I am alone again, on an ICE to Venice.

After going to the top of the Eiffel Tower, we returned to the hostel, made some food, and went to bed.  I fell asleep fairly early, while Ana stayed up longer to write in her journal.  The next morning, we did not really know what to do. I needed to reach Venice eventually, while she needed to visit Amsterdam and London.  Once awake, we wandered around Paris for quite a while, got some food, and had some film developed.  She called her parents a few times, and we went to the train station to make reservations. We had also visited the Moulin Rouge the previous night, by the way.  Eventually, I emailed my friend Christy to say that I would not reach Venice the next day but would arrive on the morning of the 10th.  Ana and I collected our belongings and went to the train station at 23:00 for the overnight train to Amsterdam.  We arrived early the next morning and wandered around for a few hours.  We returned to the Red Light District, had breakfast, then spent several hours at the Van Gogh Museum. Ana loves Van Gogh, so you can imagine how happy she was.  We went back to the station because my train left at 15:00 and hers at 16:00.  I boarded my train, we said goodbye, and I left.  I hoped to see her again in London because our flights departed from the same area, although I did not know whether our paths would cross.  My journey took me from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, then Munich, followed by an overnight train to Venice.  One interesting thing did happen on the way south: a group of Scotsmen effectively took over several train carriages, including mine.  They were starting their celebrations early for a football match. Occasionally, bagpipes sounded over the train’s intercom, and at one point the entire carriage sang a Scottish song.  It was an amusing experience, although I was exhausted after the previous night and all the walking in Paris.  Each day there, we had needed to change rooms by 09:15 because the hostel was nearly full.  Oh well.  I am now almost in Munich, and soon I will be home.  Time to email Casey and make sure he can pick me up; he owes me at least that much.  I also need to find a beer mug for him…

Ah, an idea!