Italy, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands in four weeks

[l31gh]

This is my first TR so please be kind!

Over the next four weeks my wife and I will be travelling through Italy, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands.

This report starts from the comfort of the Melbourne Qantas International business lounge thanks to the generosity of a member on here who provided me with a pass recently. This report may be a bit different to most as I will have far more trips via train than flights. I will try and include some details about the train trips as it may come in handy to someone else later on.

Melbourne international business lounge
This is my first time in a lounge. I would have to say that I am impressed, the food and drink selection is very good and I think the fit out and space in the lounge is quiet comfortable. One thing that really impressed me was the space in the toilet cubicles. The only negative I have so far is that there is no view!

Up next:
Flight #1
QF9 MEL-DXB
Aircraft: A380
Class: Y
Seats: 35E, 35F upper deck economy

I will try and update from our second flight as it apparently has on board wifi.

 

[TomVexille]

Sounds like a great trip. From an avid TR reader, the more photos the better

Looking forward to following along.

 

[l31gh]

Thanks Tom. Will try and take lots of photos.

 

[l31gh]

Ok this is a bit of a thread necro, unfortunately technology got in the way of me updating this thread throughout the holiday and upon my return work got in the way. So I am going to try and update the thread with our holiday even though its about 8 months late

Flight #1
QF9 MEL-DXB
Aircraft: A380
Class: Y
Seats: 35E, 35F upper deck economy

Boarding was very easy from the J lounge. A quick walk and we were in our seats. The first thing I noticed was the lack of overhead bin space, this was compounded by the ridiculously large cary-on bags some people had, we managed to cram our tiny cary-on in a nearby locker and settled in for the wait. After a short 15 minute delay caused by some connecting flights being late we were off and in the air. Unfortunately I don't have any photos of this leg. My wife gave me a sleeping tablet just before boarding and the next 14 hours were a blur. I managed to sleep through meal service only waking for breakfast 2 hours out of Dubai. Overall a pretty good flight with nice leg room.

Flight #2
EK97 DXB-FCO
Aircraft: A380
Class: Y
Seats: 47A, 47B

After a 2 hour stop in Dubai we were on our next flight. Our seats were in the front cabin so boarding was quick and easy. We settled into our seats and pushed back on time.

Nice lineup as we taxied out.


Not much leg room for me at 6' 2" but it was ok for the short hop to Rome.

Lunch menu. I had the chicken. It was not bad for economy.

There were some really nice views on this flight.

Overall a nice flight, service was not to bad although seemed a bit rushed at times, we did get a bit sick of asking for water as all they would give us were the tiny foil lidded cups. Touched down in Rome on time and thanks to our seat selection we were off the plane and out onto the train into town in no time.

Take-off video out of Dubai
[video=youtube_share;vo5TFfYuyeU]https://youtu.be/vo5TFfYuyeU[/video]

 

[l31gh]

Rome for 4 nights.

After arriving at the Termini we walked down to our AirBNB apartment and met our host. I probably should have read the reviews a bit closer as we found our apartment was on the fifth floor with no lift! We certainly earned our gelato going up and down those stairs.

Over the next few days we did all the touristy things taking in the Colosseum, Vatican and spending a lot of time just walking around. The coffee and food was fantastic!

Photo highlights

 

[l31gh]

Rome to Florence

Fast train – Frecciargento 9418
Travel time – 1 hour 32 mins
Class – 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Class

We booked this train a month or so in advance of our trip, this resulted in a significant saving with our 2 tickets costing us only €38. The train had free wifi on board as well as power points between the seats. Bit of a step up from the trains at home.

Leg room was not the greatest.



Cruising along at a nice rate

 

[l31gh]

Florence for 3 days

After our quick train trip from Rome we headed to our accommodation which was located in Borgo San Lorenzo just off the Piazza del Duomo. Another affordable AirBNB in a fantastic location. Unfortunately this part of the trip is where my camera decided to die so photos from now on are with phones or our spare point and shoot.

The new Davinci code movie was being filmed in town so we had to change our plans a few times are areas were closed off to the public. Overall we really enjoyed Florence and my wife loved the leather markets.

Photo highlights

 

[l31gh]

Florence to Verona

Fast train – Frecciargento 9466
Travel time – 1 hour 30 mins
Class – 1st Class

Unfortunately no photos of this leg as I was trying to fix my camera. The train trip was not bad, heaps of room in the seats with a comfortable recline. We received a welcome drink and a small snack. Tickets were again booked early online costing only €48.

Verona for 3 days

We chose to stay in Verona next as it was a lot cheaper than Venice and we wanted somewhere a little quieter.

We decided to do a day trip to Venice and we found that that was enough for us, it was so busy and expensive. Tip here is there are a few direct local trains a day that only take a little over an hour and are cheap cheap.

Verona was a beautiful city, again we stayed in an AirBNB, this one was overlooking the Castelvecchio.

Photo highlights
Looking out from inside the Arena into the main Piazza


Castelvecchio clock tower


The beautiful Adige River


The Venice Grand Canal

 

[NoobFlyer]

Better late the never l31gh! I shall be following along with interest for some ideas on our first Europe trip later this year.

 

[PLANT]

Great TR!
Family booked for September..... If you recommend your airbnb(other than 5 floors up) can you pm the places you stayed please?
Also the link\tips for booking trains!

 

[l31gh]

Great TR!
Family booked for September..... If you recommend your airbnb(other than 5 floors up) can you pm the places you stayed please?
Also the link\tips for booking trains!

No worries mate I will dig up some details for you tonight. How many people make up your family? Some of the places we stayed were really only big enough for a couple and maybe small child.

 

[love_the_life]

Enjoying this TR - love Italy so it's all "Ahhh, lucky B******ds"!

 

[l31gh]

Enjoying this TR - love Italy so it's all "Ahhh, lucky B******ds"!

I am glad that you are enjoying it. It's nice to be the one sharing my experiences instead of me being the jealous one.

I will try and get the next update done tonight.

 

[l31gh]

Verona to Innsbruck

Fast train – ÖBB CIV 1181
Travel time – 3 hours 34 mins
Class – 2[SUP]nd[/SUP] Class


We were so sad to be leaving Italy, however we were very excited to be heading into the mountains. We booked this train in advance to save big again costing only €84 with reserved window seats on the left side to maximise the view. This was an interesting train trip, it seems there were a lot of illegal immigrants trying to cross the border via the train. This resulted in a raid on the train with people trying to hide in toilets and run to the back of the train to avoid being caught. My wife had quite a scare when going to the loo!

Overall it was a great train trip with some awesome views.

 

[l31gh]

Innsbruck for 3 nights.

After arriving at the station we had a fun time trying to finding our hotel, a few wrong turns and we finally found it. We had booked the hotel here as we couldn’t find an AirBNB that was in a location for easy public transport access.

Arriving at the hotel I was a bit worried, it looked suspiciously like a backpacker’s hostel, the hotels name “Basic Hotel” didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either. After checking in we sheepishly headed into the room, I had asked for a view of the mountains and this is what we got.


The room was great for the price €100 a night for a spacious clean double room with a balcony with that view, I can’t really complain. After unpacking we headed off for some schnitzels and got an early night.

We took advantage of the Innsbruck tourist card and found it to be great value, we went to a few museums and used the included public transport a lot. It also included the gondola ride to the top of the mountain and the bus to and entry to the Kristallwelten (Swarovski crystal world).

Due to the included public transport we were also able to go on the tram through the forest to the village of Igls which is about 15mins on the tram, it’s a small alpine village which is well worth spending a few hours wandering.

Photo highlights

View from the top of the Nordkette


Kristallwelten


View over the town

 

[codash1099]

Innsbruck for 3 nights.

After arriving at the station we had a fun time trying to finding our hotel, a few wrong turns and we finally found it. We had booked the hotel here as we couldn’t find an AirBNB that was in a location for easy public transport access.

Arriving at the hotel I was a bit worried, it looked suspiciously like a backpacker’s hostel, the hotels name “Basic Hotel” didn’t exactly fill me with confidence either. After checking in we sheepishly headed into the room, I had asked for a view of the mountains and this is what we got.

The room was great for the price €100 a night for a spacious clean double room with a balcony with that view, I can’t really complain. After unpacking we headed off for some schnitzels and got an early night.

We took advantage of the Innsbruck tourist card and found it to be great value, we went to a few museums and used the included public transport a lot. It also included the gondola ride to the top of the mountain and the bus to and entry to the Kristallwelten (Swarovski crystal world).

Due to the included public transport we were also able to go on the tram through the forest to the village of Igls which is about 15mins on the tram, it’s a small alpine village which is well worth spending a few hours wandering.

Love Innsbruck! Been there a few times and never tire of it.