Day 8

Wednesday, May 29, Day 8

A colourful train in Strasbourg station

I got up a little earlier than planned, and Kevin and Kat arrived a little earlier, too, so, after breakfast, we left in good time to catch my train. The first train went from Stuttgart to Strasbourg, and in Strasbourg I had time to find the bathroom and buy lunch. On both of today’s trains I managed not to have a long walk to the opposite end of the platform. The first train was a Deutsche Bahn train, and though it was a few minutes late leaving and arriving, it was comfortable and the wifi worked. On the French train, the comfort is about the same, but the wifi had no internet connection.

My train coming in. I've been on trains called InOui and OuiGo

In contrast to my Lyon to Paris, Paris to Aachen and Aachen to Stuttgart trains, the view was quite good. The previous trains run in deep cuts and tunnels, and the view is narrow. But this train runs much closer to ground level, and sometimes higher. So I had a view of green hills and pastures, the white Charolais cattle and the brown and white Montbéliard ones, too. Sometimes there is a town visible, or a city, but it depends whether the tracks take us into an old station in the centre of a city or a dedicated TGV station on the outskirts.

My Google Maps screenshot. Hotel in extreme lower left. Me at the blue dot!

When I arrived in Lyon, I found the Gare de Perrache quite confusing.









Moreover, I got a message from Neil saying he would also be arriving at that station, but I misread the time and thought he had already arrived, so I spent some time looking for the rest of the station, as well as my path to the hotel. Finally, I realized Neil was coming in after me, and someone pointed the way down to the main street level where the hotels are. Then it was easy to find ours.

The map on the hotel's card is not very helpful, either!

This block consists almost entirely of hotels. Ours (Normandie) is on one corner, and the Victoria Hotel, an Ibis and a few others are around the block. It’s an old-style 2 to 2 ½ star hotel, perfectly adequate for these travellers. Our room has a good double bed, its own bath, a window, and more electrical outlets than I have seen in one room in my whole trip. 

And there’s wifi, and a good European breakfast buffet (not only bread and coffee, but cheese, meats, juices, maybe eggs…) which comes at an additional cost. I had my doubts about this reservation but I’m quite pleased with it.

View from our window

View from our window: the exit I took from the train station

When Neil arrived, we freshened up and went out for drinks and dinner. We found them both at the Brasserie Georges, a restaurant and microbrewery that was founded in 1836. The food was delicious, and a bit too filling. I enjoyed every bite but had severe indigestion during the night, which might remind me to eat more cautiously in the future, or might not!

We were both exhausted from our long day of travel, and fell asleep immediately, about 10:15.

In our room: 

The old-fashioned key system: the key chain fob is too big to stuff in your pocket, to remind you to leave the key at the desk when you go out.