So due to the price of flights into Zurich from the UK at the time of the shows i booked a cheap flight with Air Italia into Milan. I left my house at 5:30am, took the 5:55 bus to Heathrow as i didn't want to ask my neighbour (who usually drops me off) to take me at that time in the morning.
My flight out was at 9am, i had breakfast in the lounge, caught up on a few blog things and then boarded the plane to Milan. The trains from Milan to Zurich were at 1:10 or 3:10 i was due to land at 12:30 and was hoping to just make the 1:10 train as i only had carry on baggage and the airport was only a 15 minute ride from the station, I didn't however have a reservation for the train! i had a ticket but in Italy, Germany and a lot of other places you actually need to buy a seat reservation which cost around 10 Euros and is only available from the train station.
Due to a slight delay in take off from Heathrow we didn't arrive in Milan till gone 1pm. I took the short bus ride to Milan central and was in the line to buy my seat reservation by 1:45. The line at the ticket desk was long, 42 people long to be exact so mu idea of getting my seat reservation ticket and then walking to the best Gelato store in Milan before boarding the 3:10 train didn't happen.
It took me the best part or 45 minutes to get to the front of the line, i bought my ticket and went to watch for the platform number to appear on the board.It was then a spotted a small gelato store in the station. You know how i said to watch Roger at the beginning of the shows where he puts on his leather coat at the beginning of In The Flesh when he mouths the word arrrrhhhh and sheer delight appears on his face ? Well gelato is my leather jacket!
The men's fashion confirms I'm back in Italy! Gelato!, my leather jacket!!
I kept looking on the announcement board in the station and as the time got nearer and nearer for departure all the other trains came up with platform numbers apart from mine, typical! My train was due to arrive in Zurich at 7pm, i would then get the tram from outside the rail station and get to the venue around 7:15 to meet up with Kevin and the others.
It got to within 5 minutes of my departure time when it came up there was a 5 minute delay, 5 minutes changed to 10, then to 15 and then to 25!! the train finally pulled in around 30 minutes late and left at 3:45pm. this meant i wouldn't arrive in Zurich till 7:35pm and would only just make it to the show and may not even be able to be Spartacus tonight!
The scenery along the 4 hour train ride is spectacular, it goes through the Italian and Swiss mountains and winds and curves around lakes and little villages all the way. Id actually taken this train ride in 2002 but in reverse from Zurich to Milan and remembered what a scenic ride it was. I managed to catch up on my blog a a bit on the journey and also managed to get an hour or so of sleep. Kevin sent me a message letting me know the tram number to get and this left from right outside the Zurich train station and dropped me right off at the venue. Kevin and i had been looking for hotels the few days prior and we were both struggling to find a reasonable priced hotel for the two nights. Id left this to Kevin to book and he had found a place about 3 or 4 miles away from the venue for the first night and we would sort something out for the second night.
The train arrived into Zurich at 7:45 nearly an hour late! i ran outside, took the number 11 tram and sat for 10 minutes watching the stops go by. I had about 10 stops to go and as the tram pulled right up in front of the venue i saw Kevin there waiting for me to arrive. it was exactly 7:55pm and id made it to the show with 5 minutes to spare!
You ARE Spartacus!
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