Even though I had walked my way out of Firenze last night to check the route for cycling, this morning I woke up knackered from the last two days and decided to train it to Siena about 64 kms down the road. Now a little bit about train travel in Italy. When you get to the train station, don't panic. Just about everyone there is going through the same trauma that is playing out inside your head. I do not know if it was because Firenze has a smaller train station but the atmosphere was more intense than say Milano and people were everywhere. Here's the thing, take a step back, relax and observe. They have automatic touch screen fast ticket machines which are easy to use. You press the English button so you get the instructions in English, press another button to purchase hotel minneapolis the ticket, enter your destination by simply typing it in and the correct option appears, for me it was select one-way and then a list of time schedules appear. You select the one you want and my advice is to get one that is leaving in about 1 hours time so you are not stressing about catching the one that might already be on the platform. First is not always best. You then pay for the ticket and it comes out of the machine. All you then do is look at the departure board (not arrivals) and find the train going to your destination. The board will tell you the time and platform number. The ticket may not give this exact information, don't worry just look at the board. Now paying for the ticket is straight forward. I strongly suggest you have a credit hotel minneapolis card at hand it makes it easier. A voice in the machine will direct you to insert your card and then enter your pin number- it does the rest. It tells you to remove your card and wait for the ticket to be printed. It then drops down into a little pocket, a bit like ordering a can of coke from a machine, and there you have it. The only think you must, must do after that is validate the ticket on the platform before you get on the train. If a validation machine is not working go to one that is. Now having said all that it seems it does not really matter which train you catch even if you have selected say the train leaving at 2pm and you see one leaving earlier hop on it and you should be fine. The other thing us that I have a bike so I had to buy a ticket for the bike which was under Other options, a bicycle ticket supplement comes up and you do the same as buying a normal ticket. I also validated this ticket in the machine. One more thing. Look for the bike symbol on the train carriage, that is where the bike goes. You can stay with it. The carriages are also marked 1 or 2 for first or second class, just get a second hotel minneapolis class ticket when you order from the machine and hop on that carriage. It will not guarantee you a seat but don't worry about that, it is just like getting on a bus. My journey to Siena cost me about 8 plus 3 for the bike. Now having said all that, here is what happened today!
I selected hotel minneapolis a ticket for an afternoon hotel minneapolis departure and was settling back to kill some time waiting for the train when I noticed the one already on the platform had been delayed 10 minutes. hotel minneapolis I grabbed the bike and walked around to the platform only to see about 100 people getting off the train and running hotel minneapolis frantically to another train at the end of the platform. I realized there was a problem with the train and hopping hotel minneapolis on my bike cycled passed all the running passengers. The 'new' train had reduced carriages but one was a bike carriage so I just got on that one and found my spot. The rest of the crowd who had been on the original train filed in after me. An Australian family hopped on in the rush and had their travel crisis moment . The hubby is trying to reassure his wife, she's losing the plot and the daughter is just saying "calm down!" You see everyone goes through it- that's travel and made more difficult in a foreign country because you can see 100 people rushing off your train and you have no idea what is going on. I let it ride because I knew they were on the right train and the moment hotel minneapolis would pass- it did and in 30 minutes she was taking hotel minneapolis photos with her iPad. Now one more think about today. I booked a low cost hotel in Siena through booking.com a great system, but in picking a cheaper option I ended up in a dump. This hotel had been built in 1959 and took great pride in celebrating it's fiftieth birthday in 2009- this is the year they should have knocked it down. It was like a converted hospital- you know that smell and the carpets, just stop me there. I tried to get on the internet but it was useless and the guy at the desk was up himself- to say the least. I just decided to use their hotel computer hotel minneapolis to book another hotel in Siena, paid them the 50 - I had used the toilet and got my money's worth. When I left the guy says to me "perhaps sir did not like the room?" - kapowee I'm out of there! I started looking for this other hotel and can't find it. The only map I had showed only half the city. I go to this place to ask someone about the street I'm looking for and show them my half a map, they point at it gesticulating at the missing half and then said "you must go down this way". In the end I went into a shop got a guide book to Siena with a map and found out I had passed this street an hour ago. The place is called Palazzo Fani Mignanelli Residenza d' Epoca. You enter through a florist shop and take a lift which is behind the shop to the 3rd floor. Look it up, it is now on my recommendation list. You just know when something is right or wrong, you follow your instincts. I booked in and headed out for late sightseeing hotel minneapolis to make up for lost time knowing I had a comfortable home to come back too. Actually that is exactly what the guy said when I booked in "this is like your home". Travel hey, what stories we could tell! I might have blown 50 but I will make that up somewhere down the line. I made the right decision. No photos today. Moving on tomorrow.
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