Trains from Edinburgh all the way to Venice
Taking the train is usually my favorite way to travel. However, after the longer than expected trip from London to Edinburgh when we first arrived, I had a few doubts about our trip south.
Nonetheless, I was excited when we hopped onto a very early train heading south to London's King's Cross station. We pulled in around noon, and we then grabbed a tube ride to Victoria station. We had a little bit of time to spare, so Ben and I got to walk along the Thames. Construction was already being done for the recently won Summer Olympics, and I was entertained by various street performers. We didn't think we were going to come back to Great Britain, so I chose my favorite violinist and gave him quite a bit of change.
Taking the Eurostar from London to Paris was nice, but not exactly what I expected. Somehow I thought that both the special Eurostar waiting area and the trip through the chunnel would be more dramatic. I was wrong on both counts. Oh well.
Once we arrived in Paris, we figured out how to take the Metro to the little train station (Paris Bercy) for the Venice trains. We were very proud of ourselves until Ben was trapped in the Metro turnstile! Horrors! A young woman's fare no longer worked and she was trying to figure out how to get through. She pushed ahead of Ben and went through on his ticket. As he went 
through, the little doors clamped down on his backpack, and he couldn't move. I was on the other side, and I couldn't figure out why he wasn't moving forward -- and he couldn't figure out why I wasn't helping him. Finally a guy behind Ben put his ticket in and pushed them both through. Geez!
After our trials, we had a great little meal right by the train station, and then we found our overnight train Venice. The train's glory days had probably been in the 1970s or 80s, but the conductor was very nice and an overnight train is always very exciting. We enjoyed the southward journey, fell asleep early, and woke up early admiring Northern Italy.
Continue onto our visit to Venice.