Hamburg to Paris

We start the day in Hamburg and end it in Paris - with a black eye! Before getting into the detail of that incident, time to look at the rest of the day.

Morning

I woke at 4am and edited the photos from yesterday and uploaded them to Flickr - while I've been behind on the blog, Flickr has been updated much more regularly than on previous holidays when on occasion the upload has not worked - clearly wifi has got better over the years, or perhaps I'm staying in better hotels with better wifi!

Drew awoke at 5.30am and I used the posh coffee machine to make coffee for us both before I did my teeth, shaved and showered. The shower here is absolutely excellent. 

Breakfast

We pack and take our luggage down to breakfast with us. We fo down at 6.30am. I wonder as I enjoy my breakfast whether this will be my last soused herring after it being so central to breakfast since we arrived in Cologne three weeks ago.

For the second day Drew is taken by the boiled eggs that someone has named. He was intrigued by some people who used the name to decide on their eggs!

[Co-pilot's note: It was intriguing, dear readers, most intriguing indeed. One chap (a person not an egg) picked up an egg which happened to have the name COLM on it, however after examining Colm in close detail, said gentleman, shock his head, muttered nein, put Colm down and picked up Henrietta and nodded his satisfaction! I was able to observe this behaviour as he was blocking my way to the bacon!!

I couldn't work out, dear readers, what type of person they employ to write the names on the boiled eggs, but I think I could easily be employed in this role.]

Travel

At 7.20am we check out, leave the hotel, travel by U4 U-Bahn to Berlin Central North and walk to the Central Station, which is right around the corner. Our train ticket today includes subway travel to the station, so we don't have to pay an extra cost for that. 

We arrive at Hamburg HBF (Central) at 7.35am. We get to platform 14, 40 minutes early. We thought we'd got better than this, but we haven't really - you'll have to give us training Lloyd!! We are still to early, even after all this time.

The first train today is heading to Basel, we are due to leave at 8.39am - the train is 15 minutes late due to a train ahead of it running slow. We had 12 minutes to change at Mannheim now it may be no time at all!!

Hannover - the train is due here at 9:38pm, we arrive at 9:53am. It is at this point that we cross our origianl journey and have made a big circle of Northern Europe. 

Today

We were last here on Monday the 7th of August, 17 days ago.

August 7th

The journey continued in a comfortable, peaceable and relaxing way, we even had coffee and water delivered to our seats as part of the first-class service.

We travel through the following stations:

Göttingen: Due - 10.15am; Arrive 10:30am 

Kassel-Wilhelmshöhe: Due 10.35am; Arrive10:50am 

Fulda: Due 11:46am; Arrive 12:08pm 

Hanau Hbf: Due 12:26pm; Arrive 12:50pm

Frankfurt (Main) Süd: Due 12:39pm; Arrive 1:05pm

You'll note the consistent pattern, the short delay is now longer and getting longer at each stop. It is at this point that the DB app again comes into its own.

The app was vital as the level of information it provided was much better than any announcements made on the train. If we had not had access to it, we would have got off at Mannheim where the next Paris bound trains involve 2 or 3 changes along the journey. 

The app shows us that the best option for us, without multiple changes, is to stay on the train we are on until Karlsruhe and catch the Karlsruhe to Paris train from there. If we had got off at Mannheim, we would have had to change multiple times or catch the next train to Karlsruhe and been too late for this connection.

 

We arrive at Mannheim Hbf at 1:50pm, when we were due at 1:27pm and it is clear the train we should have connected to has gone, so we stay on board. 

We arrive at Karlsruhe at 2.43pm the Paris train is at 3.32pm

The weather was a shock, we left Hamburg at a pleasant 24C (75F) we arrived in Karlsruhe 32C (92 F). Luckily, the station had good aircon, so we went for a coffee while waiting for our next train.

We catch the Ice 9572, which is going from Stuttgart to Paris Est. We manage to get seats for the first part of the journey and Drew notes that we are again passing a border, the border between Germany and France across the River Rhine just before arriving in Strasbourg. 

The train fills up at Strasbourg and we have to give up our seats to people who have a reservation. So, we need to stand for the last leg between Strasbourg and Paris. Though having been sat down since 8.40am it isn't a problem. 

This was our route

Paris

We arrive in Paris at 6.18pm, only an hour later than our original plan. The Holiday Inn Gare de l'Est is right across the road from the station.

We check in at 6.25pm and settle into our room.

Dinner

We leave the room for dinner at 8.30pm, having spotted that there is a restaurant in the same building as the hotel further along the street, so after a long day we opt to eat there.

The restaurant is called Bouillon Chartier and has a simple, but intriguing menu. 

I was in Paris, so it seemed to be necessary to enjoy the juicy Escargots in their delightful garlic butter. They were as tasty as I expected.

Drew chooses Vinaigrette de poireaux, a Leek vinaigrette, and like the rest of the food here, the menu describes it perfectly and it is quickly consumed. 

For mains I have Langue de boeuf en sauce diable avec pommes de terre, a juicy, full-flavoured beef tongue, with a spicy sauce which all gets mopped up with the potatoes. I have a side of champignons with the mains.

Drew opts for Boudin noir aux deux pommes, a long string of Black pudding with two apples - a clever pun that doesn't translate into English. Potato in French is Pomme de terre and Apple is pomme, so the top apples speak of the mashed potatoes and the charred apple. This is a way to serve apple I've not seen before, but it must have been good as Drew's plate was finished at the end.

It was good to see cheese on the menu, so I had to avail of it. I choose Fromage Bleu d'Auvergne, and with no trimming other than French bread it was a perfect end to the meal.

Drew ordered Gâteau au chocolat avec crème anglaise - Choclate Cake with Custard - as he said, what's not to like in such a gooey delight.

We finished the meal with an espresso each and left the restaurant at 9.45pm. 

Going for a walk!

As we had been travelling for most of the day, I thought it would be nice to go for a walk. I suggested to Drew we walk up to Gare du Nord, to see what our journey would be like on Saturday morning. It only took us ten minutes to walk from the hotel to the station, so we turned around and walked back towards the hotel. 

Our route was like this:

As we cross the Boulevard de Strasbourg I mention to Drew about the fact that crossings in France don't have the same rules as those in the UK.

As I tell this story I walk past a tree, this is a photo of the tree, taken the next morning

My shoe gets jammed into the loose metal surround of the tree.

The rest of my body continues in its original direction, having the effect of me flying through the air and landing on the floor in front of the L'Avant Gare. 

[Co-pilot's note: You may, dear readers, be wondering where I was when all of this happened. All I know is I crossed at a crossing and upon reaching the other side can hear some inane wittering about rules for crossing the road. I suddenly hear a 'Oh No' followed by people rushing towards us for no apparent reason. Next, I hear a thud, I look down and there is Mr B sprawled on the floor. Doing his best impression of the Black Knight from Monty Python - 'It's just a flesh wound'.]

While most of my fall is caught by my hands, my glasses hit my arm and crash into my face, making a cut at the corner of the eyebrow (and the black eye you see above). 

This tiny cut bled profusely, so much so that, while a little patience would have seen it stop, the proprietor of the restaurant rang the Pompier (fire brigade) who deal with medical call outs in Paris. 

The blood was profuse as you can see from the washed area the next morning. 

 

The Pompiers arrived within ten minutes but their ministrations were unnecessary, however, as they had been called, I had to undergo Blood Pressure tests and an ECG, but thankfully after that I was able to go back to the hotel, wondering why there had been so much fuss. I think they assumed the blood meant I had hit my head of the floor, but thankfully that hadn't happened! 

Thankfully after a good night's sleep only my glasses were the worse for wear.

[Co-Pilot's note: I, dear readers, would like to point out that I have spent weeks telling the pilot to look where he is going and each time, I've had such advice rejected out of hand with comments like: 'It must be very scary in Drew world where people fall all the time'. I stop telling him and THIS HAPPENS - this is what I call a teachable moment!! AGAIN!!]