Chin went to class and I headed to the train station to find
some tickets out of Paris. (Chin wanted
me to publicly add this next part) When I walked down to the platform of the
metro station I saw about 6 people passed out on the other side of the
station. It smelled awful down
there. Piss smell everywhere. Whatever partying that was going on I guess
that their dog also partaked in it because the dog was also passed out. They didn’t wake up from any of the trains
that went through the station. When my
train got to the station my nose was very happy to get out of there. Disgusting
smell!
It was a pretty quick trip to the train station. I made my way to the ticket desk to figure
out where we would be going to next. We
really wanted to get Spain and Portugal on our trip (I also wanted to visit the French
Riviera) but based on time and availability we had to change our
itinerary. It turns out that most trains
out of Paris are generally sold out. For
us to get to Milan we would have had to book in advance. Again, this is information that I wish would
have been shared with us. I ended up
having to settle with Geneva, Switzerland. I shouldn’t really use the word settle
because I am very glad we got to go there.
I’m not sure what attracts me to Switzerland but I must admit that I am
drawn to it. From Geneva we can make it
to Milan and then back to Zurich. We didn’t
want a repeat of our train experience leaving Amsterdam!
When I wrote my first draft of this post I was sitting at a
café being a little pissed at the staff due to receiving a bill that was double
what I would normally pay for an espresso and croissant. The only saving grace is this is free
wifi. Cafes offering free wifi does seem
to be a rarity in Paris. Fortunately the bill was fixed as the waiter admitted
he gave me the wrong bill.
Chin got back from her last day of class around 1PM. We had a few adult beverages left over and we
finished them up before checking out of the hotel. We then headed straight to the train station
– Gare De Lyon. We got to the train
station about an hour early and decided to reconfirm our tickets and see what
other options may be available. The
tickets that I had picked up were for 2nd class while we should have
had an option for 1st class.
Waiting in line to talk to a ticketing agent took 40
minutes. The ticket agents were so slow
you would have thought they worked for the DMV.
The temperature in the building was over 90 and it was humid with no
moving air. It was quite the exhausting
wait. The positives of the wait were
there was no 1st class tickets available which means I had gotten the
right tickets! You see, I had gotten my
tickets earlier in the day and already knew most trains out of Paris where sold
out. There were plenty of travelers just
like us that had no idea that we needed to book days ahead of time
is disappointing that much of this information was not
properly given to us prior to our trip.
The whole getting to the train station to get your tickets ahead of time
is weird. You can’t order online because
then they want to mail you the tickets. Kinda hard when you are traveling each day. You can’t wait till the last minute because
there is a good chance there will be no seats available. Here you are, in Paris, stuck for possibly
another day. Did I mention that the rack
rate on our Holiday Inn was over $500 (American dollars)?! That’s outrageous.
When it was all said and done we made it Geneva in
Switzerland. Of course, I forgot to
download a map once again and we had to ask for directions. Here is where Walt Disney got it right again. We asked for directions to the Intercontinental Hotel at Hotel Swiss which was near the train station. The front desk person helped us with directions and converted our dollars into Swiss Francs. Nice guy. When we got back to the states a few days later and Chin found time to post her pics on Google+ the front desk person found the photos and started to follow Chin on Google+. It's a small world after all.
We also got in later than Switzerland restaurants
serve but was able to eat at the hotel.
The hotel was about a block from the United Nations and was as nice as
any other Intercontinental we stayed at.
I wouldn’t say better but I would say more expensive if we actually paid
for it – we used points. The rack rate
on this room worked out to be $1066.
Isn’t it great to be a diplomat and have your country pick up those
rates? Ouch.
I don’t know how much more expensive Switzerland is compared to Germany or France but the cheapest meal was a $27 salad or a $36 risotto. Water was $11.75. Most expensive water I have ever drank. After dinner we finished the night off with me looking for available trains to Milan and Chin taking a relaxing bath.
I took over 100 photos on Day 9. I am just going to link to the here.
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