The Start of the Holiday

September 1st and 2nd 2016

Our Eurostar train was to leave quite early on September 2nd, and we were supposed to be at St Pancras before 9am. So, rather than cram ourselves and suitcases onto commuter trains, and risk the Thameslink being cancelled, I booked a hotel at Kings Cross and we went up the night before after an early supper. This was probably a very good idea, as our train was late and the lift was broken at East Croydon station so we missed our Thameslink connection. Then the next one was cancelled, so we had quite a wait and didn't finally arrive at Kings Cross until well after 9 pm. I was glad I hadn't left it until the morning, and at least we got a night's sleep before the holiday - when we leave in the morning, we always seem to be up packing and organising until 3 am!

The hotel bed was comfy, but we discovered we only had one towel, and couldn't quite manage the long walk down to reception in our night attire, so we just shared the sole towel.

We tried to use the lift in the Eurostar terminal to check in with our tour organisers, and the lift got stuck. That's the only time in my life so far I've been stuck in a lift, and I sincerely hope it's the last. At least it was a large lift and had glass sides, and we were only trapped for a few minutes before the engineers got it going again. We went down on the escalator!

Our Eurostar train left on time, and just before midday French time we were served with a second breakfast! I'd have preferred a light lunch. We reached Paris to find our connection to Strasbourg had been changed, so we had 2 hours to wait in Gare de L'Est. I spent my time updating the blog as there was an Internet connection of sorts in the station. I'm hoping for a better one at the hotel, or posting this will be a real chore. It amazes me that I posted 10 or 12 photos every day from the Australian outback 5 years ago, and I have to add them one at a time in Europe!

At least I'm up to date now, though I haven't had time to see any of Strasbourg and we leave for a 3 train trip to Rome tomorrow, so I don't have much hope of sightseeing. Perhaps tomorrow will be a more interesting day - at least I won't have to spend hours bringing this blog up to date! Thank goodness for the fast Internet connection in the Novotel in Strasbourg - I only hope the other hotels we stay in will be as good.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad