Day 13_Paris to Frankfurt: a Day of Journeying

Trip Start Jun 01, 2009
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Trip End Jun 23, 2009


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Flag of Germany  , Hesse,
Saturday, June 13, 2009

 It was supposed to be a leisure tour in Paris with maybe a stop at Notre Dame or Louvre and some shopping (again). But here I am once again, alone on a train now to Frankfurt instead of travelling with my friends. We were supposed to be heading down to Salzburg on an overnight train but the expensive train travel (for them) and the lack of seat for my railpass meant otherwise (limited seats are reserved for railpass). In fact, they are probably now in Geneva, looking at the Alps with a cup of locally made chocolate in their hands. Heaven.

But I decided to follow through with my plan to Salzburg via alternative route: I bought a ticket to Brussels (Belgium) before switching another train to Frankfurt (Germany) so that I could take a train from Frankfurt to Salzburg the next day. The excitement came in when all our plans fell flat on our face at the ticketing counter when we were told that there was no more overnight train left for the next 2 days and had no lodging for the night everyone
everyone
 . We should have booked them in advance, not realising that it was the weekend and that the tourism season had finally arrived.

So we made new/contingency plans and deliberated over the counter with the ticketing officer for new routes and options. So they went ahead to Geneva because it is closer and cheaper while I, almost immune with my rail pass, went on to Frankfurt, topping up another $44 Euro to take first class seats since 2nd class is out.

But that itself was also quite cool because the two trains I am/was traveling in were the classiest I had been in thus far. The leg from Paris to Brussels had wi-fi onboard and a decent free snack (and thus my upload for day 12 which was awesome because I managed to book my accomodation online then) while this leg from Brussels to Frankfurt has great seats with leg space and the interior was really nice! Quite interesting. =)

The only complaint I could possibly have now was the delay of the train from Paris by almost an hour, leaving me with only 10 minutes to spare to change train instead of an hour. There went my chance to indulge in a good piece of Belgian chocolate while waiting. =P

*In this entry, I would also like to acknowledge HOT and her friends who kindly allow me to use their hotel facilities to wash up after more than a day of travelling in and from Barcelona to Paris. =). There was also the free maggi noodles, coffee and peaches to fill the traveller who mostly feed on some nitrogen, a little oxygen and teeny carbon dioxide.
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