Thank you!

It looks like a great time of year to be in Milan!!

but if we took the trip again, which we might, we would take the regular train, which we had booked for the trip back to Tirano. We had a second class carriage in the panoramic train and it was kind of chaotic. Enough so that we didn’t even open our lunch.

If only I had a nickel for every time I've suggested people do this very thing.

Glad you enjoyed it regardless.

It was, very festive, and surprisingly mild, especially when the sun was out. The morning we walked to Sforza Palace my phone claimed it was 36 degrees and we were basking on a bench in the sunshine, not feeling cold at all. Felt more like the high 40s. Even the day it rained felt fairly comfortable.

And I think you suggested it to us!

We were kind of glad we did the actual tourist train, but once was definitely enough. The big windows weren't much of an advantage, and while enjoyed the little souvenir tin boxes... It was hectic, and the way back was not (and we were glad to have first on the return).

After we got off the train, we reported back to the hotel and got officially checked in. Then we went to take a walk around and find something to eat since the hotel restaurant was not yet open. It turned out that it did not open until 7 PM which was in fact the standard opening time for all the restaurants in Tirano. This seemed kind of late to us. I know it’s Europe, but it’s a tourist area, and I would have thought six or so. Hiwever we had a nice walk around, resisted the temptation to make a meal of pastry since there were some cafés open, and DH did find something that opened at 6:30 and he and DS had some pizza. Then DS joined me in the hotel restaurant when it opened at seven, because he was very hungry and two dinners seemed expedient.

Light up Bernina express decoration.

Pastry

Hotel lobby

Decorations.

My dinner, which was very tasty, DS had fish.

The next day was another very early start, with a train back to Milan, then one to Zürich, and then one to Stuttgart. The train to Milan got very crowded as we got closer, and the transfer shouldn’t have been very tight, but did end up being kind of difficult and DH was very out of breath by the time we got on the train.

Now we did have reserved first class seats on the way to Zürich. However, when we got to those seats, there was an older lady sitting in them. She did not really want to move either, because while she did have a reserved seat of her own, she liked our seats better. We think at least partly so her mink coat could have a seat of its own.

She did, through another poor passenger, who was sort of pressed to translating,say that these seats were more comfortable for her, and that she didn’t think it was a problem because the carriage wasn’t very crowded and she was going only two stops. I wasn’t thrilled, but I did not want to argue with old ladies in languages that I don’t really speak, so I put DH in her seat so he wouldn’t have to move if more passengers came in looking for seats they had reserved, put DS in his own seat, and took the seat across from DS with the idea that I would move if I had to, and if the carriage got really crowded, we would try to have another conversation.

Fortunately, it wasn’t really crowded, and when she got off, we reclaimed our own seats. I will also say some of the scenery was really fabulous, particularly in Switzerland.

Scenery on the way to Zürich.

Now, this is an army that travels on its stomach, in case you hadn't figured that out already from all the snack pictures.

Once again, we left too early for breakfast and the hotel helpfully packed us snack bags, this time with little wedges of cheese and rolls filled with prosciutto cotto, both of which were very welcome, and we ate some of it on the way to Milan, and snacked on the rest throughout the journey. DS also went and got us a cheese plate and some sparkling wine from the cafe car on the train to Zurich.

Our theoretically tight connection in Zurich was fine, and while I'm sure they've changed the station building since then, the train hall seemed to be exactly the same as it had been on my previous visit, in 1975, and we navigated it with ease and got ensconced in our (very quiet) first class car for the trip to Germany. Train was fine, but this did seem like an awfully long ride (about three hours) to have no cafe car. There was a little bit of a beverage service and I had a coffee, but there wasn't even a trolley with snacks. So we were pretty hungry by the time we arrived in Stuttgart.

Stuttgart's train station is not fabulous, and was in the middle of renovations, making it even less fabulous. I swear it was at least a quarter mile, and possibly closer to half from the train to the (very confusing) taxi stand. Hotel, an Aloft was fine, and the desk staff was great, but the location really wasn't as good as it looked like it should be (at least for our purposes). Fabulous if you wanted to visit the Milaneo mall, and probably very good for some kinds of business travel, but not that great for the market. Also while it looked like it should be walkable to the train station, traffic chaos and construction made that not seem like a great idea (which was relevant the next day).

So anyway, we checked in, rooms were nice, hopped over to the mall to visit an Aldi, bought snacks, ate some of the snacks, and set off for the Christmas market on the U-bahn, a little later than we had hoped for.

Aldi

Christmas market


Gluhwein

Sausage

Cocoa

Dinner in Spanish restaurant

Dinner

Now the U-bahn was pretty straight forward, and reasonably accessibly, and we got off at Marktplatz.

The Christmas market is fabulous, but it didn't actually work all that well for us. Very little my husband could eat, crowded and kind of hard to navigate, and I kept getting artificial snow in my gluhwein. Then we had a hard time finding a restaurant my husband could eat in, and ended up in a Spanish one, because it was the only one that seemed to serve chicken. The chicken was very good. So was the rest of the meal.

Then we went to find an U-bahn station to get back to the hotel, and entered at Rathaus. Now, I had wanted to get a cab, but it did seem a little complicated since so much of the center is pedestrianized, and DH felt the U-bahn was pretty straightforward.

Now, at this point I was very tired, and there were stairs down to the platform, which I could do, but I was very slow. I'm also assuming we were obviously foreigners, if not necessarily Americans. And a man started following us, very obviously, including as we moved around the platform, hovering just a few feet away. To what end I don't know, but it was very disconcerting. We did talk to a young couple, who also saw him, and got some directions from them, since we knew we needed to change at Charlottenplatz.

At that point, we just hopped onto the next train since it seemed to be going to Charlottenplatz, instead of waiting for the one that we had intended to. And he followed us onto the train.

Fortunately, while he continued to stare at us, he did not get off at Charlottenplatz, and there were police on the platform there.

We were fine. Nothing actually happened, and we made it back to the hotel without incident, but we were pretty rattled, and completely uninclined to get back on the U-bahn.

So the next day, which we had intended to be fairly chill, but to go back to the market or take a train to Esslingen or Ludwigsburg, turned into a complete rest day. We went no further than the mall, especially since it was a fairly wet day anyway, and getting in and out of the train station seemed to be unnecessarily complicated. Also we had quite a bit of laundry at that point.

It is a very nice mall, and we bought quite a few snacks, some stickers for one of DH's colleagues, and lunch for the train the next day.

We also had dinner at a really cool burger restaurant called Hans im Gluck.

Burger restaurant

Menu

Stickers DH bought

Hans im Gluck decor

Waiting for more! Especially Paris. I love the "emotional support fur." I have some vintage furs but really can't wear them where I live. How many days were you traveling?

That building work in the station in Stuttgart - I visited before the works had started some years ago now (like maybe 10 - 12 years ago) and it was incredibly controversial. There was a very imposing station there which I guess you could be attached to (although I could never love Stuttgart or its previous station), and people took to the streets to try to prevent the building of a new station. Sounds like it is taking a long time to resolve. I will be interested to see the new one.

Lavandula

Two weeks in total, Saturday to Saturday, so really 14 days. It’s definitely cold enough here to wear a fur most winters. There were a couple of times when I was glad to have that fur on the trip, although I also wore my cloth coat a fair amount.

We weren’t completely sure what they were doing with it, although it was clearly very extensive, and it was a mess. Current station configuration is not super convenient either, really no place to wait except on the platform, or randomly propped up against a girder if your platform hasn’t been announced yet.

So after our very relaxed day in Stuttgart, we got up, breakfasted on stuff we had bought in the mall, and got a taxi to the station. We left a lot of time, and while it was boring, it was definitely a plus not to have to scramble for the train.

The train itself was nice, but very full. It is an all reserved train and we had reserved three seats out of four at a four top in the first class car.

We did have a neighbor, because it was very full, but the seats were comfortable, and we were settled in for a relatively comfortable journey. Then at some station, I do not remember which one, the train suddenly got very full.

This apparently was because the train from Mannheim had an issue, and despite being technically all reserved, they of course, took on as many stranded passengers as they could.

It was very squishy, there was actually a small child sitting under our table. She was very cute, and we were chatting to her parents who were very nice.

Finally, we got to Paris and we extracted ourselves and our luggage very slowly from the train and got out onto the platform and found a taxi stand.

Where we got a nice big taxi to our hotel, the Marriott Rive Gauche.

Then we got checked in, left our luggage in the room and went downstairs to the lobby to get a snack because it had been impossible to get anywhere near the restaurant car on the train and we were all quite hungry, plus we saw people eating frites in the lobby

From the train

From the taxi

From the taxi

DS having a well-deserved beer

Fizzy snack

Snack

Frites

After our snack, we called an Uber to take us to the Tuileries for the big market there.

This is where it becomes a tale of two Christmas markets. By almost anyone’s metrics, Stuttgart is much better.

The one in the Tuileries was better for us.

Better lit, more variety in food options, better layout. And while we didn’t go on any rides and they’re not a big draw for us, we don’t mind the fun fair aspect.

We ended up eating dinner in a temporary restaurant that was set up in a big tent, and not only was it warm and fairly comfortable. The food was surprisingly good. Actually everything we ate at the fair was good, and DH had a much easier time finding things to eat than he did in Germany.

After we had enough fair we walked around a little bit and then decided we needed a bathroom and a snack before we got into another Uber, so we stopped into a bistro and had drinks and dessert and then we called an Uber and went back to the hotel.

It is worth noting that many French or at least Parisian Ubers don’t really want three passengers. We had a fair number of rejections when they saw three, and one guy who was trying to get all three of us in his backseat, and when that failed, suggested that we call an UberXL.

I did not, because we really should not need one for three people, but apparently a fair number of them really do not want a passenger up with the driver, I’m assuming for safety considerations.