Day 22 (May-25, Wednesday) Travel to Paris

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Hello from Paris.

First let’s give a couple of updates before reporting today’s adventure. David has gotten the sniffles but is managing them with some Allegra. Janet’s allergy is getting better – she still has occasional coughing spells and feels tired because of not sleeping too well, but she is better than yesterday.

Here is a great big THANK YOU to Mike & Sue for their very generous hospitality while we visited in Germany. They provided a very comfortable, spacious room for us to stay in, provided many delicious and diverse meals for us to eat, and shuttled us all over the countryside (even though they had to take 2 cars – double the gas – to accommodate all 6 of us). There were more places that they wanted to show us, but we just did not have the time/energy. This is definitely a 5-star recommendation for any Dolans planning to visit Germany.

We got up early so we would have time to say goodbye to Maggie and Jessica before they left for school. We also needed to finish packing the last minute things in our suitcases and have a few minutes to visit before Sue had to go to work. Everything was loaded into Mike’s Pathfinder and he had the address of the train station in his GPS unit, so there should not have been any problems. However, there are multiple train stations in Frankfurt and we went to the wrong one first. But we had started early enough to build in this detour and still get to our train on about 15 minutes before it was supposed to depart. Judging by the number of people who boarded after us, I guess we were early by train standards.

Once in the station, our train was clearly marked on platform 3. We found a lady who showed us where our car was and Mike & David got all the bags aboard. There is an overhead compartment for bags as well as a luggage area for bigger bags. The train left pretty promptly at 9:00 AM and we were on our way. We are finally completely on our own – no one to help us but what we can find ourselves until we get back home. Shortly after leaving the station the same lady came by to “punch our ticket”, but the actual ticket was no longer in the folder – only the reservation sheet. Very fortunately she remembered seeing the Americans on the platform and had seen our ticket at that time, so we got to continue on the train anyway. That could have been a real problem and a bad start to this last phase of our trip.

The first class compartment is very comfortable (like first class seats on an airplane). We cannot speak to how much better it is than 2nd class, but looking into those cars they looked more crowded and seemed to have less fancy seats. Our first stop was briefly in Manheim at 9:45. Quite a few passengers boarded there and first class got a lot more crowded (the car had only had about 6 passengers before this stop). All along the way, the ride was smooth and the countryside zipped past pretty quickly (no idea how fast we were actually going). There were two more stops but nobody ever came saying they also had our seats, so fortunately we did not need to produce our ticket again. We stopped at Kaiserslautern and then at Saarbrucken. By 11:15 we had made all the stops and were on our way to Paris, but the rail car was about ¾ full. After the Kaiserslautern stop, the train really accelerated and zipped right along (check the map and see how far we went in the first 2 hours and how in the last two). They brought a nice little meal (cold cuts and cheese, rolls with butter and jelly, a fruit cup, and coffee & orange juice) in 1st class, so it was fine that we had not had time to buy something in Frankfurt – it all worked out just fine.

We arrived in Paris on schedule at 1:00. We got a taxi to our hotel (nearby) and had to wait a little while to check in at 2:00. First challenge was that room 212 is on the 1st floor which is actually the second floor of the building. Then we discovered that the elevator could only hold two people and no baggage, or a couple of bags and no people, or some combination. So David rode up with Janet and she found the room, while David shuttled back and forth with our bags (one at a time) in the elevator. Next observation is that none of the electric switches worked in the room. A trip down to the reception desk explained that you had to insert your key into a slot inside the room, and then all the switches would operate the lights. Next was actually operating the door lock. The door had been ajar by the cleaning lady so we initially pushed it open and entered. Another trip to reception and we were told that the door has a magic eye which you swipe (you align your card), and then the door unlocks (not a slot to slip magnetic cards into like most other hotel). The room does have air conditioning which we figured out how to operate without any help. The bathroom has a sliding frosted door (a little unusual) and a shower that is going to be a challenge to squeeze past the doorjamb to get into it. But we got enough clothes unpacked to last us a few days and the rest are still in the suitcase.

Our first order of business outside the hotel was to go to the Gare du Nord to buy our train ticket to London in 3 days. But now we have an exit strategy which will eventually get us all the way back to St Louis. We were hungry (the cold cuts weren’t going to suffice for someone used to ”cruise eating”, so we went to the restaurant across from the gare. And of course we had pomme fries (French Fries) with roasted chicken. Janet had a glass of peach tea (off course there was no ice) and David have a demi carafe of rose, and they were about the same price. On the way back to the hotel, we bought 4 liters of water (naturalle – no gas). Now we have enough bottled water to keep ourselves hydrated for a couple of days. Actually we seem to be in the Indian section of town (India Indians as opposed to Native American Indians) with lots of clothing & jewelry, as well as markets and restaurants.

After we ate we scoped out the Metro and figured out how to get to tomorrow’s tour. Well, actually it was the man at the reception desk who told us which Metro Lines to take and where to make the connection. He even told us there was a booth where a person could help us figure out how to pay. This “being on your own” stuff isn’t as hard as one might have expected, especially since David still remembers a few words from High School French. Ok, it does help that the reception fellow speaks very good English.

We are going to send this before the day is over, just in case there are any problems with the Internet and maybe his help will be needed again. But we plan to go out again this evening to explore a little, but then get a good rest tonight to try to shake off our allergies. Anyway – THANK YOU again to Mike and Sue for making the Germany portion so great!

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Photos

On the Train
Eurostar from Frankfurt to Paris

Gare du Nord
Paris france

Inside Gare du Nord
Paris France