The Alps – Our First and Only View

Today was a travel day where we were leaving France and moving into Italy.  We had to catch our train by 10:40 so we got up a bit earlier just in case.  Had a quick breakfast and stripped our beds as that’s what we had to do in the hostel.  They didn't make us clean the toilets though!  Picked up some food for lunch and jumped on the Metro.  We all got our dose of rush hour in a big city.  Us with our backpacks on, me with my big pack on my back and daypack on the front and managed to wedge ourselves onto the car.  Every stop more people got on and just kept cramming onto the train.  It was pretty comical to watch the door open, the person trying to get on strategize for a second, and then just pushed on backwards.  When the door finally closed on a few they almost pinched their nose in the door it was that full!  Some tall guy got in so Shan had a nice butt view for half a dozen stops. Finally we got off and jumped on a different subway that wasn't nearly as full. 

The other funny thing I've discovered

around here is how people can be looking at you but they really aren't looking.  Not sure if that’s a European thing or I've just been living in a small town for a long time. It’s amazing how all these people crammed in a tight space and no one makes eye contact.  Anywhere you go, sidewalks, train stations about the only people you can get to acknowledge you are older people and most of time you get a big smile and a big “Bonjourno”.  Even with kids you know all sorts are checking us out as we hoof down the street with our backpacks on but they’re very efficient at looking away before you can make eye contact!  All these things make me realize how much I love living in a small town!!!

Got to the train station with tonnes of time and met this older Italian man and had a great banter back and forth.  Me trying to understand Italian and he was just having fun with me.  Turns out he worked at the train yard and brought back a couple of treats for the girls.  It was a really fun experience and was great for the girls to see that if you start a conversation with someone, you never know where it will go.  I learned some Italian and I think he liked being treated like a person and not just a garbage collector.  Sure made our day.

I know I've said this a ton but train travel is awesome.  As we left Paris once we got out of the dense housing it turns to instant farms.  They sure know how to pack a pile of people

into a small area and utilize every piece of available land.  The other thing those centuries of occupation do is all the streams run in straight lines, everything is ditched and planned.  Even the forestry that I've seen so far is in perfect rows as you pass by on the train.  It looks like most of the forestry is coppice planting where they harvest small areas (50x50 meters) of deciduous trees for firewood and then just let them grow back.  They've got a pile of these small areas that are in different stages of growth and just cycle through them to get firewood.  I've seen small areas of Douglas fir, spruce and a bit of pine planted in areas but there really isn't much more and can’t be good for much as it would grow so fast here.  As we headed south-east there were more forests as we started getting into the mountainous regions of the outer Alps. 

The other incredible thing over here is the infrastructure.  If someone decided to put a train track down, nothing stopped them!  Bridge, tunnel, another tunnel, you just rip by them.  I tried to take a number of pictures of the landscape but ended up with just a black tunnel as we popped in and out of them.  Through a major tunnel and suddenly we were in Italy!  Coming down the other side of the Alps and we had a few incredible views of huge mountain peaks that tower over everything else.  We could only get a few glimpses of these massive peaks up in the clouds but it was impressive.  Down the other side and suddenly we were in Turin.

Our hotel tonight was only a few blocks from the station so with our packs on our backs we trooped along and eventually found it.  It was a pretty nice place in the older district of Turin but the interesting piece was trying to get into our room door.  It couldn't have been more than two feet across and trying to get in with a backpack was definitely a challenge.  We got a recommendation for a good traditional Italian restaurant as it was our first day in Italy and we sure weren't disappointed.  It was a family run restaurant and although we only had the pasta part of the usual huge multi course meal they eat here, it was all made on the premise and wow, was it good.  We all had dessert and decided to take a stroll through the city.  The architecture really stood out for me with the concrete and stone buildings but the wood doors were amazing, 10 ft high and 4 to 8 feet wide.  They were beautiful super thick doors.  Some doors enabled them to drive their cars onto their premise and others were just walking doors.  Gotta love old woodwork, the talent, and the attention to detail from back in the day.