Rudy Awakes
Aha! It is that time again when Rudy must awaken. Finally, we have departed those familiar shores on another adventure. This time, for a change, by train. We arose early yesterday morning, myself with what can best be described as a humungous hangover. We had been, on the previous evening, to our friends the Lovely Lady and her very entertaining and knowledgeable husband. Here we shall refer to him as the ‘Historian’. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I did not go out on Friday evening to imbibe more than I should have, however it happened. A little whisky, (sometimes referred to as ‘cold tea’), some white wine, some red wine, a little more whisky and hey presto, I arose yesterday with a hangover! The Lovely Lady and the Historian were, by an standards, extremely generous and it was a fabulous evening with both this charming couple and with our friends known as ‘Gorgeous’ and her wonderful husband ‘S’.
Our Eurostar Train
So, the scene is set. It is 06:00, the alarm has just ripped my head in two and I have lurched out of bed because I need to pack. We are leaving at 08:00, so I have two hours, (which I shall need given my current state), to ablute, dress, pack, feel human enough to drive to Ebbsfleet and leave. Captain Clarke bounds out of bed as usual with absolutely no sign what-so-ever that he was actually worse than me last night! Three large glasses of water, two nurofen, (other pain killers are available), and a strong cup of tea later, I felt sufficiently well to face the world. And so, packed and ready, we departed for Ebbsfleet. For those that have travelled by Eurostar from St Pancras, you will recall what wonderful facilities there are there. A plethora of decent restaurants from which to choose just about any kind of food or beverage you would like. Not so at Ebbsfleet! I had forgotten just how dire it is. Just one small M&S Food Store before the departure lounge and a rather naff Café Nero offering nothing much at all and a WH Smiths in the lounge. Note to self: next time I go from Ebbsfleet I’ll take a drink with me!
Hurtling through France on the Eurostar
Now, just a little explanation about how we find ourselves in Spain having taken a train from Ebbsfleet to Paris. The truth is, it was all about points. You see, I have/had quite a few points from Eurostar on my frequent traveller account. Every year, the points expire at the end of September and I never use them. This year, I thought I would try. As we were due to come on holiday anyway and we hadn’t booked anywhere, I thought I would try Eurostar for holidays. They do do them, but they are horrendously expensive! Even with the points it was going to be expensive. Then I thought, I wonder whether there are other holiday companies that do train holidays and sure enough, there are. I found one particular trip which was London-Paris, Paris-Barcelona, Barcelona-Sitges, Sitges-Tarragona, Tarragona-Montpellier, Montpellier-Paris, Paris-London. The trip looked quite good, but only one night in each location and I didn’t really fancy that. It did, however, lead me to wonder whether a trip by train to Spain would be very expensive. Captain Clarke and I know Sitges well, having stayed here a number of times. In fact, the last time we were in Sitges was a couple of years ago with our friends ‘Gorgeous’ and her husband ‘S’. They were here for a two week holiday and we popped down for the weekend.
Paris Gare du Nord
Having investigated all options, I eventually found that if I booked using Eurostar and buying a ticket all the way through to Barcelona, the price was around £580 per person. Booking using my Eurostar points to get to Paris and then booking the return trip to Barcelona from Paris was somewhat cheaper – no cost to get to Paris and then two first class returns to Barcelona from Paris were €287 all in! And so, we find ourselves travelling to Barcelona, (and then Sitges), by train. Our journey takes us from Ebbsfleet to Paris Gare du Nord, by RER, (regional train), from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon, by TGV from Gare de Lyon to Barcelona and then on a regional train from Barcelona to Sitges. It is all very exciting! Actually, it was! We did have a short delay of about 20 minutes at Ebbsfleet whilst they were waiting for a member of train staff to arrive, (what is it with British trains?!), but once on our way on a new Eurostar train with free WiFi, on train entertainment, (movies, TV, games, etc.), it was actually pretty good.
Platform 44 at Gare du Nord
Having arrived in Paris Gare du Nord, we made our way towards to the RER to transfer to Gare de Lyon. I mentioned to Captain Clarke that our biggest problem was likely to be the queue to purchase tickets for the RER at Gare du Nord, but he nonchalantly produced tickets that he had purchased online from his pocket so that problem never occurred! And so, with the rest of Paris, we made our way down to the RER station. Unfortunately, we just missed a train so we had to wait about 20 minutes for next one. Once it arrived however, the transfer to Gare de Lyon was uneventful and took only a few minutes. I should mention at this juncture that the Eurostar arrived into Paris Gare du Nord on platform 2 – it will come as no surprise that the platform for the RER to take us to Gare de Lyon was platform 44! And that isn’t even the furthest one, I think they go well into the 50s. Having transferred to Gare de Lyon, (why is it Gare du Nord, but Gare de Lyon? Typical French!).
Gare de Lyon on a busy Saturday!
Gare de Lyon was as busy as ever … not! There was hardly anyone there! I wanted to get a few Euros for the journey on the train, but I discovered something else wasn’t there – there are no cash points in Gare de Lyon. (Actually, I am not sure that there are any cash points in any French stations now that I think about it.) Anyway, it wasn’t a problem and we boarded our train ready for an epic journey to Barcelona. The journey time is about 6 hours 30 minutes from Paris and I did wonder if that was too long for a train journey, but I was wrong. I can honestly say that the journey is one of the most relaxing, interesting and, in some ways, rewarding journeys I have ever taken! The journey begins with a trip through the Paris suburbs, out into the countryside and then down into the Rhone Alps region before turning along the southern French coast, through Montpellier to Narbonne, Perpignon, a quick nip through the new tunnel through the Pyranees and into Spain with its arid countryside and wonderful olive groves, before finally pulling right into the centre of Barcelona.
Our carriage on the TGV from Paris to Barcelona
On the journey down through France we travelled through brilliant sunshine, rain like you wouldn’t believe, saw snow topped mountains and vast salt reserves on the southern coast of France. The temperature when we left Paris was 13 degrees celcius – the temperature when we arrived in Barcelona at 20:38 in the evening was 23 degrees celcius! A few words about the train itself. It is immensely comfortable – far more so than any train I have ever travelled on in the UK – it is air conditioned, (which works), it is clean, the staff are courteous and friendly and it travels at 300km/h. Having travelled over 1,000 miles on it, we arrived in Barcelona on time, (to the minute), despite a short delay in Narbonne when a lady left the train … by ambulance! In other words … it was defintely foreign!
The Rhone with the snow covered Alps behind
Now, I don’t want to go on about this too much, (or maybe I do), but the only delay of any significance we incurred was on the Eurostar when we had to “wait for a staff member”. Every now and then – usually when the train companies are raising their prices to levels akin to needing a small mortgage to travel with them – we are told that the British rail system is one of the best in the world. NO! It isn’t! Not withstanding the fact that Southern Rail is one of the worst railway companies ever to exist, the British rail system is rubbish. We, the British, could learn a thing or two from our European neighbours – the rail system in the Netherlands is superb, (they apologise if a train is two minutes late – Southern Rail don’t even apologise when they forget to put the train on!), the French rail system is excellent, the German rail system is amazing, (and you won’t hear that from me often!), the Swiss rail system is … well Swiss … always on time, imensely clean and incredibly well run, the Italian rail system runs sometimes and the Spanish rail system is clean, air conditioned, runs on time and very affordable. For the avoidance of doubt – the British rail system is one of the worst in the world and certainly the worst in Europe!
Waiting for our last train in Barcelona Sants
I should, at this point, apologise for the quality of some of the photographs, but taking a photo at 300km/h, even on such a smooth train, is somewhat challenging at best! Now, back to the trip. We arrived into Barcelona on time, (as you have already seen), and, to our amusement, the train conductor decided to announce our arrival in English. When we left Paris the announcements were in French, followed by Spanish, (fortunately we both speak both languages), then as we moved south onto the southern French coast where Catalan is spoken, they moved to French, then Spanish, then Catalan. When we crossed the border into Spain the announcements changed to Spanish then Catalan then French, but for some reason when we arrived in Barcelona they went Catalan, Spanish, French and then English. All very continental!
On the train from Barcelona to Sitges
And so, we took our fourth train of the day from Barcelona to Sitges. It should be said at this point, that it wasn’t exactly a chore. The trains are clean, uncrowded and fast and it is actually a pleasure to travel on them. Now, enough about trains but, as you may have already concluded, it was a fantastic trip and the journey was most definitely part of the holiday! I would recommend it to anyone! Really fantastic! We arrived in Sitges at about 21:30 and walked from the station to our hotel, (we really do know this town well!). We checked in with no problems and, having dropped our bags in the room and a quick change, went out for something to eat. I did comment to Captain Clarke that it was ironic that our first meal in our beloved Spain was actually Italian. For those that know me well, I hate Italian food in Italy, (they can’t cook!), but I love Italian food elsewhere. I had Penne Arabiata which, as many will know, is my favourite. It was superbly cooked and an excellent meal!
Me, writing this blog!
Having eaten well and toasted our arrival in Sitges in a bar where Uncle Bulgaria and Madame Cholet, (currently residing in Mexico), may recall, Uncle Bulgaria and I drank Caipirinhas and thought they were very innocuous until we tried to stand up, we retired to bed. This morning we had a small drama – this website needed an upgrade and, having done so, it took me two hours to recover it because the upgrade broke it. For the astute amongst you, you will see it has a slightly different style now, (I will work on fixing the colours etc., later in the week), and you may notice it is slightly faster. It was definitely a moment of panic as for me, rather like Uncle Bulgaria and Madame Cholet, the blog is as much about me remembering the holiday as it is beguiling you with the trials and tribulations of our trip. That said, I did say to Captain Clarke that I wouldn’t be writing as much on this holiday but as I am up to almost 2,200 words already, I seem to be failing in that matter. (No Mother, it isn’t the wine that’s doing it and, yes, the hangover eventually passed. You should see the hibiscus here – stunning, I’ll try to get a photo). Nothing changes!
And, finally, talking of nothing changes. Captain Clarke and I walked out this morning to get a light breakfast, (well, relatively light), and, on the way there he turned to me and said, “oh, we haven’t got any cash have we. Do you need a cash point?” Nothing changes! It’s RudyMenTerry!
Sounds like a lovely place………..wish we’d been there with you at some stage!!!!!!!!!!!!
‘Is it too early for a Brandy?!’
Do you know, I was asked that only this morning! I am yet to mention the incident in Cafe Monaco involving you and a man in a pink thong!
Can’t match the length of yours. What was the learning point about updates away from the UK!!!!! Have a great week. As you will have seen the drama of the man with his blow up fat sausage. And talking of Caipirinha’s They are still having the same effect to this very day!!!!
Hmm, I am not sure that saying you can’t match the length of mine is the perfect choice of words!
Where was that ring road again?????
My dear, I couldn’t possibly say! Oh, ok then, the ‘Upper Cunit Ring Road’!