After enjoying a pastry for breakfast at Bechu, the local bakery, the taxi arrived and we waved goodbye to our apartment for the last time. Au revoir Avenue Victor Hugo!
The drive across Paris showed us how far and wide we had travelled on the Metro and the RER (which are parts of the underground train system). We boarded our train and after finding room to store all our bags we settled in for a fast ride.
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| I.C.E. (Inter City Express) train |
These trains travel at over 300km per hour! And lucky for us there is a viewing section just behind the driver.
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| See the big red emergency button to the driver's left?? |
The other handy thing is they have an electronic display in each carriage showing the speed. Our top speed was 316km/hr. We were very comfortable and enjoyed the meal we were served en route.
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| 316km/hr..... |
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| ...and a window seat |
The journey to Frankfurt was mostly uneventful although we needed to make what we thought was an unscheduled change to another train once we reached Saarbrucken. Luckily the train we needed to catch to Frankfurt pulled up on the opposite platform. We were helped on the day by Charlie and Sybil, a couple from Australia who spoke German. They live in Melbourne and Charlie actually works in Albury! He was sitting across the aisle from us on the train and was an extremely useful resource when the conductor made announcements only in German and French. Thanks Charlie!
Torsten, Benedetta and Alice were all at Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof to meet the train and take us to our hotel in Bad Homburg.... a short drive on the autobahn. Our German adventure begins....
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| Frankfurt Hbf |
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| Our room was on the top floor and had 2 dormer windows (again!) |
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| The family room at the Hotel Sonne. |
How amazing to meet some Australians who are from a similar part of the country to you, on the train in Germany!
ReplyDeleteYou're all looking happy and well and obviously having a Great Time!
Lots of love, Libby xxx
You obviously enjoyed your trip on the I.C.E. Thank goodness you had Charlie there to interpret the announcements for you. Maybe you'll be able to meet up with him again when you all return to Albury. The Hotel Sonne's family room looks very spacious and those beams are quite amazing. When we told Elliott that there was a new posting on your blog today he was very excited and went straight over to the computer to look it up. We are looking forward to your next edition. Lots of love, Nanna and Pop xxxx
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