Train from Rome to Paris

 I'm good and ready for a long train journey today, a chance to sit and watch first the Italian, then the French countryside roll by. It is our first time using our Eurail Passes which allow us fifteen days of 1^st Class train travel across Europe and the UK over the space of two months.

My last experience with a pass like this was the Britrail Pass back in the days of paper where each journey was penned onto a card at the start of each travel day. Today, of course, these things are all digital, leading to fears of: will it work?; damn, I hit the wrong button; blast, my phone's run out of charge; password? what the heck is the password, have I even got a password?… 

So, with thoughts like these running through my mind, we take our strange, old-world elevator to the ground floor to meet the taxi I have booked back home in Australia through Connectotransfers.com. To our amazement the taxi is there and waiting at 5.30 am.

How to fit a lift into an ancient building

When we reach the station I have the agreed balance of €30 (to be paid in cash) ready to hand over to our driver. He says '€50'. I say '€30'. He takes the thirty, I guess he thought it was worth a try.

We are nice and early for our train so we sit in the cafe with coffee and a pastry until the platform is announced for our train to Milan. People who travel often must spend a good portion of their lives staring up at train and plane notification boards.

Roma Termini

We were a bit nervous as to how our Eurail Passes would work but, being a 'belt and braces' person, I'd printed the tickets at home before I left and they worked a treat. We scanned them and all was well, we were on the train to Milan! The 1^stClass ticket meant we were given breakfast which was a bit of a disappointment: orange juice, trail mix, a bread roll (no butter) and a bottle of water. The seating with a table between the two seats was good and we had a pleasant three-and-a-half hour trip through the Italian countryside to Milan.

The next leg was Milan to Paris. I'd booked two seperate trips so as to leave enough time for delays etc between one train and the next. We had about an hour to wait before the Paris-bound train. The TGV inOui train to Paris was on time so we boarded and had two seats side-by-side with a drop-down table like an aircraft. Okay, I guess. What was less okay was the food service which was non-existent. I went to the cafe car to get something to eat (which we had to pay for) and everything was 'off' except for a cheese burger and a chocolate biscuit! Well, really?

The scenery was somewhat of a compensation for the disgusting food. Snow-capped mountains popped up regularly, little villages and a lovely lake with people boating in the afternoon sunshine.

Snow-capped mountains in France

All was well until we stopped for the police to board. We were asked to produce our passports but when the police arrived in our carriage they weren't interested in us, probably looking for a male person, as it turned out a minute later when a guy from further up the carriage left with a police escort. That plus another delay for some reason meant that instead of arriving in Paris at 19:14, we arrived closer to 20:00, by which time the taxi I'd booked to pick us up was nowhere to be seen.

There was a taxi queue and as we joined it a man came over and said 'You want a taxi?' 'Yes, how much?' said I. He picked up my bag and headed for his 'taxi'. When he put my bag in the boot, I said again 'How much', and gave him the address. 'Ninety euros,' said he. 'I don't think so!' said I, taking my bag out of the boot. We returned to the queue and inched out way forward until it was our turn. We were taken through the magical streets of Paris to the Elysees Union Hotel at 44 Rue de l' Admiral Hamelin. The cost? Thirty euros. Which is what my booked taxi was to cost.

The Elysees Union has a 24-hour front desk, which was a blessing because we were very late checking in. 

Having not had any food since the cheeseburger on the train, we set off to find food as soon as we had deposited our bags in our room. We walked out the front door and looked along the street and there, lit up in the evening sky was the Eiffel Tower! What a sight, I guess we're in Paris!

View from our hotel