We're late arriving in Paris and the first order of business is to find a place to stay. The next night was scheduled to be spent in a sleeper car between Paris and Zurich our next stop.
No problemo, we found a room in a hotel and walked all around. It was great, Deb and I just wandering around. The next day was for more serious sightseeing. Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Champs-Élysées where we had dinner sitting next guy who also was in a technology industry. We talked and when we had a half hour to take a train that ran every 5 minutes for 5 or 10 minutes, we left toward the Arc de Triomphe for the metro and on to the Gare du Nord (north train station) to collect our luggage from a locker and then to the Gare de l'Est (east train station) to catch our train.
Problemos:
1. There are 3 or 4 metro lines passing under the Arc de Triomphe and our crappy pronunciation of Gare du Nord was unintelligible to the few who would even stop to answer our question. Finally we got on the right metro train, fearing we were on the wrong one.
The clock is ticking. Don't want to miss a second train connection. We're sleeping on this leg of the trip.
2. Neither of us thought far enough ahead to use the lockers in the Gare de l'Est. In those days luggage didn't have wheels. Cheap luggage didn't last. Ergo, my suit bag shoulder strap broke. I was already carrying one bag in each hand. We were running and bumbling as fast as we could.
3. This is the big one: we saw the back of our rolling hotel leaving the station. Crap.
4. Now we need to find a room, call Mona and say we're not going to arrive in Zurich at 9am. Sadly we spent all our francs on dinner, so we needed to change money. Sadly it was 10:01 and the money changers closed at 10. So we sought advice and was told a hotel across the street would take our pounds and give us francs, but not travelers cheques. We walked around the block twice before we found it and he did change our money and didn't have any vacancies.
5. We got back to the train station at 11:01 to use the international phones to find that they closed at 11. Kids, there were no cell phones. Regular pay phones only worked in country.
6. Now it was time to find a room for the night. No vacancy was universal. We spiraled around the train station going further and further and eventually gave up and decided to stay in the train station. But first, now that we were flush with enough francs that we could call Mona, have a coffee and pastry that evening and the next morning. So after the race starting on the Champs-Élysées we ended it at a cafe across the street from the train station.
7. We showed up to find the gates locked. Why? They close at midnight. We were late again and now had nowhere to go. We walked around looking for something, anything we could do. Even the phone booths had someone in them. Deb was considering linking up with some other people our age, but I thought they looked pretty rough.
8. It starts to rain.
We went back to the guy who changed our pounds and practically begged him to let us sit in his waiting room. He did so long as we left by 6am. Deb slept, I read.
At 6 we got into the train station. At 7 we called Mona. At 8 we were on the train to Zurich. Bing, bang, boom. We've milked that story for 30 some years. The telling never gets old.
No problemo, we found a room in a hotel and walked all around. It was great, Deb and I just wandering around. The next day was for more serious sightseeing. Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Champs-Élysées where we had dinner sitting next guy who also was in a technology industry. We talked and when we had a half hour to take a train that ran every 5 minutes for 5 or 10 minutes, we left toward the Arc de Triomphe for the metro and on to the Gare du Nord (north train station) to collect our luggage from a locker and then to the Gare de l'Est (east train station) to catch our train.
Problemos:
1. There are 3 or 4 metro lines passing under the Arc de Triomphe and our crappy pronunciation of Gare du Nord was unintelligible to the few who would even stop to answer our question. Finally we got on the right metro train, fearing we were on the wrong one.
The clock is ticking. Don't want to miss a second train connection. We're sleeping on this leg of the trip.
2. Neither of us thought far enough ahead to use the lockers in the Gare de l'Est. In those days luggage didn't have wheels. Cheap luggage didn't last. Ergo, my suit bag shoulder strap broke. I was already carrying one bag in each hand. We were running and bumbling as fast as we could.
3. This is the big one: we saw the back of our rolling hotel leaving the station. Crap.
4. Now we need to find a room, call Mona and say we're not going to arrive in Zurich at 9am. Sadly we spent all our francs on dinner, so we needed to change money. Sadly it was 10:01 and the money changers closed at 10. So we sought advice and was told a hotel across the street would take our pounds and give us francs, but not travelers cheques. We walked around the block twice before we found it and he did change our money and didn't have any vacancies.
5. We got back to the train station at 11:01 to use the international phones to find that they closed at 11. Kids, there were no cell phones. Regular pay phones only worked in country.
6. Now it was time to find a room for the night. No vacancy was universal. We spiraled around the train station going further and further and eventually gave up and decided to stay in the train station. But first, now that we were flush with enough francs that we could call Mona, have a coffee and pastry that evening and the next morning. So after the race starting on the Champs-Élysées we ended it at a cafe across the street from the train station.
7. We showed up to find the gates locked. Why? They close at midnight. We were late again and now had nowhere to go. We walked around looking for something, anything we could do. Even the phone booths had someone in them. Deb was considering linking up with some other people our age, but I thought they looked pretty rough.
8. It starts to rain.
We went back to the guy who changed our pounds and practically begged him to let us sit in his waiting room. He did so long as we left by 6am. Deb slept, I read.
At 6 we got into the train station. At 7 we called Mona. At 8 we were on the train to Zurich. Bing, bang, boom. We've milked that story for 30 some years. The telling never gets old.
😂😀🤣
ReplyDeleteGreat story. Epitome of 'day late and dollar short' LOL
ReplyDelete