A high speed train trip.

October 9 – Reims to Amsterdam via Paris on high-speed rail.

Weather – Cold start to the day 6-17

Getting up and out of the house early was pretty easy as we’re not really doing any late nights – bit hard with a 7yr old. A late night is around 8pm at the moment. It was actually cold as we left the house – we were on the 9:14am out of Reims to Paris, so we left the house at 8am – just as the sun was rising. It’s a late starter here. We walked though the Les Hautes Promenades on the way to the station, and Lucy had a play on the play grounds as we walked along. 

Once again the train was packed – I’m thinking that given it’s only 45mins from Reims into Paris, some people might do a compute? Either way, it’s an easy trip. 

Lucy being too cool for everything

We had 2.5hrs to kill in Paris, however we had to swap from Gard L’Est to Gard du Nord. And after making our way through the crowds with all our bags, it was around the 2hr mark. We had Breakfast at a Bistrot opposite the station, an unremarkable breakfast which included the Petit Déjeuner with added scrambled eggs and something that could have been bacon. It did the job. 

We killed a bit of time there and then headed back over to the station and waited for our chance to board. We were in 16^th Train carriage, and we were counting forward from 1 as we walked – so it was a long walk along the platform to our carriage. For some reason our tickets were in a family 4, however we were split in a row with window – aisle, then the gap, some random bloke, then me by the other window. Sitting facing four other randoms. Think the travel agent buggered that one up. 

Photo of the speedo as we were travelling. of interest to me at least...

It’s about 4hrs to Amsterdam and this time our train was really moving. I had the app up which shows a real time map and the speed of the train. For most of the journey we were up around 280kph, with the maximum I saw of 300kph! It's an amazing experience moving at such speed so close to the ground, unlike in a plane where you have no sense of speed. 

I think we are in holland...

Once into Amsterdam we attempted to catch a cab, only to be palmed off at the cab rank to some dodgy driver who told us it would be €40 –but only after we had all the bags in and were squashed in the back. Katie started arguing with him, and there was some yelling back and forth etc… Eventually I gave up and agreed to €30 – Katie was not happy, but I wasn’t about to get out, get our bags and attempt to find someone else. At least Katie managed to get him down to €30. Ah, the dirty looks I coped after giving in. But I really wanted to get to the hotel and get changed! 

The view out of our hotel window

Anyway, the hotel is nice – fairly basic, but a good-sized room with big comfortable beds and a nice shower with hot water and good flow. Katie basically had to get in, get changed and leave for her conference opening address, leaving Lucy and I to head of in search of something to eat. It was reasonably early, so most of the bars and restaurants weren’t too busy. We found a place which looked reasonable kid friendly – I judged this on the fact that there were other children sitting outside. Dinner was nice, I got a chicken, chips and salad, and Lucy got nacho’s – I basically ordered anything I thought Lucy would eat. The nacho’s were huge so I didn’t have to worry about Lucy going hungry, and my chicken was plain enough – half a rotisserie style chicken – that Lucy was able to pick at as well. Somehow, Lucy was still hungry after dinner, and as we were wondering along the canals, we walked past a pancake place – oh my lord did this place do pancakes. In just about any style and combination you could think of. We shared a huge plate with whipped cream, ice cream and strawberry topping.

Don't worry - we shared it...

After all our travel, wonderings and the gut bomb that was dessert – both Lucy and I were pretty ready for bed. So back to the hotel and bed by about 7:30. Apparently Katie got back about 8:30, but we were both out like a light, and didn’t even notice.