Greetings from Milan, where it's too hot to eat out.

[whole diary]

[grahame]

Greetings from Milan, where it's so hot that no-one is sitting at the outside tables - they're all inside at the restaurants with AC^▸ (Air Conditioning, or Alternating Current (electricity), depending on context) which are busy.  Those without AC are empty.   My train left Brindisi on time but was about 25 minutes down by the time it completed over 1000 kms to Milan. I can't identify any one delay - not that I would recognise unusually slow running in any particular area as it's the first time I've done the journey. 

I have chickened out, with the Kentucky fried version back in my room where I can reduce clothing for comfort and plan for tomorrow. Clockface hourly trains without reservations and I have the luxury that give me of being able to be flexible.   There *is* a TV^▸ (Thames Valley, or TeleVision, depending on context) in the room - there has been everywhere - but I have not used them; rather a quick check with general sites including the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page) to see what's happening in the world, some social media, some email, and the Coffee Shop.  And it was on the social media I can across this gem from an anonymous poster.

I've got a quick question. My 23-year-old son will be traveling solo this fall to Albania. He has already been to Europe twice, however but I’m just looking for any tips, suggestions, things to be wary of as this will be his first time traveling internationally completely solo. I am a seasoned European traveler myself so I don’t need general suggestions as much as information to be aware of specific to Albania.  He will be renting a car as well so any suggestions about reputable car rental agencies so as not to have him get screwed over with bogus charges and such.

I found myself - without knowing any specific circumstances - thinking "helicopter parent".  Surely the lad could and should do his own research, and if not perhaps he should not be travelling solo ...

[Chris from Nailsea]

Hmm.  I would tend to disagree, grahame, regarding 'helicopter parent'.

The anonymous lad is 23, he's not travelled solo before, and is travelling a fair distance across different countries in Europe, with various language considerations, etc.

My own daughter, age 28, is not an expert on travelling solo within the UK^▸ (United Kingdom): on one occasion, I had to retrieve her from Didcot Parkway, as she'd managed to get there instead of a (slightly diverted, due to engineering work) journey from Cardiff to Nailsea.

CfN^▸ (Chris from Nailsea, an administrator on this forum). 

[grahame]

And a follow up about my departure from Milan ... posted to "Interrailing for the Older Crowd"

Yes - you can travel without reservation!

The Gotthard base tunnel is 57kms long, probably boring to the traveller, and probably requiring extra fees and/or reservations; yesterday I travelled from Munich Milan (correction from ChrisB) north into Switzerland on the *old* Gotthard route still served by an hourly train. The regional train from Milan to Locarno as far as Cadenazzo, then a transfer on the train starting in Locarno which goes "over the top". Well - not quite - the old Gotthard tunnel is 15kms long anyway but there is a lot of scenery on the way up with spirals and switchbacks as the line gains height. Just beyond the tunnel, I got off at Goeschenen and took the 10 minute ride on the narrow gauge rack line up to Andermatt for an early lunch - provided by a lady who spoke with an impeccable English Accent, probably because she came from Scotland.

I have been to Andermatt - or to be accurate Andermatt station - on a couple of previous occasions. Look on a map and you'll see it as a crossroads between the North-South lines through the Gotthard tunnel (below) ans the base tunnel (far, far below) and the East - West line between Chur and Disentis, and Brig and Zermatt. Andermatt is a physically low point in that East-West line on the route of the Glacier Express. But that is a story for another article.

After a look around Andermatt, train back down 15 minutes (yeah, only 10 on the way up but it has to be careful going down hill) to Goeschenen where there's a train around the village telling you of the construction of the Gotthard tunnel - something for another day as I had four more legs planned. And on to Arth-Goldau which an online article I read the other day described as "the Crewe of Switzerland" - not a big place, but one that because of its geography is the hub of a wheel of routes and interchanges. And really the logical place for me to end my "original Gotthard" report.

That was yesterday - I'm on a train due into Munich in about an hour - Germany so (of course!) we set off 5 minutes late are are now about 25 minutes late.

[ChrisB]

yesterday I travelled from Munich north into Switzerland on the *old* Gotthard route still served by an hourly train.

Hmmm. North from Munich into Switzerland. Do you mean north from Milan or south from Munich?

[grahame]

yesterday I travelled from Munich north into Switzerland on the *old* Gotthard route still served by an hourly train.

Hmmm. North from Munich into Switzerland. Do you mean north from Milan or south from Munich?

Oops - north from Milan.   Thanks. Following sentence clears that, but I will edit ...

[Mark A]

Nine years previous to the video on the link below, the Great Central, not without a struggle, quietly opened its station in the centre of Nottingham - in a city that largely had no electricity supply the railway company had to organise its own power generation for its new facility. There doesn't appear to be a record of the reaction of residents to a large public building lit by electricity - at night, for those times, it must have been outlandish.

Thinking of Swiss railways, I'm always never less than rattled that the video below - an electric train running on a challenging line - was filmed around 1910 - and even more rattled that in 2026 the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) is still struggling to achieve something that the GCR^» (Gloucester station, or Great Central Railway - link to heritage line) never did - electrify the railways themselves.

Mark


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGNgZb-NDzo

[broadgage]

I read of somewhere in Europe with uncomfortably hot summers, but not far from cold mountains with plenty of snow and ice.
It was proposed to carry snow and ice from the mountains to the hot areas, by train.
Up the mountain a twin track railway was proposed, with the descending loaded wagons hauling the empties up. On the levelish bit steam power was proposed.
Don't know if it ever worked.
Would have soon been killed off by the invention of mechanical cooling.

[grahame]

I read of somewhere in Europe with uncomfortably hot summers, but not far from cold mountains with plenty of snow and ice.
It was proposed to carry snow and ice from the mountains to the hot areas, by train.
Up the mountain a twin track railway was proposed, with the descending loaded wagons hauling the empties up. On the levelish bit steam power was proposed.
Don't know if it ever worked.
Would have soon been killed off by the invention of mechanical cooling.

Reminds me of the Kilmersdon Quarry incline - https://www.mnrjournal.co.uk/news/entertainment/norman-andrew-to-share-kilmersdon-colliery-history-at-radstock-museum-talk-755446 - but is there really plenty-enough snow and ice?   Me thinks you might be pulling a leg or two!