Wanderung 27

Another day of traveling and hoping that everything worked out as planned. Step 1 was the airplane ride from Hamburg over Brussels to Rome using a small airline, Brussels Air. But first we had a last nice breakfast with Heinke and Gustle and then Heinke and Gustl drove us to the airport. Check-in was easily found and we did not have to pay for the luggage. The plane left on time and got us quickly into Brussels. There we found a lunch counter and enjoyed the statue of a bull by the counter – I could have understood the bull if this were Barcelona, but Brussels? But the sandwiches were good and we were ready to tackle the rest of the day.

The flight to Rome was interesting. I had a window seat and managed to take a few pictures of the Alps as they were peaking out through the clouds.

In Rome, our luggage again had come with us and we were ready to try the Italian public transportation system. We found the train station easily, bought our tickets, and got onto the train that should have left 5 minutes ago. We found a seat and managed to stow our luggage without taking up too much space. To my surprise, this train going into the city in the evening starting to fill up. A lady next to us, who had spent a year in our area, explained that there were a lot of offices around the train line and people had to go into town to get back to their homes. Well it was similar for us: the airport is west of the center of Rome and Civitavecchia a lot more north and west, so we also had to go into town before we could transfer to the line going up to Civitavecchia. At the first train station in Rome where we could catch the train to Civitavecchia, our friendly travel companion made sure that we got out to make the switch. Unfortunately, there were no working elevators, so we had to lug our suitcases down one set of stairs and up another. But we go to the right platform and the next train to Civitavecchia came quickly. This tain was, however, full and we had to stand. But after a day of sitting that was not too bad.

By the time we arrived in Civitavecchia it was dark, but not that late. I had printed out a Google map, but it was not all that good. We started walking the direction we thought we should be going, but when we could not find the street, we stopped at a store to ask...our mistake. The ladies had no idea were the street was - although it was only 3 streets over, as we later found out. They asked the help of a nice young man, who offered to show us. He led us for about 10 minutes up a few streets to a hotel. This was not it, but the proprietor had a map and drew in the best route, back down the hill, to the B&B. Our guide set back out with us and in another 10 minutes we reached our destination, that was only 5 minutes from the railroad station. Next time I will try to get a better map!!!

But at the B&B we were expected and although the proprietress was not there yet, she had left a little note telling us how to get into the place and where our room was. It was a nice big room on the first floor with a comfortable looking bed. We both collapsed for a little while, but then decided we needed some nourishment although it was already past 8PM. A nearby grocery store was already closed, but a pizzeria around the corner was still open. For 4.80 Euros we both got a large piece of pizza and a large bottle of "birra" (English: beer) to share. We brought our repast back to our room, ate and turned in for the night.