Searle
Established Member
Decided to let the old thread die and make a new one for my official trip report from 1st July - 3rd August 2014. Because it's a whole month, I'll probably give a bit of a synopsis of each of the days and post some pictures we took. The train photos from Flickr are mine and the others from Instagram are Abi's.
You can view my railmiles here for the timings and the distances, although I haven't bothered putting in the unit/loco numbers yet, and some of the things need updating. I'm planning on putting metro/tram moves in as well, but haven't gotten round to it yet!
A bit of background, my girlfriend (Abi) and I have been planning this since last December, so the route was set in stone (pretty much anyway), and hotels/hostels/guesthouses were all booked in advance. Here we go!
Day 1 - Tuesday 1st July 2014
After spending the night before frantically packing our huge backpacks whilst the rest of the family tried to watch the world cup around us, we were fortunately pretty ready to leave. We'd booked ourselves on the 17:31 Eurostar service to Paris, so most of the day was sat around watching crap TV. I was also desperately trying to update my favourite songs playlist on my Ipod before we left, which was getting me stressed out in itself!
We walked down to Hertford North, leaving a lot of time for the train, not wanting to be caught out before we had even left! We got the 14:54 from Hertford North (313024+313031), and then onto the 15:43 to King's Cross, not wanting to lug our huge backpacks onto the tube and out again. We popped over to St. Pancras to pick up the Eurostar tickets and check they were all fine (they were!), before hanging out in a McDonalds across the road (soon to become a running trend) and watching Tipping Point on the TV's (best gameshow ever).
At about 4:30 - 4:45 we walked back over to St Pancras to check in, and go through security etc. etc. Fortunately our train was already boarding by the time we got through, so no waiting in the lounge for us! 373999 was on the back which was interesting enough, although unfortunately I'm not certain what was on the front (I think it was 373009).
London St. Pancras International by Mikez2605, on Flickr
I always find there's someone eating smelly food on a Eurostar, and this time the culprits were a couple eating sushi to the left of us, and then someone eating a curry from the restaurant behind us later in the journey, grrrr. Oh well, at least I had booked a window seat for us to look out of, which was very nice!
The journey to Paris was very uneventful fortunately, one thing I noticed though is that even when not stopping in Lille, you go through the station on the avoiding lines. I've never been on a non stop Eurostar through Lille before (I had booked myself on one two years ago but we had to stop there to be diverted to the Classic Lines for some reason), and had always just assumed that you completely avoided the city.
Arrival into Paris Nord was on time at 20:47 local time, and we made our way off the platform, which seemed to take an age (we were in coach 4!). Having learnt from arriving into Paris at midday last time, I bought metro tickets on the Eurostar, however it didn't make much difference as there were no queues anyway. Our first hotel was Baldaquin Excelsior, just around the corner from Place de Clichy, so we got the 4 northbound and then the 2 west bound. The Paris metro is pretty decent as I'm sure many of you know, but nothing special really. We then visited a local supermarket for some snacks to keep us going through the night, including getting a 2L bottle of ice tea for about €0.60, bargain! After that we retired to bed for the night, hoping not to wake up too early the next day.
Day 2 - Wednesday 2nd July
Can't really remember what time we got up but I can guarantee it wasn't too early! We walked back to Place de Clichy metro station, and took the 2 westbound to Champs-Elysees Clemencau, to view the Arc De Triomphe from below. We then took a walk down the Champs-Elysees, and went into an amazing patiseree which was recommended in our guide book, Ladurée. All we wanted was to try a macaron each, both of us never having had one before, and they were really nice, although I'm not sure I'd want to get one again.
We sat down in the parks at the end of it briefly, but decided to move on after being harassed by someone offering us a gold ring as a gift (oldest trick in the book eh :P ). By this time we were at Franklin D. Roosevelt metro station, although it was incredibly difficult to work this out because the French apparently hate putting station names around the station! We jumped on a metro to Chatelet, and then down to Cite, to see the Notre Dame. After seeing how long the queue was (seemingly a couple of miles), we decided not to go inside, but instead cross over a bridge to get a meal for lunch. We found a lovely pizzeria situated near the bank of the river, where we got a cheap and tasty meal. After that, we headed back to our hotel room, to get some rest, wanting to go back out later to see the Eiffel Tower at night.
We set off again in the evening, although it was already pretty late by the time we left. We headed for Trocadero, and walked down the steps towards the Eiffel Tower, where people were dancing to romantic music, I expected nothing more from Paris! We walked over the bridge (resisting the urge to buy a tacky eiffel tower), and sat underneath the real thing for a while. I'd never seen it at night, so it was amazing to see!
I decided not to walk back over to Trocadero to get the metro back, instead walking to Bir-Hakeim on line 6, although this turned out to be a very bad mistake! The line was closed for some reason, with replacement buses, which threw a bit of a spanner in our plans. With not enough time to run back to Trocadero (we would have missed the last metro whilst having to change en route), I withdrew some emergency money and hailed a cab in the street, something I'd never done before in the UK, let alone abroad! It was a bit nerve wracking, but to stay safe I watched where we were going on my phone, and kept a good eye on the meter. Fortunately we were neither kidnapped or ripped off, and after a quick wizz around the Arc de Triomphe at just past midnight, we arrived safe and sound, if a bit stressed out, at our hotel.
Day 3 - Thursday 3rd July
Day 3, officially the first day of our Interrail pass, as we hadn't needed it up until this day. We got up early, and checked out of the hotel, before getting back on the metro with our huge backpacks, down to Champs Elysees Clemencau again, but this time we headed off down to Gare de Lyon. Upon entering the station, half of it was taped off for some reason, which was really quite odd, but there was a heavy police presence so I thought I probably shouldn't question it! We had a seat reservation on the 11:23 to Mulhouse Ville, and with a TGV to Marseille 16 minutes earlier, the concourse was very busy as people awaited the trains to be announced.
We were booked on a TGV Duplex, unfortunately on the lower seats, but it wasn't too bad. We quickly began to realise the benefits of travelling as a couple, we never had to sit next to anyone else! The TGV was very impressive, and whilst Abi fell asleep, I went and checked out the on board cafe, which was really nice, if expensive. I stood in the cafe area and gave my parents a call to tell them that I was ok, whilst looking out the windows from the upper deck.
Paris Gare de Lyon by Mikez2605, on Flickr
A bit later in the journey we ground to a halt somewhere. I can't remember quite where now, but we didn't move for a while. There were announcements, however they were in French only, which wasn't much use to us! I think a hospital was mentioned, so I can only assume someone being taken ill on a train, or a person hit by train. Fortunately we got moving again soon, and only arrived into Mulhouse Ville 14 minutes late. Here we were to change trains for the short hop across the border into Switzerland, where we met a relative of mine at Basel SBB.
As we arrived on the "foreign" half of the station, we had to pass through a large room which was filled with customs offices (Switzerland not being in the EU), however it was mostly all deserted, with the Schengen Agreement coming into effect. Due to some circumstances, my family didn't want to go into the centre which was fine with us; they had a really nice house in Reinach, with a swimming pool overlooking some gorgeous scenery.
More to come soon!
You can view my railmiles here for the timings and the distances, although I haven't bothered putting in the unit/loco numbers yet, and some of the things need updating. I'm planning on putting metro/tram moves in as well, but haven't gotten round to it yet!
A bit of background, my girlfriend (Abi) and I have been planning this since last December, so the route was set in stone (pretty much anyway), and hotels/hostels/guesthouses were all booked in advance. Here we go!
Day 1 - Tuesday 1st July 2014
After spending the night before frantically packing our huge backpacks whilst the rest of the family tried to watch the world cup around us, we were fortunately pretty ready to leave. We'd booked ourselves on the 17:31 Eurostar service to Paris, so most of the day was sat around watching crap TV. I was also desperately trying to update my favourite songs playlist on my Ipod before we left, which was getting me stressed out in itself!
We walked down to Hertford North, leaving a lot of time for the train, not wanting to be caught out before we had even left! We got the 14:54 from Hertford North (313024+313031), and then onto the 15:43 to King's Cross, not wanting to lug our huge backpacks onto the tube and out again. We popped over to St. Pancras to pick up the Eurostar tickets and check they were all fine (they were!), before hanging out in a McDonalds across the road (soon to become a running trend) and watching Tipping Point on the TV's (best gameshow ever).
At about 4:30 - 4:45 we walked back over to St Pancras to check in, and go through security etc. etc. Fortunately our train was already boarding by the time we got through, so no waiting in the lounge for us! 373999 was on the back which was interesting enough, although unfortunately I'm not certain what was on the front (I think it was 373009).
London St. Pancras International by Mikez2605, on Flickr
I always find there's someone eating smelly food on a Eurostar, and this time the culprits were a couple eating sushi to the left of us, and then someone eating a curry from the restaurant behind us later in the journey, grrrr. Oh well, at least I had booked a window seat for us to look out of, which was very nice!
The journey to Paris was very uneventful fortunately, one thing I noticed though is that even when not stopping in Lille, you go through the station on the avoiding lines. I've never been on a non stop Eurostar through Lille before (I had booked myself on one two years ago but we had to stop there to be diverted to the Classic Lines for some reason), and had always just assumed that you completely avoided the city.
Arrival into Paris Nord was on time at 20:47 local time, and we made our way off the platform, which seemed to take an age (we were in coach 4!). Having learnt from arriving into Paris at midday last time, I bought metro tickets on the Eurostar, however it didn't make much difference as there were no queues anyway. Our first hotel was Baldaquin Excelsior, just around the corner from Place de Clichy, so we got the 4 northbound and then the 2 west bound. The Paris metro is pretty decent as I'm sure many of you know, but nothing special really. We then visited a local supermarket for some snacks to keep us going through the night, including getting a 2L bottle of ice tea for about €0.60, bargain! After that we retired to bed for the night, hoping not to wake up too early the next day.
Day 2 - Wednesday 2nd July
Can't really remember what time we got up but I can guarantee it wasn't too early! We walked back to Place de Clichy metro station, and took the 2 westbound to Champs-Elysees Clemencau, to view the Arc De Triomphe from below. We then took a walk down the Champs-Elysees, and went into an amazing patiseree which was recommended in our guide book, Ladurée. All we wanted was to try a macaron each, both of us never having had one before, and they were really nice, although I'm not sure I'd want to get one again.
We sat down in the parks at the end of it briefly, but decided to move on after being harassed by someone offering us a gold ring as a gift (oldest trick in the book eh :P ). By this time we were at Franklin D. Roosevelt metro station, although it was incredibly difficult to work this out because the French apparently hate putting station names around the station! We jumped on a metro to Chatelet, and then down to Cite, to see the Notre Dame. After seeing how long the queue was (seemingly a couple of miles), we decided not to go inside, but instead cross over a bridge to get a meal for lunch. We found a lovely pizzeria situated near the bank of the river, where we got a cheap and tasty meal. After that, we headed back to our hotel room, to get some rest, wanting to go back out later to see the Eiffel Tower at night.
We set off again in the evening, although it was already pretty late by the time we left. We headed for Trocadero, and walked down the steps towards the Eiffel Tower, where people were dancing to romantic music, I expected nothing more from Paris! We walked over the bridge (resisting the urge to buy a tacky eiffel tower), and sat underneath the real thing for a while. I'd never seen it at night, so it was amazing to see!
I decided not to walk back over to Trocadero to get the metro back, instead walking to Bir-Hakeim on line 6, although this turned out to be a very bad mistake! The line was closed for some reason, with replacement buses, which threw a bit of a spanner in our plans. With not enough time to run back to Trocadero (we would have missed the last metro whilst having to change en route), I withdrew some emergency money and hailed a cab in the street, something I'd never done before in the UK, let alone abroad! It was a bit nerve wracking, but to stay safe I watched where we were going on my phone, and kept a good eye on the meter. Fortunately we were neither kidnapped or ripped off, and after a quick wizz around the Arc de Triomphe at just past midnight, we arrived safe and sound, if a bit stressed out, at our hotel.
Day 3 - Thursday 3rd July
Day 3, officially the first day of our Interrail pass, as we hadn't needed it up until this day. We got up early, and checked out of the hotel, before getting back on the metro with our huge backpacks, down to Champs Elysees Clemencau again, but this time we headed off down to Gare de Lyon. Upon entering the station, half of it was taped off for some reason, which was really quite odd, but there was a heavy police presence so I thought I probably shouldn't question it! We had a seat reservation on the 11:23 to Mulhouse Ville, and with a TGV to Marseille 16 minutes earlier, the concourse was very busy as people awaited the trains to be announced.
We were booked on a TGV Duplex, unfortunately on the lower seats, but it wasn't too bad. We quickly began to realise the benefits of travelling as a couple, we never had to sit next to anyone else! The TGV was very impressive, and whilst Abi fell asleep, I went and checked out the on board cafe, which was really nice, if expensive. I stood in the cafe area and gave my parents a call to tell them that I was ok, whilst looking out the windows from the upper deck.
Paris Gare de Lyon by Mikez2605, on Flickr
A bit later in the journey we ground to a halt somewhere. I can't remember quite where now, but we didn't move for a while. There were announcements, however they were in French only, which wasn't much use to us! I think a hospital was mentioned, so I can only assume someone being taken ill on a train, or a person hit by train. Fortunately we got moving again soon, and only arrived into Mulhouse Ville 14 minutes late. Here we were to change trains for the short hop across the border into Switzerland, where we met a relative of mine at Basel SBB.
As we arrived on the "foreign" half of the station, we had to pass through a large room which was filled with customs offices (Switzerland not being in the EU), however it was mostly all deserted, with the Schengen Agreement coming into effect. Due to some circumstances, my family didn't want to go into the centre which was fine with us; they had a really nice house in Reinach, with a swimming pool overlooking some gorgeous scenery.
More to come soon!
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