Tag: Eurostar

London – Paris 25.7.25

26 July 2025 / admin

Eurostar 4019 25.7.25

Our travel plan today commences at Sandhurst and a GWR unit to Redhill where we transfer to a Thameslink service to London St Pancras International for a Eurostar service to Paris. It is impossible apparently to purchase this as a single ticket as we no have ticket office to write one up. So each leg is a separate ticket.

Whilst we were a couple of minutes late into Redhill no problems were anticipated as trains were coming and going but a points failure at Three Bridges led to our connecting service allegedly being cancelled (it was actually sent up the Quarry line so could not stop at Redhill) which meant that we had to take the next service towards London – which kept being delayed and so we were about 24 minutes late into London St Pancras International (later delay repay was requested and granted – but it did nothing for the mental pressures at Redhill where there were numerous people who knew less than I did).

We now enter the hell hole of Eurostar and general incompetence. Documentation from our tour company said arrive two hours before departure (so 10:31). We were at the “Disney” line entrance at 10:46 which the Eurostar ticket said was the time we needed to be there (precisely). Were they welcoming passengers for the 12:31 departure? Of course not! Eventually we are permitted to trail up and down the Disney lines before scanning ticket, putting luggage on scanner belts (why – this is a train). One lady in front was shouted at but was physically unable to lift her bag, so I did that. Jackie was told quite abruptly hers had to go in tray. Today we are NOT taking belts off or taking iPads out of luggage. Again no consistency.

Then in the crowded waiting area we are penned in for fifty minutes. Two other services depart before we are allowed access to platform 8 for once a good 25 minutes prior to departure – but the train had been sitting there for some time before that. Very poor people management – no need to arrive so early, no need for bag and people scans – this is a train.

The watch wound forward one hour (I have that right this time) and at 12:31 (13:31 on my watch) we are off. We slide past Stratford International, Ebbsfleet and Ashford sympathising with those who might find any of these locations a good starting point for an International journey.

Once underwater (and I can confirm that there were no visible fish) lunch of either buttermilk chicken or tuna nicoise salad was served. It lived down to the usual expectation of Eurostar food. Even worse for one of our neighbours. They were carefully asked about allergies before serving (as were we) – she indicated a wheat allergy and they STILL put an ordinary bread roll on the tray. Unforgivable. Somehow there is also a complete inability to deliver tea and coffee so we are offered more (absolutely awful) wine.

I visit the café in coach 9 which feels like walking to Paris and acquire some navigo passes for next Thursday plus a bottle of red wine (187 ml) for the good lady wife as it is something better than the red wine served by Eurostar. By then we are thundering through northern France close to 300 km/hr.

We were met in Paris, loaded onto a coach and then onto La Peripheque to the Seine where we join MS Jane Austen. Check in, unpack. Decent cabin, with a bottle of champagne waiting.

Dinner is excellent, leek soup, beef bourguignon and french cheeses and some decent red wine.

Eiffel Tower 25.7.25

We head up on deck – it is wonderfully warm and having headed in slightly the wrong direction we are in sight of the Eiffel Tower for its 10pm light show. We turn around and start our journey westwards along the Seine.

Rhine 5.8.19

6 August 2019 / admin

TGV Belfort-Montbeliarde 5.8.19

We are moored in Basel and we have received disembarkation instructions. Given that we physically set foot on Swiss land as we leave the boat I can claim to have visited the country! (On one of my earlier “visits” we landed at the airport but immediately departed via the “French” side). We are transported by taxi across the border to Belfort-Montbeliarde from where we take a TGV service to Paris – eventually arriving in Paris at Gare de Lyon.

A taxi is needed to reach Gare du Nord – simply because with cases and changing trains is just not that simple. As ever with Eurostar things do not seem to be running smoothly and the passenger area becomes seriously crowded and there is very little information as to what is happening. Every interaction with Eurostar seems to demonstrate a complete inability to want passengers or to provide a proper service. Compared with my first visit to France at least we do not seem to be endlessly crossing northern France. Eventually however we are home.

One aspect which has stayed with us although not mentioned earlier is that a couple of the early evenings when we were passing the huge industrial complexes – I think in particular in parts of the Netherlands and then again passing possibly Krefeld-Uerdingen or Leverkusen with the Bayer factories we can see how much manufacturing those areas have retained which the UK has lost and how the economies of scale favour such factories – they just seem to stretch unending alongside the river as we progressed.

We would both like to try and do the Alsace wine route at some point – but the possibility seems unlikely as in general Jackie tends not to like German wines. Maybe one day.

Rhine Cruise 22.7.19

23 July 2019 / admin

Eurostar 22.7.19

This was our first river cruise for many years – the last one was last century in Russia and it was a decent way to see sights and yet be insulated from most of the country’s drawbacks. This cruise also marks a return to Scenic with whom we travelled to Australia a few years earlier – we were well looked after then so hoped for a repeat of that experience. As this is being penned some years after the event I will not be doing a day by day record but will record a little more detail than on some holidays not covered at the time.

The start to the holiday was when we were collected at 03:20 to be taken to London St Pancras International – a very early hour indeed. What is more pleasant is that at the time the through service to Amsterdam was only just over a year old – to my mind the limited destinations available via Eurostar have limited passenger growth, along with the way passengers are treated with excessive luggage scans, pen herding and essentially not really believing that they are running a train service. All of which is experienced today!

The actual trip to Amsterdam is smooth and we are met and ushered onto a bus – which effectively takes us to the other end of the station where the cruise boat is moored. It is a long station so I suppose it is quicker than walking – but the weather was warm so it was preferable to be air conditioned for a few minutes.

For those who have not participated in a river cruise the point probably needs to be made that cabin sizes are not enormous – there is not the same space as on cruise liner (navigating locks would be impossible) so the cabin size can be disappointing. In these circumstances I retire to a corner or the bed and wait until Jackie has unpacked and then unpack my case so that only one of us is moving around the cabin at a time. It means I can listen to the concerns being expressed and readily note my sympathetic view.

The aim of the cruise is sea to source – well not quite. From Amsterdam and the North Sea to Switzerland with a diversion along part of the Moselle with the cruise ship navigating part of the latter.