It was departure day for Tom & Virginia and Sylvia & Jim. We were scheduled to board a train that departed from the Reggio Emilia train station at 6:13 a.m. so it was an early morning for us. We had the alarm set for 4:30 a.m. and reluctantly were up and moving by then. And, as we were getting ready to leave we learned that Joy & Tim had not had a good night (Tim had been sick most of the night). So, the taxi (this time with only four of us, we only needed one taxi) arrived at 5:30 a.m. and took us to the train station. [One detail I failed to mention: With Sylvia & I having only a debit card on an account with a very low balance to use for charges, Virginia offered to have our hotel bill for Hotel Posta charged to their credit card with the agreement that we would pay them (in US dollars the equivalent of the Euro charges) after we returned to the USA]. Even the nice buffet at Hotel Posta was not ready for guests before 7 a.m. so we departed hungry for breakfast. As we loaded our bags into the taxi and started getting inside, Joy & Tim, with their hotel room on the front, second story of the hotel, opened their window to bid us goodbye. What an adventure this has been! What great memories between us!
Joy & Tim were staying on in Reggio Emilia two more nights (one day going to the Ferrari Museum in Maranello, Italy) before taking a train to Venice for the last two days followed by their return to USA flight on the same day as us, April 30th.
Our train from Reggio Emilie arrived at Milano Centrale at 8:00 a.m. as scheduled. From Milano Centrale we had to get transportation to Milan's Garibaldi Train Station for our departure at 8:50 a.m. for Paris, France. The previous Thursday evening (near the end of our 15 train ride) during our 70 minute train change at Milano Centrale, in anticipation of this transfer, I had walked through Milano Centrale toward the outside exit to locate a taxi stand. Since the route involved platforms on multiple levels, I had paid close attention to the ramps that were provided for the exit to the taxi stand and formulated a plan for this transfer. So now we're using that plan as once again, each person is handling his/her own luggage. We used two sets of ramps and passed up the obvious fast food restaurants (Burger King & McDonalds) to get to the ground floor then proceeded outside and into a taxi that took us to Milan Garibaldi station. Even we were all hungry I felt we had to get to the proper station before we paused for a meal. It was a short ride and we soon arrived and once inside located the information about the scheduled platform for our departure. We proceeded toward that platform and parked the luggage there where Tom and I stayed with the luggage while Sylvia & Virginia went in search of breakfast from a fast food restaurant.
It seemed reasonable to us that if the Centrale train station had Burger King and McDonalds, the Garibaldi station should have both of them or at least one. Well, it didn't. Sylvia & Virginia walked all the way to the front of the train station and only located one restaurant and it was of no known affiliation. So, that was the choice. The next hurdle was ordering from a person who spoke no English and seemed to understand no English. They ordered two coffee espressos. It was served in very small espresso cups. When they asked for the drinks to be "to go" the attendant dumped each one into a small cup and put a lid on it. This meant that the small cups had about 2 ounces in each one. When they ordered croissants, they told the attendant they needed four. The attendant said "cut them in half" and sold them two. By this time they were both getting very anxious that they might be late arriving at the platform, so they quickly paid and took the purchased items with them.
Meanwhile, the train had arrived and Tom & I were having trouble locating our first class coach. As Sylvia & Virginia arrived where the platform was visible we had just located the only first class coach near the end of the train. So, I motioned to them to hurry and together we quickly moved the luggage to the door of that coach and began to load it. Once we had boarded we found that not only were we traveling first class but we had assigned seats on an assigned coach. Once onboard, the purchased breakfast was distributed. It was a very disappointed group who had two cups with very strong 2 ounces of liquid in each and two "filled" croissants, one with chocolate and one with vanilla. So, once again we "made do". After the train was moving a person from the dining car came through telling us what they had available to eat and drink. Most of the choices did not interest us. However, the coffee sounded like something we wanted, so Tom & I both chose a cup of coffee.
This was a "high-speed express train" that made only a few short stops between Milan and Paris and we were scheduled to arrive at Paris de Lyon station at 4:11 p.m. 7 hours 21 minutes, total. So we relaxed and enjoyed the scenery. At one point we were seeing, in the distance, a large snow-covered mountain. Virginia suggested it might be the Matterhorn. At the proper lunch time we decided to purchase one of the lunches offered on the menu. So, we went to the dining car to order. It seemed that most items on the menu were not available. I ended up with a cheese and tomato sandwich with mayo. Sylvia declined any of the few items that were available and snacked on things we had brought on board. During one of our short stops (I feel that we had recently entered France), some law enforcement people with a drug sniffing dog came on board. They "worked" the luggage stacks and the dog showed interest in various suitcases--none of them belonging to us. Apparently people who owned those suitcases were "taken" to another section of the train for further examination. This operation continued for probably 2 hours. However, when we arrived at Gare de Lyon train station in Paris I didn't see anyone being taken off the train in handcuffs and the one young man who had been the object of a great deal of scrutinizing walked away with no noticeable restraints.
As soon as we arrived at Gare de Lyon, we gathered our luggage and proceeded to exit the very crowded train station following the posted directions to locate a taxi. (You might remember reading in this blog earlier, when we were leaving the apartment in Amsterdam, I mentioned that we had decided that we would hire a taxi for all transportation that involved suitcases). When I had put together our plans for Paris I had included using the Metro (subway) to get from the train station to the apartment even though it was a substantial transfer that involved changing trains in two different stations. In one of my last emails sent to and the reply received from Boyd (the owner of the rental apartment in Paris) Boyd said that given our arrival day was on a weekend and the amount of traffic that would be on the Metro he strongly recommended that we hire a taxi to get to the apartment. Well, since Amsterdam we had tried to do that as much as possible anyway. So, we proceeded outside and very soon located a taxi van that could accommodate our eight suitcases and 4 people.
The transfer to the rental apartment took 20-30 minutes and I had studied the maps enough that I could see in my head the route the taxi driver took. And, suddenly we were there! I had sent a text to Boyd telling him we had arrived at the train station, so he was expecting us at the apartment. However, he said we made the trip in about half the time he expected. Anyway, Boyd took us to the apartment on the 8th floor of a large apartment building and showed us the security that was in place and explained how to use it the appliances and gave us other info that might be needed. We had two elevators and one or the other was always available. And, then he left us with a phone number if we needed him. In my review of the apartment for Vacation Rental By Owner I said that staying in Boyd's apartment was like "staying in a friend's guest house". It really was an ideal situation. There was a grocery store located on the first floor of the apartment building and as soon as possible Sylvia and Virginia went there to shop. They returned with enough items for breakfasts for the next few days and things for sandwiches, but nothing specifically for dinner for this evening.
So we decided to take a walk through the neighborhood, hoping to find a nice bakery that served food besides bakery items or a nice small restaurant. We found some of these places but it being the weekend most were closed. However, we did locate a place that sold a roasted whole chicken and we brought that home for dinner. After dinner we just stayed in the rest of the evening.
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