The Wagnersons met each other at 6:00 a.m. in the lobby of our hotel for a quick walk through the rain to the subway station.  It was a 14-minute subway ride to Milano Centrale, the main train station in Milan.  From there we took a two-and-a-half-hour train ride to Tirano, a small Italian community on the border of Italy and Switzerland.  Walking out of the Italian train station, we crossed the street and entered the Swiss train station.  Our reserved second class seats aboard the Bernina Express were waiting for us in Coach 23.  What a delightful and bright coach to travel in through the Swiss Alps.

As we settled in to our respective seats in Coach 23, we soon learned that our coach was also housing an escapee from a local tuberculosis clinic in the seat behind us.  Poor dear, she obviously was on her last legs and wanted to see the Swiss Alps before she passed on.  If we all could’ve gowned, gloved and masked up, we would have just to avoid any expelled lung tissue that might happen to be lying around.

With tight subway and train schedules, there had been no time for breakfast which meant around one hour into our two-and-a-half-hour train ride the ladies of our group were restless – and hungry.  In fact, their restlessness soon turned into a demand for action, any action that might score them some nutrition.  Now Doug and I are maybe not the brightest guys in the world, but we did understand that desperate times call for desperate measures.  So off we go, passing through the various train cars in search of the snack bar.  One crowded train car after another, we excused ourselves and fought our way through crowds searching for the elusive snacks to put a gleam of thanks in our respective wives’ eyes.  As we passed through another car and the door shut behind us, we saw that we had reached the engine and could go no further.  Turning to go back, that door had shut and locked!  We were now stuck…. Captured between the engine and the first passenger car.  Would our wives rouse to rescue us or would this become our own personal Swiss prison that we would eventually die in?  Looking at the bright side, Doug and I both realized that we at least had found a tuberculosis free zone.  We won’t bore you with the details but soon we were out of our short term prison and heading happily back to our wives, thankful that we had escaped a most certain death.  When Doug and I returned to Coach 23, our joy at simply just being alive was rapidly swallowed up by questioning stares of what do you mean you came back empty handed.  To make a long story shorter, let me report that we did find some snacks and nourishment for the four of us and everyone grew much happier at that accomplishment.

Arriving in St. Moritz, we took a taxi into town and our driver recommended a couple of restaurants to visit for lunch.  He gave us his business card, “Baren Taxi” and said to just ask any business in town to make a phone call to him and he will pick us up immediately.  We said goodbye and headed into a restaurant to eat a traditional Switzerland meal according to our waiter.  It was quite delicious but the capper was that they also had two different kinds of tequila and some of that was also ordered to sip with our meals.  After lunch we went shopping while I went searching for an ATM to replenish the cash in my wallet as we would soon be heading back to Italy.  I put my debit card in the ATM and requested 500 euros.  What emerged out of the ATM were definitely not Euros.  I was now the proud owner of 500 Swiss Francs.  What in the heck am I going to do with 500 Swiss Francs, an American dollar equivalent to $514?  That still remains to be seen.  I caught up with the group and we had 30 minutes before our train was leaving to return us to Italy.  We thought briefly about just hoofing it back to the train station and avoiding the taxi altogether but with less than a half hour before our train pulled out the decision was made to pull out the taxi card and find a local business to call our driver.  We walked into the nearest little business we could find and the proprieter looked surprised to see anyone.  His little yappy dog escaped out the door and while Doug tried to herd the yapster back in the shop, the gentleman was perplexed at the arrival of four tourists to his fine business establishment.  “Zies eez a travel agenzy” he kept repeating.  I finally said “I know, I was wondering if you would place a call to this number?”  He took the card and handed it back shaking his head saying, “Baren…..zay are closzed”  “No call…walk up zayer zru zee tunnel for zee taxi.  Zay vill come.”  May his little yappy dog run for a long, long time and never come back!

Rebuffed by this Swiss travel agent, we walked up through zee tunnel, I mean the tunnel and found the taxi stand.  As time ticked down before our train was pulling out without us, Lynda went into another business and the wonderful Swiss proprietor immediately called for us and told us the taxi driver would be with us in 2 minutes.  She apologized for our experience with the Swiss travel man.  Soon we were back onboard the train and heading back to Italy.  The rain and fog from our morning train into Switzerland was replaced by sun and blue sky immediately improving our return views.

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As our train is now pulling back into Tirano, Italy, I will temporarily end this post for the time being and pick up when we get back to Milan.

We found out upon our arrival in Tirano that our 6:08 pm train from Tirano to Milan was changed to 7:08 pm.  We now had an extra hour to kill in Tirano so what better way for killing time than to find a bar with appertivos (free snacks when you purchase a glass of wine).  So that is what we did.  The time flew by and we soon found ourselves on the train back to Milano.  The good part about all of this is that Doug was the only one with Euros still in his pocket and so he paid for everything from here on out.  What in the world to do with 500 Swiss Francs?  Doug has offered to give me 20 cents on the dollar for the value of each franc I have.  He says he is just trying to help me out.  What a guy!!

We finally arrived back home in Milan.  We stopped and had a quick dinner near the Duomo (the massive cathedral) that was all lit up and beautiful.

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We’ve now made it back to our hotel for some much needed rest.  Our plan is to head out in the morning for Florence and a day with Sam and Ruby who are there now waiting for us.