Bonjour!!
Can you tell we made it to France?? So…sorry about not blogging yesterday, but the train had no WiFi, so we were unable to connect to anything…feels awfully funny, a day going by without blogging…!
Up about 6 on Sunday, for the whole repacking process. Since we left POUNDS of books and papers at Philippa and Dan’s, we’re not doing too badly on weight – it just looks like a lot of stuff to cram into the cases. Down for the 9 o’clock breakfast at 8:45 and had the usual anchovy-cheese-toast starter; YEK! Then tried to pay the bill, which turned out to be a real adventure! The room cost 45E per night (which isn’t very much!) and the total bill was 135E. However, Angel, the lovely owner of the Posada had real trouble with our American credit card. He would put the transaction in, then the credit card company would come back and say “do you want to pay it in euros or dollars” – which totally threw him, he’d try to punch something in, and the entire transaction would cancel…R not really thrilled at this point, so we agreed that we would go to the nearest cash point and get cash and pay that way. Not really a problem; just an interesting complication!
Then we were on the road to Madrid; overcast but humid kind of day; occasional spits of rain. I had planned on the drive taking us about 6 hours, but actually, we were at Barajas airport in a little over four hours. Turned in the Hertz car and got into a cab to take us to Madrid-Chamartin train station. (Believe it or not, we couldn’t rent the car in Asturias and return it at Chamartin, as no Hertz stop there…) Arrived at Chamatin about 2:30 p.m. and then settled down to wait for the ritzy passenger lounge to open – you can only enter within 2 hours of your scheduled train departure!! R found a place for lunch; basically something like the Spanish equivalent of a Souplantation. Salad was OK, and they even had a few very watery creamy dressings! (I had the honey mustard version, as I figured I would get less ill on that than the other two offerings!) Decent pizza. I did discover, though, why I’ve been having a problem getting Magnum Classics in Spain – they’re not selling them as individual items! Only in boxes of four!! That’s TERRIBLE! Will we EVER be able to come to Spain again???
Finally, a little after 4, we went to the Passenger Lounge and checked in for our train. Very nicely decorated area with private bathrooms and free soft drinks, coffee and beer. I was a bit leery about our luggage, having absolutely no idea of what our accommodation would be like, but there was really no cause for concern! The train was called about 20 minutes before departure; track right next to the lounge. We found our car and met our attendant, and selected the “early” seating for dinner in the restaurant car. Our choices for dinner were: 8:00 p.m. or 10:00 p.m. Quite a choice! Found our room; Car 84, #4 – and it was WONDERFUL! There were two comfortable seats side by side, with about 2 feet in front of us, then a cozy but not impossible little bathroom with shower. (Decided we could give the shower a miss, though; sorry; not even for my reading public!) The nice thing is that there is room for suitcases at the top of the car – very nice storage area that accommodated everything that we had! Train pulled out right on time and started rolling toward France. We did have the Spain map with us, and to tell you the truth, we took a really funny route! First we headed northwest, then curved around due north, passed through Bourges, (which we had gone through on the way to Madrid earlier yesterday!) and finally started to make our way east, crossing the border into France at Irun.
I spent most of the time looking out the window – beautiful scenery, and absolutely millions of red poppies! The train was averaging something like 156 km per hour (it was really moving!) and at times, there was just this literal blur of red going past! Also at that speed, it’s not possible to pick out station names as we went by. In what seemed like minutes, our attendant was back to tell us that it was time for our dinner reservation. We picked a two-seater table on the north side of the train, and settled down for our all-inclusive-3-course dinner!
Robert chose the warm tomato and basil soup with feta cheese for starters. I took the incredibly wonderful white asparagus with oil and mayonnaise – fabulous! Then for main courses, R got the sea bass (which fortunately came without head or tail!) and I got the beef entrecote with matchstick potatoes and sautéed courgettes (zucchini). Both VERY happy with our choices! I got the chocolate cake for dessert, and R had the fruit plate. The chocolate cake was so dense that I couldn’t even finish it! We washed all this down with sparkling Cava (a good Spanish wine) for me, and a small bottle of Bordeaux for R. Truly the best meal we’ve had in Spain!
Then back to the roomette, which had been converted to two single beds. On general principles, I like the top berth, but in this case, there wasn’t much of a view from up there, and R was kind enough to change with me so that I could have the nice and cozy bottom bunk. (Besides, as R says, anyone who gets up at night as often as I do NEEDS to have the bottom bunk for safety purposes!) I think I was asleep by the time the 10 p.m. dinner service was called….very, very comfortable; nice and warm! I did wake up a couple of times – once for a few minutes at Irun, when we were passing through border formalities. The attendant collects all passports when you board, so that you don’t have to wake up to get passports inspected…though as both countries are EU, we are wondering why the formality at all…however…
Up around 6 and managed to get dressed and cleaned up by 7. R was able to fold the beds back into the wall, so we were able to move around fairly easily. We were the first folks in the restaurant car for breakfast – fruit and bread plates, and I had a small plain omelet. Then back to our roomette for the last couple of hours into Paris. Arrived right on time, 10:35 a.m. Great experience, and one which we will definitely repeat in future!
So…we’re in Paris, and R says I must be writing “War and Peace”. I will close now and post this, and then when we get back from dinner, will write about our great day in cloudy and gray Paris!!
Much love,
m
xxx
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