Sapphire Blue
Member
- Joined
- 17 May 2010
- Messages
- 453
Daughter getting married in Gelida, near Barcelona.
I need to be there for Saturday 25th May.
Decided I was interailing almost straight away. For decency's sake allowed an extra day for contingencies, but I am quite good at planning. 5 days Senior Pass a-ready I'm away on Thursday 23rd.
Set off from home at 04.18 to park at Merchant Gate for the 05.18 Azuma WKF to KGX. Exactly an hour before seems right.
Pancake stack with maple smoked bacon and three good coffees gets me awake.
A very helpful guard talked me through the Interail Pass rules.
Train almost empty all the way, only 14 in my 1st class carriage, even after Peterborough. This ridicules the compulsory seat reservation on this service.
St Pancras
Why do they have to be so keen to get to the front of the queue? Absolutely everyone has a reserved seat.
I sat at a distance and waited for an extra 30m, you can see if and when the queue ebbs and flows. Then went through customs queue and check in within 6 minutes, for the privilege of sitting for another 30m for boarding. Got to admit that seating is at a premium here so I just aimed for the nearest "bag-on-seat".
Eurostar in standard, due to no interrail 1st class available, but seats are good enough and a window seat bonus.
Into Paris smack on time. Sadly the queues for the ticket machines stole 30 minutes. No access allowed to the ticket office unless you were buying more than a single ticket.
This meant no visit to The Blue Train - I will do it one day.
Just time to grab a baguette and a couple of beers from a little supermarket round the corner. before the train to Barcelona Sants.
Just a Ham and cheese sarnie in Franch is so much better. The mayonnaise, the butter, the bread. Why can't we do this?
Spectacular journey, with tremendous storms in central France and then beautiful down the south with flamingos on the lagoons.
8m late into Barca
R4 local train needed next.
1st train was only going one stop to L'Hospital . . . so a quick change of platform there for the final train of a long day getting into Gelida.
Picked up by daughter for a 8m drive to the venue.
For the rail cranks, I know that the 3 letter codes don't fit abroad but this is how I've archived it.
WKF 05.18 > 07.30 STP
STP 09.31 > 13.58 GDN
GDL 14.42 > 21.35 BAR
BAR 21.49 > 21.59 L'HH
L'HH 22.07 > 22.48 GEL
Total journey time 17h 30m.
Here for 5 days now so Day 2 will be Tuesday 28th.
I need to be there for Saturday 25th May.
Decided I was interailing almost straight away. For decency's sake allowed an extra day for contingencies, but I am quite good at planning. 5 days Senior Pass a-ready I'm away on Thursday 23rd.
Set off from home at 04.18 to park at Merchant Gate for the 05.18 Azuma WKF to KGX. Exactly an hour before seems right.
Pancake stack with maple smoked bacon and three good coffees gets me awake.
A very helpful guard talked me through the Interail Pass rules.
Train almost empty all the way, only 14 in my 1st class carriage, even after Peterborough. This ridicules the compulsory seat reservation on this service.
St Pancras
Why do they have to be so keen to get to the front of the queue? Absolutely everyone has a reserved seat.
I sat at a distance and waited for an extra 30m, you can see if and when the queue ebbs and flows. Then went through customs queue and check in within 6 minutes, for the privilege of sitting for another 30m for boarding. Got to admit that seating is at a premium here so I just aimed for the nearest "bag-on-seat".
Eurostar in standard, due to no interrail 1st class available, but seats are good enough and a window seat bonus.
Into Paris smack on time. Sadly the queues for the ticket machines stole 30 minutes. No access allowed to the ticket office unless you were buying more than a single ticket.
This meant no visit to The Blue Train - I will do it one day.
Just time to grab a baguette and a couple of beers from a little supermarket round the corner. before the train to Barcelona Sants.
Just a Ham and cheese sarnie in Franch is so much better. The mayonnaise, the butter, the bread. Why can't we do this?
Spectacular journey, with tremendous storms in central France and then beautiful down the south with flamingos on the lagoons.
8m late into Barca
R4 local train needed next.
1st train was only going one stop to L'Hospital . . . so a quick change of platform there for the final train of a long day getting into Gelida.
Picked up by daughter for a 8m drive to the venue.
For the rail cranks, I know that the 3 letter codes don't fit abroad but this is how I've archived it.
WKF 05.18 > 07.30 STP
STP 09.31 > 13.58 GDN
GDL 14.42 > 21.35 BAR
BAR 21.49 > 21.59 L'HH
L'HH 22.07 > 22.48 GEL
Total journey time 17h 30m.
Here for 5 days now so Day 2 will be Tuesday 28th.