Innsbruck and Italy - February 2023

In February I had traveled from the UK to Amsterdam to visit the RIjksmuseum and the Vermeer exhibit (see previous post). While in Amsterdam I decided I would go further south, somewhere warmer, Tuscany perhaps.  I searched around for a sleeper train that would take me most of the way south and I found one from Amsterdam to Innsbruck. From there I could get another train south from Innsbruck to Florence. Or at least I thought I had found a sleeper from Amsterdam.

After I had finished my visit to the Rijksmuseum I was checking my train ticket and found that I had purchased a ticket from Amstetten to Innsbruck instead of from Amsterdam.  That was a surprise and a lesson learned that when buying tickets on my iPhone I need to wear reading glasses and pay close attention.  What to do - the Amsterdam to Innsbruck sleeper was now full and I didn’t want to sit upright in a seat all night.  I checked flights and I did find one very cheap, 120 Euros, from Amsterdam to Innsbruck so I bought a ticket and immediately headed out for the airport.  It was lucky that I checked my original ticket so early otherwise I would have been in a pickle if I had left it until later in the evening.

The flight was uneventful and I arrived in Innsbruck around 6:00 in the evening.  The pilot executed perfectly the landing in what must be a tight valley for a 737 jet.  The cheap, efficient, and timely bus from the airport to the train station was a pleasant introduction to Austria.  The short walk from the station to my hotel, the Sailer Hotel, was also easy.  

Innsbruck at night

I checked in and then went out for a walk around the city.  It looked very clean and tidy compared to London and Amsterdam and even though there was snow on the surrounding mountains it wasn’t too cold.

I had an excellent meal at the hotel’s restaurant - an old styled Austrian Gasthaus. I had a veal snitzel with potatoes and a very fine Austrian beer.

The River Inn in Innsbruck

The next morning I awoke early and explored the city some more.  There were some lovely buildings in the old section of town and the River Inn was flowing strong.  Everything was so neat and tidy and clean.  A real pleasure to explore.  I really liked the old emblems and signs outside the old shops indicating what type of business they are.   Just outside the town is the ski jump slope that was used in the 1976 Winter Olympics. It looks scarily steep.

The Old City, Innsbruck

Sometimes things just work out for the better.  The mistake in the purchase of the sleeper ticket gave me the opportunity to see Innsbruck, have a great meal and a night in a nice hotel.  The sleeper train would have offered none of those.

The Ski Jump, Innsbruck

After breakfast at the hotel it was time to go to the station and catch my train to Bologna.  The train was right on time and set off at exactly 9:24 to cross the Alps.  The line went over the Brennar Pass and then down to Bolzano, Trento and Verona before arriving in Bologna. Another train then took me to Florence and then another to Figline Voldano a short ways south of Florence.

TrenItalia's beautiful high speed train

Figline Valdarno is not a particularly beautiful spot but I had found a nice hotel there at a really good price.  I later learned why it was so cheap - the swimming pool and spa center were undergoing renovation and were closed - I needed neither.

Later that evening I dined in a small restaurant in the square of Figline Valdarno.  Pizza, salad and beer - you can’t go wrong - though the only beer available was Sardinian and not quite my favorite.

The Duomo and Tower, Pisa

The next day I went to Pisa.  The train system is very good in Italy and it was a short hop back to Florence and then another train west to Pisa.  The trains are frequent and reasonably clean and they are cheap.  A great efficient and eco-friendly way of moving people.

In Pisa there is not a lot to see other than the Tower and the Duomo and the associated buildings.  It is a short walk through the town over the Arno river to the tower.  Of course on the way there are lots fine buildings and statues, anyone of which would be of historic significance back in the US but here is Italy there are so many such buildings that one becomes immune to their age and beauty. At first sight, the Tower looked like a normal non-leaning tower but as you walked around to one side, the lean becomes quite noticeable and you are amazed at how it still stands.  It is a beautiful structure.  You can buy a ticket and stand in line to climb to the top but I didn’t feel like dealing with the crowds to do that.  I just observed from the ground level.  

The Tower really does Lean, Pisa

Next to the tower is the Duomo.  A magnificent huge church built of the same white marble as the tower.  It is quite an awesome sight.  How they built such amazingly beutiful large structures I can hardly imagine.  It must have taken many years to complete.

The Babtistry, Pisa

There is a smaller but no less impressive building adjacent to the Duomo.  This is the Babtistry.  The Duomo, Tower and Babtistry make for a wonderful;ly spectacular sight.  Of course this leads to the area being thronged with tourists. They are everywhere and they all want to take those clever pictures where they appear to be holding up the tower.  Sometimes to comical effect.

Interior of Duomo, Pisa

Pisani's Pulpit, Duomo, Pisa

I did go inside the Duomo - timed tickets are free.  The interior is even more wonderful than the exterior.  Such ornamentation, such craftsmanship.  The font inside the church is particularly wonderful - created by Pisani it is one of the best of its day.   Pisani apparently specialized in fonts.

Drop a coin in the slot and light a candle

In a step towards modernity, the church had a array of electric bulb candles in front of certain chapels.  You could deposit a coin in a slot and one of the candles would become lit.  Presumably that sends your prayer to heaven just as lighting a wax candle was supposed to do.  While it is all totally implausible I do much prefer the old way with the wax candles.

Chiesa di Santo Maria della Spina

Walking back towards the station there was a beautiful little church sitting by the side of the River Arno.  The Chiesa di Santo Maria della Spina. Very nice.

Keith Haring's Tuttomundi mural

There is also a mural by the American artist, Keith Haring.  It is called Tuttomundo and it covers the entire side wall of the San Antonio church.  

The return train ride took me through Lucca back to Firenze where i  changed for Figline Valdarno.

The next day I visited Siena, again by train.  This required going into Firenze and then taking a train out to Siena.  Siena sits on top of a hill and the train station is at the bottom of the hill.  There are a series of 10 escalators that take you from the station level up to the top of the hill and the old town.  

Il Campo, Siena

There are a few well traveled routes by tourists through the narrow streets of the old town to the major sights.  It was a grey day with occasional drizzle but nothing bad enough to interrupt a casual walk down the old city streets.  The first major sight was the main square, Il Campo, a magnificent large sloping area down to the City Hall and the Tower. 

Torre del Mangia, Siena

The tower is impressive built to thank god for the survival of the Black Death of 1348. It is 330 ft tall and one of Italy's tallest. It is called the Torre del Mangia after a hedonistic bell ringer who consumed his earnings like a glutton consumes food.

Fonte Gaia, Siena

Just below the entry on the uphill side of Il Campo is the Fonte Gaia, the Fountain of Joy.  This is a beautiful pool that once provided water to all of Siena’s residents.  The marble carvings are apparently copies and the originals have been removed to a local church, Santa Maria della Scala. 

The Duomo, Siena

Next stop was the Piazza del Duoma.  The Duomo of Siena takes beauty and splendour to a whole different level.  Pisa’s Duomo was a but the exterior of Siena’s is just outstanding - what a treasure.  The interior is incredible too.  I have seen many fine churches around the world but I think this one is the best.

Interior of the Duomo, Siena

Ceiling of the small library in the Duomo

The plans were for a larger even more remarkable church to be built but funds ran short.  I can’t imagine anything more spectacular than the current one.  What grand dreams and designs these people had.

Interior of Basilica di San Francisco

The next stop was at the Piazza San Francisco.  Here there was a more modest church.  A rather plain exterior and much simpler interior.  A service was going on with a very small congregation.

The Caterpillar Contrada

The Owl Contrada

The Giraffe Contrada

The neighborhoods in the old city are divided into different sections or contrade, each is identified by a crest or emblem containing an animal of some sort.  These are shown on walls and street corners around the town.  I only saw a few - the Giraffe, the Owl and the Caterpillar.  Twice a year there is a wild horse race around the Campo in Siena with riders from each contrada competing against each other.

Escalators up and down the hill, Siena

After a late lunch it was a pleasant walk back through the old town and out into the new one and then down the 10 escalators to the station level. Two trains took me back to Figline Valdarno via Firenze.

The next day, Sunday, my last in Tuscany, was going to be spent seeing the sights of Firenze.  However the weather did not cooperate.  It was raining, it was raining quite hard and it was not pleasant to walk around.  There were lengthy coffee and lunch stops in the town and little sightseeing.  Being Sunday, the Duomo was closed to tourists but you could attend Mass, which I did.  It provided a nice reflective time to absorb the grandeur of the Duomo, the language of the Catholic Mass, and at the same time escape the rain.

Rainy day in Florence

The Firenze complex of Duomo, Baptistry, and Campanile are wonderful to behold but on such a wet day it made it a little less pleasant.  It did keep the crowds down however.  I imagine it must be mobbed with tourists on a sunny day.

Interior of the Duomo, Florence

The Campanile, Florence

The other sights like the Uffizi Gallery, the Ponte Vecchio, etc were sadly missed in favor of warm and dry restaurant and coffee shop interiors.

Monday morning I left the hotel early and caught the train to Florence and then the tram to the airport.  The day was clear and sunny but there had been snow in the hills overnight. Florence airport is pleasantly small and it was an easy flight down to Rome and then a connection on to Heathrow. 

 

the rental Polestar

Finally another piece of luck, at the Hertz rental facility, they gave me a serious upgrade - from a mini car the Hyundai I10 to a nice all electric sedan - a Polestar.  This was a beautiful car to drive, once you got used to the single pedal driving.  One of these days we will all drive something like that.  

London and Amsterdam - February 2023

I was back in the UK in February and I learned about an exhibition of Vermeer paintings at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and that sounded like something not to miss.  The tickets were in high demand but I was lucky enough to get one online.  The tickets were selling very quickly, and there was only one time slot available during the time I was in Europe.  I decided to travel to Amsterdam from London on the train, the Eurostar.  Not the cheapest way but very convenient and I do like trains.

I bought my train ticket through a third party, Omio, and didn’t pay attention to the small print.  The time of the train was 11:04 am and the email said please arrive at least 20 minutes before departure.  I arrived at St Pancras some 45 minutes early but since I didn’t see a need to rush I spent time looking around St. Pancras, a station I used a lot in my student days and which has now been transformed into a very modern and stylish train station.

St Pancras Station

When I went to get on the train I was told I was too late, entry to the train was closed.  That was a bit of a shock to say the least.  When I protested I was told to read the fine print on the PDF version of the ticket - there it said you need to be check in an hour before departure to clear security and customs.  Fortunatey there was a later train to Amsterdam at 6:00 in the evening.

No problem, there are plenty of things to do around St Pancras as I found out by a quick search on Atlas Obscura.  

My first stop was the British Library.  The library building post dates my time in London and is quite new (sometime in the 2000’s).  It is a beautiful modern building with an exhibits area open to the public and reading rooms that require membership. 

Gutenberg Bible

Shakespeare Folio Edition

I visited the exhibits which were a collection of some of their remarkable books, maps, and documents.  There was a map of Gertrude Bell’s route through Iraq, a copy of the Gutenberg Bible, a Tyndale Bible, a couple of copies of the Magna Carta (one looking seriously damaged and worn), a Folio edition of Shakespeare’s works, copies of Mozart’s musical scores, scribbled notes of Beatles’ songs, a handwritten script of Monty Python’s Spanish Inquisition sketch, to name but a few.  What an amazing collection of historical texts they have there.

The Enigma Machine

Upstairs in the Alan Turing Institute, where they do research into Data Science and AI, is an Enigma Machine, the encoding machine that Turing cracked the code of in WWII.

The Francis Crick Institute

Just a few 100 yards north of the library is the Francis Crick institute.  Another wonderful modern building where they do bio-medical research.  An exhibit there was due to open the next day, but when I was there it was closed to the public.

Old St Pancras Church

Moving further north along the side of St Pancras’ rail tracks is the St Pancras Old Church and its park.  A lovely little church, apparently on one of the first Christian worship sites in Britain.  Inside the church, which surprisingly was open were a couple of old ladies who insisted that I take their photo.

Hardy's Gravestones and the fallen tree

Outside in the church yard are some interesting features.  One is a large number of gravestones arranged around what was once a tree.  The tree has fallen down now and lies across the gravestones.  The gravestones come from an old cemetery that was moved to make way for the expansion of St Pancras rail traffic.  A young Thomas Hardy, before he started writing for a living, was working for the company that managed the relocation.  He apparently decided to lay the gravestones around a tree in the church yard.  The bodies went elsewhere. Sadly recently the tree has fallen down.

Sir John Soane's Tomb

There a couple of interesting graves in the churchyard.  One is that of Sir John Soane.  It has a monument that is quite impressive and was apparently the inspiration for the British Phone Box.  You can see the curved top of the tomb that resembles the top of a phone box.  The other grave is that of Mary Wollstonecraft.  She was the writer and early feminist who was the mother of Mary Shelley, the Dracula author.  Poor old Mary died a few days after giving birth to Mary.  Mary and her to be husband Percy Bysse Shelley apparently made plans to elope together while visiting the graveyard.

Mornington Crescent Tube Station

The old Carreras Cigarette Factory

Moving further north there is the wonderful old tiled facade of the Mornington Crescent tube station.  Beyond that is the impressive art deco building of the old Carreras Cigarette Factory (Craven A’s were one of their brands).  The building is in the Egyptian Revival Style, popular at the time, being built just after Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamen’s tomb when all things Egyptian were fashionable.  It is now an office building and the black cats at the entry are not the original ones.  Still it is an impressive building.

Joseph Grimaldi's Grave

Heading back towards St Pancras station and then out the Pentonville Road there is a small graveyard.  There are very few gravestones there but one is quite well preserved and that is the grave of Joseph Grimaldi.  Joseph was a child actor and performer who developed the character of Joey the Clown in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s.  He is considered the father of modern clowning.  The park containing his grave has been named Grimaldi Park.

Platform 9 3/4

One last thing before boarding my train was to visit Platform 9 ¾ at Kings Cross Station.  This is from the Harry Potter stories and of course it is wildly popular.  There was a large queue of people lined up to get photographed beneath the platform sign and the luggage trolley disappearing into the wall.  I didn’t appreciate the disappearing trolley link but apparently many do and they weren’t all young children lining up for photos.  But no I didn’t.

Busker outside Kings Cross Station

In order to keep up with the times and to recognize the lack of real cash in anyone's pocket these days, the buskers are now accepting digital money. Tap your card for a 3 pound donation.

I then went to check in for my train to Amsterdam.  I don’t know what I was thinking earlier by only arriving 20 minutes before the train left.  If I had thought about it I would have realized a customs clearance and a security check for a train load people takes a lot longer than 20 minutes.  This time I was plenty early and I was comfortably in my seat well before departure.

Basilica of St Nicholas, Amsterdam

The train journey was quite pleasant.  It took about 4 hours with stops in Lille, Brussels, Rotterdam and finally Amsterdam.  It was 11:30 when I arrived in Amsterdam but, even at that late hour, there were plenty of people around. I had a short walk over to my hotel, the Die Port van Cleve.  It looked good on the internet but it was in the middle of a construction zone - the street outside is being replaced and the hotel’s interior is being renovated.  The sewer smell in the bathroom didn’t improve my impression but at least it was a roof over my head.

The Royal Palace, Dam Square, Amsterdam

The next morning I went out early for a walk around.  The hotel is not far from Dam Square and in normal times it would be quite nice however now with all the street construction going on it is a building site.  In Dam Square I found a more luxurious hotel and went inside for their buffet breakfast - always a good deal in a nice hotel.

The Rijksmuseum

Back at the hotel I checked out and left my bag to pick up later and made my way to the Rijksmuseum.  The Rijjksmuseum is a wonderful building by itself without any of its contents however this Vermeer exhibition promised to be quite special - 28 of the 37 known Vermeers all gathered in one location.  A never before and perhaps never again event.

View of Delft - Vermeer

I had a timed entry for 12:00 but they let me in early and I joined the meandering crowd following the blue line on the floor through the exhibition.  I have always liked Vermeer’s work and so I was quite excited.  The excitement wore off as I dealt with the crowd of people clustered around each painting.  The paintings are small and it doesn’t take many people to obliterate the view.  There always seemed to be some large person carefully inspecting the paintings for an excessive amount of time while everyone waited behind slowly shuffling forward to the front.  

The Milkmaid

The Girl with the Pearl Earring

Then of course everyone has a camera in their phone so we all had to take a picture.  I did it too.  Such is viewing a popular alert exhibition these days.

Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window

Vermeer was a masterful painter and his subjects are so appealing to me - mainly women, mainly absorbed in doing something like reading or writing or playing an instrument, nothing dramatic. I need to follow up and learn something about his sense of perspective when I get home.

I took in a couple of other galleries at the museum, the Night Watch and the Waterloo painting, but by then I was pretty much done with looking at pictures.

See my next post for what happened next.