Europe 2010 Day 11 - Vienna to Venice via the Semmering Railway

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6 Oct 2010

Today we depart the Imperial lands and the fantastic beers for the hot sun, wine, and pizza. Our trip to our first stop in Italy takes us from Vienna to Venice (Venezia) via the Semmering Pass on the Semmering Railway, a UNESCO World Heritage site for being the first real mountain rail. We arrived early in the morning at Meidling Bahnhof and embarked on our 8 hour journey.

We are headed from Vienna to Venice through the mountains


One of the trains at the station while waiting for ours to arrive.


Our train. We took the 8.30am train for Vienna-Venice because it passes by the Semmering Pass in the daytime. There are night trains through the area.


Packed lunch


Reserved seats with our reservation information.


The carriages


First look outside as the train moved off. It's rather foggy up here.


Cattle


The train passes rather close to some towns.


I'm not certain which part of the journey is the actual UNESCO part of the Semmering Railway


More cloudy hills. Perhaps it was too foggy to see actual mountains in the background


Designer footbridge.


Very serene


Little towns surrounded by large plots of grass. I presume it's for grazing cattle.


Near Klagenfurt. Looks like a nice resort place, some tour buses were parked in the city


Arrival at Villach Hbf, this took about 4 hours. The train takes us to Villach where we needed to catch this connecting bus the Villach-Venezia route


Scheduled arrival at 12.46pm. Transfered to bus for a scheduled departure at 12.56pm!


We took the front seats on the second level. Nice view but we were over exposed to the blazing hot sun in Italy. The bus waited for some passengers who arrived late due to train delays.


Serene view, near Villach


Freight Train


Oh, Italien


Entering Italy


Can't help but feel sad that the good beer days are over.


Coming down the mountains


The bus stops at Mestre, Italy. The blazing Italian sun ensured we were well baked.


Finally!


Approaching Venice, the cruise ships on the right, the train to Venice on the left


We have arrived after approximately 4 hours of bus.

The entire trip from Vienna to Venice took almost 8 hours. Rather long, which is why there are overnight trains on this route. In all, I didn't feel extremely impressed by the route. Perhaps it was just too cloudy and the full beauty of the place is obscured. The scenery is not unlike some of the beautiful towns around Bavaria in the earlier part of our trip. In contrasts, the Qinghai-Tibetan Railway (the world's highest railway) that we took on our trip out of Tibet last year had some really wacky scenery that one usually does not simply explore on foot. However, the Semmering Railway is more than a century old, being completed in 1854 CE.

Having finally arrived at the bus terminus in Venice, we immediately felt the difference in strength of the sun. Without further ado, we dragged our luggage towards our accommodation.

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