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Today has been a most uneventful day.  We woke up to the most rain we’d seen since arriving in Germany, and “enjoyed” the walk in the rain to the train station; we were on trains the entire day.  We caught the first train in Deidesheim at 8:30am, then Neustadt, to Karlsruhe.  Then a long train over the border into Bern, Switzerland.  We got a very pretty view of the Swiss Alps from the train, and even tried to take a few pictures through the windows; we’re hoping they turn out alright!!!  We also kept our eyes open, and we think we saw Heidi’s house!!  Though we were unable to agree on which side of the German/Swiss border it should have been on.  While on the train from Bern to Milan, we finally found lunch (train food is only a slight step up from plane food), crossed another border and changed trains yet again in Milan.  The final leg of our trip was the three hours spent on the train from Milan to Florence, arriving at 7:44pm.

Unlike the last arrival, we found our hotel while there was still someone at the front desk!  In fact, there is someone there 24-hours a day; we know this because they don’t want us taking the key out of the building, leaving it at the front desk until we return instead.  A quick dinner at McDonalds (yes, McDonalds was close, cheap, and open…), and we retired to our room to plan the next day’s adventures.  It should be nice to be within walking distance of many of the sights here in Florence.