Salzburg 1

We ate in tonight, the rest of my soup with nice slices of fresh bread and butter we got from the market.

As I wake up this morning, I look out of our large window at a beautiful day, watching the white cloud banks scraping across the mountain tops from west to east, saying, today I bring good weather, for after all it's Sunday in Italy.  And come to think of it, other than the odd birds, we have not seen any other form of wild life.

As I went down to the lobby to fetch the latest email, I learned that our good friends arrived ok, last night, their time, at our house in P.O. and I hope are by now sound asleep.  

Here a few more ½ theory items.  Here they have nice and simple wall light toggle switches, but they are less than ½ size from US ones.  There are wooden pallets in the isles of larger markets with sales items on them, but they are ½ size.  

Now I'm sure that in large cities such as Rome, Munich, Berlin and say Amsterdam there are supermarket chains that have larger stuff, but other than that everything I smaller here.  Smaller cars, smaller shower stalls, smaller kitchens, smaller pots and pans, etc.

I think the reason why there aren't  so many obese people in Europe, it's because here people don't buy so much food in one go, they don't buy so large quantities at once, family or not.  They don't stuff their freezers, (if they have one), full of food and then eat it.  

I remember my mother  buying fresh food items every day or every other day, especially meat, vegetables and fruit.  As she would drag me along, she would buy some meat at the butcher shop, the butcher would give me a pickle from the Pickle barrel or a small hand full of sauerkraut which I would eat while my mother shopped.  I don't remember having a freezing compartment in our fridge, I barely remember having a fridge, it was more like an icebox.  When we wanted some ice cream, we would go to the store and get a cone.  I do remember that there were horse driven ice wagons, where a guy would ice-pick-off a smaller chunk of ice from a larger block, swing it on his leather covered shoulder and would take it to a business, or even a home.  We as kids would follow that wagon and get these small ice chips and suck on them, but I regress. . 

A quick evaluation of this RCI facility in Sestriere:  Besides the fact that it is a winter destination and dead in the summer, wifi is very weak, the kitchen is super tiny, the door to the balcony can not be kept closed when you on the baloney, heat available only from 7to9 pm, it has great bunk beds.  

Last day transitioning and moving out of this RCI unit is always a pain.  We had zero luck finding a car to rent on Salzburg on line from here.  So we're going to try getting some help from the car rental places at the airport when we are returning this car in Torino.  We would then catch a bus to the train station and on to the fast train to Milano at 10am.  (well that didn't happen).

Anyway, as the train is speeding thru the Italian country side, parallel  to the Alps, I have a few minutes to recall this morning, always exciting when it comes to moving day.  

We left our RCI crows nest a few minutes after 7am.  We worked it out backwards to hopefully catch the 10am train from Turino to Verona and then on to Innsbruck Austria.  Well, it's was not  exactly to go that way.  We got to the Turino airport ok, to return the car, but all that took a little longer than figured.  Then with a slow bus to the train station but missed the 10 o'clock speedster then took the next one at 11:19.  Well, a well meaning young Italian buck urged us on to a train that arrived on the same track just a few minutes earlier, we got on, but left at 11:06.  We were on the wrong train, a slower train, tho going in the same direction.  The conductor suggested to change train at the next major stop ahead and get on the right train that followed us, it was faster but left later.  We did that.  We are now sitting in the fast train heading for Verona.  Verona came and went and we now are on the train to Innsbruck !  

Innsbruck is one of our favorite places.  I flagged down an elderly local lady who sent us in the direction of a nearby (tree star hotel --- tooooop expensive).  They in turn directed us to a small Pension a block away, Pension Stoi.  A fantastic, new-ish and very clean place with good beds, a bathroom with shower, a view out onto a vegetable garden, and good free wifi !!!  After a good nights sleep, we got ourselves a SIM card, €15. for Austria for one month.  So immediately called Runi in St. Gilgen to see if it worked . . . bingo it did !! Now we are in communication with everything and anybody in Austria.  

(I just looks up, and and it says that our train is traveling 220km/hr,)

We had some coffee and toast at a little cafe, then packed up and walked 10 minutes to the train station.  We are now on the train to Salzburg.