G & J away from home

Sunday, 12 June 2016

There seems to have been a lot of walking in St Malo; yesterday from the ferry to the hotel, from the hotel to the restaurant and back, and then this morning to the railway station.  And every time somebody says 'it's a 20 minute walk' we need to add a bit to make it adequately reflect the real time of us wandering along dragging bags - and, after a while, dragging our feet!

This morning we set off for the St Malo railway station about 11am.  Gary and Marianne had investigated the route the night before so there was no chance of getting lost and we had a pretty accurate idea of the time it would take.  When we walk with our bags Gary is usually in the lead, dragging his big bag with his laptop bag on the handle.  I walk along with my main bag on my back (it has backpack straps) and the small day pack in my hand.  Marianne's main bag is a four-wheeled bag (not so much dragging it behind as guiding it along) and her cabin bag on her back or over her shoulder along with her handbag.  Beth drags her very small main bag along behind her and wears her cabin bag which is also a backpack and has her handbag over her shoulder.

The latter three of us follow Gary along like ducklings and it looks something like this:

The ducklings

At the railways station we met with pay toilets for the first time this trip - and, naturally, no coins to pay for them.  Nor could we use our high denomination Euro notes to buy things to get change. Eventually Gary produced a 10 Euro note squirrelled away from our last trip and we were able to start the process of buying and getting change.  And then, as it turned out, the train was boarding and there was no time to spend the 50 Euro cents anyway.

With the good advice from my brother, Blair, about getting on the trains in France we knew to look for the luggage rack (and to make sure we boarded early enough to find space in it).  Then we wrestled with the magic (pneumatic) doors and found our seats which were a diabolical set of facing seats with a table between.  We soon discovered it was impossible for anybody to stretch out their legs, though eventually we discovered we could each have one leg stretched out if we all co-operated.  When there were spare seats (up as far as Rennes) one of us sat somewhere else to make some space and discovered that the seats which faced the same way as those in front of them had plenty of leg room and so were quite comfortable.

Marianne explored the train thoroughly and reported back that there were four fold-down seats in the entrance-way and, while they weren't comfortable seats, they did have plenty of room for legs!  I spent the latter part of the train journey to Paris out there - not only for the sake of stretching my legs but because it was cooler than in the compartment.  On Marianne's travels around the train she had discovered that every compartment was a different temperature and I'm sure our one (coach 19) was a winner in top temperature stakes.

Marianne also discovered the dining area on the train

Again following Blair's advice (as well as that on a number of websites) we transferred between our arrival station, Paris Montparnasse, and our departure station, Gare de Lyon, by taxi.  It was a very easy process - even when we needed a taxi large enough to take the four of us and our bags.  The queue moved very quickly and the three- or four-wide taxi rank worked well despite originally looking a bit overwhelming.  As we left Gare Montparnasse we even caught a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower.  (We're calling this a tick in the box for a number of children's books set in Paris.)

Happy to have arrived at Gare de Lyon

A very busy Gare de Lyon

Very much relieved that all those worrying bits were over we settled down for a well-deserved meal.  It was about 4.30 so we weren't sure what it should be called but knew we needed a couple of meals between arriving in Paris and our near-midnight arrival in Interlaken.

When we finally ventured into the station itself we discovered just how huge it was - and that was only the first 'hall'.  After a lot of consultation between the departures board and Marianne's papers we set off to Hall 2 - and there we had to wait until our departure platform was displayed.

Waiting for our platform

The moment the platform was notified there was a mass exodus from the waiting area, with us going along with it, trying not to get too far back in the queue as we wanted to have space in the luggage area for the bags.  All would have gone well if it hadn't been for the large drops of rain that started as soon as we got out from under cover.  Splat, splat, splat-splat-splat ... downpour!  We were a damp-looking crew that eventually seated themselves at yet another set of facing seats separated by a table.

Beth and Marianne; safely aboard, but damp

We settled in for the trip, wandering around when we could to give the others more room, and as we made a couple of stops some space freed up.  Gary got his GPS out (and working) and, although it kept trying to show us travelling on roads, it did manage to show our speed.  I was a little nervous when it reached 150 km/h and dutifully took a photo for the blog.  Gary took the following photo while I was off sitting elsewhere and it somewhat trumps mine:

Ridiculously fast

I took a couple of photos to show the luggage arrangements on the train.  There is a luggage area inside the entrance doors for bulky luggage that won't fit on the overhead area in the compartment:

Luggage area - with my bag the last one left

But I have to say that almost anything that can be boosted up there will fit on those overhead shelves and there is a more convenient lower, narrower shelf for coats and small bags:

Overhead luggage shelf

Finally we pulled up at Interlaken-West, our stop, pretty much on time just before midnight.  Luckily the rain that's been appearing on the weather forecasts was having a break and the 6-minute** walk to our apartment was quite pleasant.

** If you count the 6 minutes starting when we got BACK to the railway station after heading off in quite the wrong direction the first time!


P.S. Beth is quite despondent that nobody wants to see her passport.  Hardly worth getting it, she has been heard to say.


Reading:

• Firestar by Chris d'Lacey (Jane)
• The Head Girl of the Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer (Jane)

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