t the only crazy one eating so early. I ordered the beef tartar and some kind of pasta with duck. I know this may be considered blasphemy in Italy, but I still don’t really like pasta. The duck and beef were phenomenal though!

After dinner, I slowly wandered back to my hotel where I decided to call it a night with the intention to get up early and go explore before the rest of the crowds started waking up.

Monday, September 21: Venice, Italy

My early morning didn’t really become a thing, but I made it to my 9am walking tour about 1 hour early, so I had some time to explore St Mark’s Square.

I joined my walking tour and we set off to hear about all the different neighborhoods of Venice. I’ll say that I didn’t learn too much and this time, it’s not because I wasn’t listening. The strategy the guide took on was to just point out something and ask if we saw it. “Did you see the black buildings?” “Look over there, do you see it?” We weaved our way all around the city though, so we did see a lot!

Eventually, we found our way back to the starting point, where I politely left quickly to go in search of something else to do.

One of my tricks for keeping up with recommended places and things to do is to save the places to a list in my Google Maps. Whenever I have time to spare, I pull up the list associated with that location and see if there was anything nearby.

Indeed there was! The Florian Tea House - the oldest located in Venice. As it was brunch time, I figured now was as good of time as any to see if there was availability. I had visions of the cafe we went to in Buenos Aires called Cafe Tortoni, where we had to wait in line for a bit before a table was available. As I started to negotiate internally about how long I was willing to wait, but was pleasantly surprised that as I approached the door, the waiter welcomed me in and lead me to a spot in the front room, which had a window opened to the Terrace where the small orchestra was playing. It’s important to note the orchestra because each person pays €7 for the pleasure of listening to them. It’s included in your bill. (Side note: Most of the restaurants in Italy charge a small fee €2-4 just to sit at a table, so the additional fee was not too shocking.)

Given that it was such a fancy location, I decided to treat myself to a proper Turkish coffee with a very sugary pastry. As I slowly consumed, trying to extend my time to get the most of my €7 orchestra concert, I chatted with the lovely ladies at the table next to mine. They were niece / aunt combo from Australia who were in the area, taking part in a ceramic school in Tuscany.

Once I finished my breakfast, I decided it was time for a snack. Good thing I was already at a cafe! Okay, not only did I want to continue to sit there, but I was also interested in trying the Florian Spritz that was listed as a specialty cocktail. With the drink, they served potato chips and olives. I still don’t like olives; although I feel the need to try them every time they are served, especially in Italy.

As I left and wandered around the maze that is Venice, I calculated the time before my next scheduled event and decided it was enough to make a laundry run. Swinging by my hotel, I picked up my Laundry bag and zigzagged my way as my trusty Google Maps lady told me where to go. When I arrived, I was happy to find that the system was simple, unlike what we dealt with in Athens… Pick a machine, pay the other machine, and off you go to wait. The only unfortunate part was the card payment was broken, so it required cash. While I often keep local currency with me, I still prefer to pay with card when possible. But alas, I dutifully fed the bills and coins to start my washer.

With 40 minutes to wait, I headed out the courtyard, which conveniently had a shop to buy postcards and a canal where I could take photos.

Once the wash was through, I moved to the dryer. (Yes, obviously..) and waited another 20 minutes. Finally, was able to fold and pack, heading back to my hotel to drop it off before making my way back out.

With a bit longer to spend before finding my way to my excursion, I decided it was time to eat again. Along with olives, one of my other least favorite foods is pasta. I agree - Italy is lost on me if it weren’t for the pizza and wine! So I found a place nearby that had both!

Because the weather was wonderful and also because Air Conditioning is almost none existent in Europe, the restaurants tend to keep all windows and doors open. This creates opportunities for the local wildlife to find their way in, so it becomes completely normal to have pigeons waddling among the table legs, hoping for crumbs to drop. Surprisingly, they don’t jump up on the tables, but wait patiently on the floor.

From there, it was finally time for my first Gondola Ride! I’ll admit, I had been warned that a gondola ride may be anticlimactic given how special they are advertised as. So I lowered my expectations and headed towards the meeting point. Now, it’s generally a bit of a scavenger hunt to find the right person or flag in some of these tourist stops because you have to find the exact one that’s expecting you - someone they’ve never seen before in their life and may or may not have your name displayed. For the meeting point, it was very close to where I met for the walking tour. I had hoped that since it was the same company that organized the rides, the spot would be the same. It was not. Somehow, I eagle-eyed a clipboard across the square with my last name, but the guide was talking to another few people and shortly started off away from me. Thinking that I was late (although I was still 15 minutes early), I quickly caught up to the group, but couldn’t get to the guide. Finally, we all made it to the Gondola stop where I patiently waited to catch the guide’s attention as he settled the other people with boats. He said something about getting back to the square to meet the others, including me, so I promptly spoke up. He seemed surprised that I was there and that I had followed him through the streets, but that I was indeed in the correct spot and got me settled with a boat.

Within 5 minutes, I found myself sitting in my own private gondola on my way along the canals of Venice. What typically looks like a nice quiet ride with a lovely gondolier singing in the moonlight was more like a cattle herding process as dozens of gondolas lined up as if on a conveyor belt thought the city. There was no singing. Or even talking with the guide. I did get a photo though. Regardless, unless this is an absolute cannot do without item on your bucket list, I suggest watching from the sidelines and save your money.

Tuesday, September 22: Florence, Italy

I’ll admit, I didn’t know much about Florence before arriving, so I didn’t plan much other than knowing that my travel agent booked me a 7.5 hour walking tour on the second day. Therefore, I decided to take it a bit easy on arrival day, exploring just a few different locations and planned to eat a very large Italian dinner at the time Italians typically eat dinner, which happens to be after 7:30pm.

Arriving to my hotel around noon, I dropped my bags and headed to explore. My main point of interest was the Leonardo Da Vinci’s interactive museum. On my way, my stomach started to rumble, but I was prepared to ignore it until I passed by an English pub with a sign for soft pretzels. (I really am easily persuaded when pretzels are involved…) So I took a slight break at The Fiddler’s Elbow for a pint and a pretzel.

Satisfied, I continued my trek to the museum. On my way, I passed a ridiculous amount of statues and highly decorated churches. Again, knowing those would all likely be on my tour the following day, I did not get distracted and continued to follow the voice in my head. The speaker was my Google Maps narrator. She did very well in Venice, surprisingly given the maze of alleyways, but wasn’t so exact in Florence, leaving me to continue to stop and confirm where I was going often.

However, I made it to the museum! It was interesting to learn about how Da Vinci was really just interested in inventing and creating, but those around him used his tools primarily to create war machines. The exhibits were focused on a lot of his gears and machinery creations that you could rotate and watch different features interact to create the affiliated results, such as a Ball Bearings and Pinions.

Deciding it was time for a nap, I headed back to the hotel. With a hotel named the Grand Adriatico Hotel and after looking at some photos on the internet, I expected a fancy, modern room. This was not the case. The room was nice, but aged. However, it was very quiet! It was set apart from the other rooms and just next to a storage closet. All I really care about is no bugs, clean, and a comfortable bed. The rest is just gravy.

(I mention bugs because apparently, while either at the train station waiting to go to Venice or in Venice, I must have gotten two dozen bug bites! But they didn’t start itching until Florence. I was a bit panicked, thinking it was bed bugs, given the condition of my hotel room. After a few days and a lot of Googling different types of bug bites in Italy, it is likely I was bitten by Biting Midges aka Sand Flies aka no-see-ums. Whatever they are called, the bites were most annoying! But it was not bed bugs, which is good because that would have caused a whole lot of issues that I am not prepared to deal with on this trip. Anyway, back to Florence…)

After a nap, it was still too early to go eat dinner, so I found a cute little Wine Bar instead. It had wifi and cheese. The wines served were all local and while I am not quite sure which I actually tried, I will say there was one that Red that was aged in Oak that was exceptionally tasty.

Now that I had my fill of wine and cheese, it was finally time to go get dinner! I had picked out a steakhouse that was near my hotel, which happened to only be a block from the Wine Bar.

I’m not sure if I’ve admitted this in my Wrap Ups to date, but one of the most uncomfortable situations I find myself in often is going to dinner by myself. The act of eating alone isn’t the issue, it’s more about the response of the wait staff or lack there of, which tends to be the issue for me. I realize there are a lot of stereotypes around middle-aged women or solo diners, and I happen to be both, so I was pleasantly surprised when the hostess / waitress greeted me immediately, sat me immediately in a prime table by the window, and quickly returned to get my drink order. She listened intently when I asked for recommendations and provided her opinions with explanations. I ended up ordering three courses and they were timed very well, with some rests between each dish, but not so long that I started to feel forgotten. It was refreshing to be treated with such service! Plus the food was delicious! I started with Bruschetta, followed by a mushroom risotto, and finished with a filet of steak with grilled vegetables. Needless to say, I was properly stuffed and ready to pass out, which I did as soon as I got back to the hotel.

Wednesday, September 23: Florence, Italy

As mentioned, I did not do my research into Florence because I knew that my agent booked me a “See-All” walking tour. However, the night prior, I did actually look up where I was headed today so I was not completely ill-informed. Still a bit full from the dinner last night, I skipped breakfast assuming we’d have some time along the tour. (This is never a good assumption and you’d think that I’d learn my lesson at some point…)

Off I went, to the meeting point. With Railbookers, which is the company that coordinated this entire portion of my trip, they send a package of information, including the tour tickets and starting spots. All I have to do is copy the address over to my Google Maps and follow the nice lady’s voice to my destination. Which is what I did this morning. Upon arrival, I realized that the description of the meeting point was not as easy to find as it seemed. In the description, it said to meet at the Towns of Italy Kiosk located in the left arches, facing the Apple Store. I found the Apple Store easy enough, but could not find the kiosk nor was there anyone who looked like a guide nor other tourists trying to find the guide. Because I was there early, I convinced myself just to stay put and wait. Also, I didn’t have any other ideas on where to go. When the official meeting time was within 5 minutes and still no guide or other people in sight, I started to call the number on the ticket. Just as I hit send, I see a women in a Guide’s uniform come strolling into view. Apparently, the meeting location had been changed and I just didn’t get the memo. She lead me to the new spot, where the rest of the group was waiting.

The morning portion of the tour was a street walking tour, where she lead us to the famous Wild Boar statue and the replica of the David statue. Just before noon, we were getting in line for the Academia Gallery, which is where the real David statue is housed now. Apparently there are now three David statues - the original, the plaster one we saw earlier, and a bronze one that was the first replica, but people didn’t like it, so they moved it and put the newer plaster one in it’s place. With that said, the original is breathtaking! You’d think that after seeing the replica, the original would be a bit of a “meh”, but that was not the case! The details in the marble displayed Michelangelo’s mastery. Throughout the tour, the guide continued to express that his one passion was sculpting. He did the other things, like painting the Sistine Chapel, because the Pope or some rich guy asked him to. It’s crazy to think about how skilled he was in all different arts, but if given the choice, would have only created sculptures.

Our guide also continued to explain Michelangelo was a short man with the stereotypical associated complex, meaning he had an ego that was opposite his height and it often got him into arguments. Once, it resulted in getting his nose broken, which never really healed correctly.   Because he lived at the time of Da Vinci, that also created a bit of a rivalry between the two, pushing each other to constantly improve and invent.

Leaving the gallery, I was hoping for lunch. My wish was granted! But what I didn’t know until now is that lunch was not with the group. We were done with this guide for the day and going to meet up for the afternoon portion with a new guide and group in a few hours, at the original meeting location. This time, I asked the guide to drop a pin in my Maps so that I started at the right spot this time around.

With the free time, I headed straight to food. Finding a pizzeria, I plopped down and ordered immediately. While the pizza was not the best that I’ve ever had, it definitely hit the spot which was the massive void in my stomach.

Once I was satisfied and still had some time to waste, I headed off to look for shoes. There were a few stores nearby that might have a pair that could replace three pairs that currently take up too much space in my pack. While I found a pair that I really liked, they did not have my size and suggested I needed to look in the men’s section. As I was not ready to accept this (yet), I left and headed to join the next tour.

For the afternoon, we were off to the Uffizi Galleries, which is known for being the home of many famous paintings. I took photos of them, but cannot quite recall the official names. Anyway, our guide was extremely knowledgeable. It felt like we were getting a crash course in Art History. Given that I had been on my feet since 8:30am (except for the brief lunch break) and the galleries were very crowded, I was starting to lose focus somewhere around hour 2 of the 3 hour excursion. I’m actually surprised that I lasted that long, but since we had the little ear pieces to hear the guide in the galleries, this meant that I could wander a bit, while still listening to her explain the progression from the Gothic to Renaissance eras as it related to Religious depictions of the Holy Family.

Once we were free, I had one spot that I wanted to go back to find that we passed earlier in the day - The Wine Window. Yes. It’s a small little window in the side of a building that you can order a glass of wine from. That’s it. Just wine or spritz. You ring a little bell. The door pops open. You place your order and pay. Then a few minutes later, you have a drink in your hand. It’s fantastic! Our guide warned us earlier that if you want the “authentic” wine window, you have to check that the facade isn’t plastic, but to be honest, I’m not sure that would have mattered to me. However, I went to the one she recommended.

With a late lunch, I chose not to have the extra large dinner again and set off towards the Wine Bar from the night prior, figuring some charcuterie would be sufficient for the evening. Plus it was close to the hotel. (I feel a bit cheated in my step count for the day because my phone did not register the time we were just standing around and only showed 17,500 for the day.)

I’m finishing this Wrap Up while on the train in Austria. As I don’t have anything scheduled the rest of today, I’m hoping for a cute little scenic coffee shop or hotel lobby where I will continue to write about the next week of my adventures. However, I’m headed to where a lot of the Sound of Music was filmed, so I may end up on a self-guided walking tour for the afternoon.