May 2, 2024
Although it had been officially registered as part of my Eurail pass, my little trip on the Thameslink from the airport to St. Pancras hardly counted as a train ride. Today would be the real start of my adventure as I would take two trains, the first one to Paris on the Eurostar and then on to Munich on a “Train à Grande Vitesse”.
I had found my room at the Swinton quite hot and noisy. I tried without success to turn off the radiator which was producing heat on the early spring evening. I assumed that this is a seasonal thing, and the hotel had not yet adjusted to spring temperatures. I opened the window, but the already loud street noise became unbearable, so I closed it and lived with the heat.
Despite all that, I must have slept okay, since I later heard from my seatmate on the train that there had been a big storm in the area with lots of thunder and lightning. I never heard anything.
Although it was not included, I had my breakfast of some fruit and yoghurt at the hotel.
Eurostar recommended arriving early due to possible delays at security and passport control, so I left the hotel and took my short walk to the station just after 8:30 am.
After my train trip though the United States in the fall of 2023, where most of the stations look more like glorified (or not) bus stations, it was great to be in an historic structure. St. Pancras Station was built in the 1860’s. When it opened it was the largest enclosed space in the world. It underwent a huge refurbishment at the beginning of this century to become the terminal for the Channel Tunnel Rail Link.
The passport control for Eurostar is a relatively new thing, all thanks to Brexit. That combined with the security check makes it like boarding an international flight. It would be my last border control until I returned from the Continent.
I was one of the early arrivals for the 10:31 train and sailed through to the departure lounge where I met all the passengers waiting for the 9:31 train.
The Pret A Manger seating area was packed. I bought my latte and croissant, and just as I went to find a table in the busy lounge, all the 9:31 passengers were called to board, leaving it quiet for a few minutes until the passengers for my train began to arrive.
My trip was bookended with the two essential seat reservations to get across the channel. If one is starting their Eurail train adventure in the UK, there is no chance for spontaneity.
As I mentioned in my last post, my ride on the Eurostar was included in my Eurail Global Pass, but I had to reserve my seat. There were warnings about the limited reservations on the train, so I booked my seat the same day that I bought the pass. This was more than two months before my trip, but I still could only get a second-class seat. Had I waited much longer, I likely would not have been able to use my pass at all and would have had to buy a regular, and quite pricey ticket. Or maybe I would have flown. There is no spontaneity when taking the Eurostar.
I booked my Brussels to London seat the next day, almost three months in advance of that ride. This was early enough to get a first-class seat.
After I bought my pass, I downloaded the Eurail phone app. I had thought that I could transfer the planning that I had done on the website to the app and was a bit surprised to find out that I had to redo everything. It is easy to assume certain functionality with modern technology. From that point on I did everything on the app.
The process of saving the trains did not commit me to anything, and I could keep changing the trains over the course of the trip. Sometimes I had more than one train saved for the same route. The trains only became important on the actual days of travel.
On every train travel day, I added that day’s trains to my “Trip”, which was done through a slider on the app. I would then click the app to show the day’s QR code which was my ticket to present on the train. Since I was on a monthly pass, I could travel as many days as I wanted within the month. Since I happened to start on May 1, mine was good for thirty-one days, until May 31. As I understand the rules, if I had started on April 30, I would have been limited to thirty days, which if so, is a strange quirk with Eurail passes.
As I noted in my last post, I learned to use the various train company websites for buying any required seat reservations. Seats could not be booked through the app which would just take me to the Eurail website.
We were called to board, and like the security and immigration, it was much like boarding a plane, except that we all went to our own cars, so it was not nearly the hassle when everyone enters the same door on a plane.
My seat was comfortable, certainly better than economy on an airplane, but not quite as spacious as I had expected. It was not nearly as nice as my first-class seat on the return journey from Brussels.
I had nice chat with my seatmate. She often takes the Eurostar to Paris to visit her sister. She told me that she had done the Trans-Siberian railway, that trip that I missed due to the pandemic.
The ride was smooth and quiet. There was not much to see since it was overcast with showers, the windows were dirty, and for 30 minutes we were under the English Channel.
The tunnel was completed in 1993, and the Eurostar began its operations in November 1994. It is ridiculous that this train has been operating for thirty years, while Canada (and the US) is still waiting for high-speed trains.
I passed on the beverage service at my seat and visited the café car for a latte.
It took us a short two hours and 15 minutes to reach Paris at the Gare du Nord. It is a beautiful old station, built in the 1860’s.
The Gare du Nord is one of seven railway terminals in Paris. That fact alone shows the huge difference in train travel versus North America where most cities have one. Each of the Paris terminals host trains from different regions or group of countries. The Gare du Nord is the station for London, Brussels, Amsterdam & Cologne.
I was going to Munich, so I needed to go to the Gare de l’Est. It is a short walk away, almost part of the same station. Since it was a pleasant day, I really enjoyed my brief stroll.
I had more than hour before my train and had to decide between a croissant or lunch. Since I was taking another train ride and would be late getting into Munich, I opted for lunch and walked to the café across the street from the station.
I ordered the plat du jour, which was poulet this day. It was very good. It was a French café.
I was really questioning my decision to just pass through Paris. I wondered why I had not planned to spend at least a couple of nights in the city, both because it is an amazing place, but also because I do have some ability in French and quite enjoy using it, to show that I am not just one of those totally English only people. At least I tried to learn a second language. I do not speak French well and cannot write at all, but I can read and carry-on basic conversations. That is a lot more than my non-existent knowledge of German, Italian, and Slovenian. I had compounded my mistake on this trip by just visiting the Italian and German speaking areas of Switzerland.
The goods news is this can all be fixed on a future trip. I will travel by train around France and finish in the French part of Switzerland. I have added that to my travel list.
I finished my nice French meal, really wondering why I would not be enjoying a few more, and walked across to the station. My brief time in Paris was soon to be over.
The Gare de l’Est dates to 1849. It is serviced by trains to eastern France, Germany, and Switzerland. I was really loving the old stations.
I scanned my seat printout to pass through the gates. It seemed a bit crowded at first, but the passengers were for all the trains, not just mine. Once through I was able to walk to the tracks and board my train.
There were two levels. I was upstairs in first class.
The coach was set up with two seats on my side and one on the other. I had a seat on the solo side. It was quite spacious.
I had made the decision to pay about $150 more on my Eurail pass to upgrade to first class, thinking that the additional cost was not that much when compared to the full cost of my trip. It was less than one night in a hotel, of which I would have 28. I figured that I would appreciate the extra space on those trains when it was available. It was a good decision.
The conductor came by and scanned my ticket. I again used my seat reservation printout as my ticket. I was not yet using my Eurail app as my ticket although I had dutifully created my ticket for the day.
The French high-speed line, TGV or Train à Grande Vitesse, opened in 1981, so over forty years of high-speed while we still wait in North America.
A cart came around with drinks. I chose to visit the café car for my latte.
The train was comfortable and quiet. There was not much to see outside as it was overcast and raining.
It was a four-hour ride. We arrived at the Munich station at 9:45, a few minutes late.
It took me just over ten minutes to walk to the Hotel Bayer's where I received a nice greeting. I quickly dropped my bags at my room.
Knowing that I would only have the one night in Munich and wanting to get some German food and beer, I had searched on Google Maps for a traditional beer hall restaurant. There were a few, but there was only one near the station that would still be open late. I was going to go there but the receptionist suggested the bar next door.
It was a mistake. It did not look much different bars back in Canada. Then I was told that the kitchen was closed for the night. I stayed and had a couple of beers. It was not a great German cultural experience.
I went back to my hotel where I spent a few minutes planning my next day’s tour before going to bed, hoping to get a decent sleep as I was still adjusting to the time difference. After my brief tour of Munich the next morning, I would be getting on two more trains so that I could begin my Slovenian adventure.
This featured blog entry was written by Bob Brink from the blog Searching for Magical Moments.
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