T&L Travels: Monday July 27, 2015 Today is a train day!

Today we had to travel by train to Paris and then to Amsterdam. We were quite concerned about this especially given our experiences at trying to book tickets for Roermond to Chalone. We took a taxi to Avignon Center station well before our time so that we could scope things out. At the station they post the train numbers and the times. They do not post the platform numbers until 15 to 30 minutes before departure. The e tickets were easy to use. At Avignon they did not even check for our tickets.

The train was comfortable, roomy and clean. Just before we caught the train, Irene and Maureen showed up. They had been walking in the city and found us at the station. They came to say a quick goodbye. The ride on the train was comfortable, the air conditioner was not working well so it was still very warm.

Looking out the window from the train as we approach Paris.

We had to go through Paris from the Gare de Lyon train station to Paris Gare du Nord train station to catch our next train. We had 70 minutes between trains. We were told to find a cab and drive to the next station. The cab driver was great. Polite, clean and fast and knew where we were going. He got us there with lots of time to spare. So we made the train on time. We even had time to buy a sandwich. Paris Nord station is very well organized. It was not difficult to negotiate.

We took pictures of Paris outside of the cab window. That's all we were able to do.

Paris was a lot cooler than Avignon. Which after a week off very hot weather was great.

The Paris Gare du Nord station. The cab dropped us off right at the front. You can take the Metro, but it is a lot trickier. We were not willing to take that chance and decided to take the cab instead. Besides we did not know if they were going to have rush hour in Paris.

It was very busy here. Many people trying to figure out where to catch their train. Also how to figure out what platform they had to be on . It would have been interesting to sit here and just watch people.

We managed to find our Thalys train from platform 7. Not surprising many Dutch people were also catching this train back to Amsterdam.

We were travelling first class. One of the perks was free wifi. Which of course Tony signed up for right away.

Soon after we had left, they offered us a snack and a drink. I was not aware this was part of first class. But such a nice surprise.

My wine and cheese sandwich.

The Thalys train travels very fast. It is clean, smooth and spacious. After we had been to Antwerp and more passengers had joined us, another pleasant surprise. We were all served dinner.