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After the excesses of our first day in the capital of France, today our 2nd day was to be a completely different kind of experience and would involve a train journey of over 7 hours travelling down from Paris to our next destination Milan, Italy.
Our feet were still tingling this morning from our walking and sightseeing of the previous day.
As I have mentioned, the hotel which was our bed for the night was a little shabby but OK, and the staff were friendly enough. Our stay included breakfast and it's true to say this was indeed a very basic self service ' continental breakfast ' consisting of fruit juice, and a choice of teas or coffees both served from what appeared to be basic vending machines. Fortunately our pigeon French was just about enough to determine which button you pressed for hot water, which for milk and so on. To complement the offering was a roll and croissant...not very exciting.
After a not too hearty breakfast we checked out of our hotel rooms ( interlinked) and made our way to a local supermarket to stock up on a few goodies for our train trip to Milan. The route would also take us down through Lyon round to Turin and eventually to our next destination Milan arrival time late i.e. not much before 10pm.
However after finding a local supermarket which was probably cheaper than Aldi we ventured back to The Cactus Hotel and went off to find somewhere to grab a bit of lunch. This was to prove a difficult exercise given that a) we didn't have a great deal of time and b) we were as usual on a budget so it had to be good value food.
After around half an hour of fruitless searching walking up and down streets of uncharted territory things were getting a little bit fraught...however after a change in direction quite literally, we at last found a nice little place...however just as we were about to walk in, a huge group walked in led by a chap who was clearly a man of the cloth and I assume a local vicar...with around 15-20 kids in tow.
However, it seemed their food had already been prepared and was waiting on the tables ready to be consumed. This little place was clearly very popular I assume with the locals with not a table free whilst we were eating our dinner. For some reason most of us decided to order the same dish... Roast chicken, which was in fact delicious.
So dinner was done and it was time to make our way to Gard de Lyon station via yet another taxi from The Cactus Hotel...a strange thing happened as 3 of us almost lost something of either significant or sentimental value... Millie was firstly presented with an earring she hadn't even realised was missing by the hotel staff, Alex noticed by chance that I'd dropped our preloaded Euro card on the floor (phew that was a lucky escape) and to top it off, we had to make a return visit to the restaurant as Madalyn had left her 'I love Paris ' rubber bracelet - it was still sitting on the table surrounded by new diners. Now this last one didn't really fit in with either value but to Mads it really did matter bless her.
The weather still wasn't great although we were to expect better things quite soon.
One of the things I love most in life (other than those things that REALLY matter) is seeing amazing interiors and architecture up close and personal...Train Blue restaurant which overlooks the fantastic Gard de Lyon station is a wonderful example of this and one of the 'attractions' in Paris I was looking forward to seeing the most. It has the most beautiful ornate and classical interiors you could ever imagine, and I hope one day I find myself in a position to be able to afford to eat in there. For now all that was possible was to sneak into the restaurant and take a couple of discreet pics with my iPhone 5, and which I managed to get away with. I would recommend anyone with the slightest interest in interior design and / or architecture to take a look inside this stunning room, even if it's just to take that sneaky photograph.
At 2.40pm our train pulled out of Gard de Lyon station weaving its way through the French countryside down to Lyon. The train was practically full and we had taken our places in our pre booked seats, fortunately we were one of the first on our carriage so were able to safely store our cases and luggage in the few luggage racks available.
One of the things I love about travelling is seeing how other cultures, countries and people do things differently to the Brits and trains really are a classic example of this, with their DOUBLE DECKER carriages...the thing is you have to question whether the French were thinking ahead when they built their tunnels, in the knowledge that one day technological advances would mean that it would be possible to build trains that had not one but TWO decks or was it just a stroke of luck, or perhaps more lightly a clever feat of engineering in modern day times... Must Google this some time.
Anyway, whilst picturesque at times the scenery was in the main pretty unremarkable with predominately a series of fields both golden and green... This was the case until we were south of Lyon when we along with the rest of the passengers were treated to some fantastic scenes of mountains, chalets glistening in the afternoon sun and a rich flowing river with rocks and all, a scene that could quite easily be one that might be expected whilst inter-railing through the scenic Rockies of Canada.
Time was going quite quickly with the glorious scenery being a greet distraction from the fact we would not arrive in Milan until some 7 hours after having left Paris. Despite the distance between the two cities we had paid a total of just over £100 for all 5 of us to make try journey....that's what's I call good planning!
We had now passed through Lyon and across the border to Turin (Customs officers had boarded the train before we crossed the border) but it always amazes me how easy it is to travel through Western Europe without the need to present a passport or any documentation as long as you avoid travelling by air.
By now daylight was gradually disappearing and day was slowly turning to night...which meant that we were fast approaching ours and the TGVs final destination, that being Milan or as the Italians call it Milano. I must admit, the train having stopped at Turin on route exactly 25 years since the England football team reached the dizzy heights of a World Cup semi-final at Italia 90 did put a smile on my face. Bobby Robson you are a legend and will never be forgotten.
It was now dark and the lights of Milano were whizzing past. It's fair to say that we were all now very tired and as good as the journey had been we were all now itching to get off the TGV and in to our beds.
The train had now pulled in to the fashionable City of Milan and we were now on our final leg of the journey.. That being from the station to our hotel. To be fair it would have been a far cheaper option to get the train to near the hotel and walk from there . However we had reached that point in tiredness levels where the only option was to grab a taxi to the Hotel Pomo. The problem is there are five of us so unless a taxi is ordered in advance it usually means splashing out on 2 taxis and this was no exception. The temperature in Milan at night was somewhat higher than it was when we left Paris in the afternoon (late twenties centigrade at least I would guess) iand this did not exactly help with our energy levels.
So after trying to suss out how the taxi queuing system works we awaited our turn, jumped in the cabs and finally arrived at The Hotel Pomo where all five of us were sharing a room. It was time at last to put our heads down and turn in for the night....well, after a couple of glasses of vino that is and a few pages of my KOBO book...next stop Lake Garda.
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