http://tourvideos.com Well, that is a fantastic city: Venice is unique, the watery wonderland. We spent two days here right in the heart of Venice so we really do get a good look at just to. Then we just roll our bags from the hotel up this convenient site ramp one block away, walking right to the train station. Most travelers don't know about this walkway because there's no sign - it's tucked away on the right side of the station, it's much better than climbing up the front steps with your luggage.

We help each other out with the baggage, very easily put the suitcases on board. There is plenty of room and make ourselves comfortable. And now we begin our train journey going from Venice all the way up north into Switzerland, to Lucerne, passing some of the industrial areas on the mainland right next to Venice, and then passing farmlands and suburbs, small towns.

There's food service on board the train - it is all very comfortable with beautiful scenery out the windows: rivers, vineyards, farms, and the foothills of the Alps off in the distance. Later in the day will be traveling right through the heart of the Alps as we approach Lucerne, Switzerland. For now, we're enjoying this wonderful vista.

And we arrive at the big train station in Milan - the second largest train station in Italy after the one in Rome - and we've got about an hour and a half layover here, so we have time for lunch. There's very convenient cafeteria/pizzeria with sandwiches. You can get a light bite, you can get pizza, some pasta. It's not any kind of a great restaurant, but it's a very convenient place to spend some time. Nice little café with chairs and tables - plenty room in there. It's a beautiful train station constructed in the 1930s primarily ran into some young military cadets friendly guys Army guys and you can wander about in the station. It kind of looks like ancient Roman bathhouse on an expanded scale, with touches of the Art Deco from the 1930s.

It has recently been renovated. The Milan train station has Metro lines downstairs so you could hop into the city very quickly from here if you had a few hours. We just have a little time, so we're looking around. There's new escalators, there is a new mezzanine level and shops, and the huge train barn with 24 tracks -- one of those spans is 70 yards wide, the longest train barn span in all of Europe. And we're quickly on our way on the next train heading north, which is going to bring us eventually up into Switzerland.

One of many scenic highlights is passing this beautiful little church couple of times on three sides of the train, we go around it, into a tunnel, come back out again, we see it again. And now we are in Switzerland, heading through the Alps, passing some beautiful lakes -- we will be passing Lakes Lugano and Lucerne the Vierwaldstatersee on our way to the beautiful town of Lucerne.

The trains in Europe are really deluxe and we travel first class, so it is smooth in air-conditioned comfort, it's nice and quiet. You got this amazing scenery out the windows -- Switzerland at its best. And there is always some kind of snack car or rolling snack cart.

We arrive in Lucerne, helping each other off the train with our baggage, very easily done. Walking through the Lucerne train station and then right across the river across the River Reuss directly to our hotel. It's only about eight-minute walk from the train station, nice and level sidewalks, right over to the hotel des Balances, where we check in and begin our Swiss adventure.