The End of the Line

After a wonderful month of holiday, it’s time to start heading home, inevitably with mixed feelings! Sorry to leave European history & culture behind, but missing family - and our own bed.

I had booked a direct train at 0908 from Strasbourg (home of CroisiEurope, and where our cruise finished) to Frankfurt (where our plane to Singapore leaves from).

The stated time guests leave the boat is 0900, but I thought we would be able to leave the ship early to catch the train. However, boat staff warned that the overnight cruise from Heidelberg to Strasbourg involved navigating six locks. There might be queues that would make a 0908 train problematic. So I reluctantly rescheduled for a later train that involved a 6 minute (!) window to change trains in Offenburg. ☹️

Apparently our boat passed through the six locks without hindrance, and when I woke this morning we were already alongside in Strasbourg! 😡

Out of bed at 0630, packed our bags before breakfast. 0900 taxi to Strasbourg Station by 0930.

Now we wait! Our first train is at 1052, but per French policy, I won’t know which platform (of the 33) to go to until 20 minutes before departure.

German trains are much better organised - I already know the platform numbers in Offenburg and Frankfurt!

Later:

We caught the 2-car regional train. So did half the world - pushchairs loaded with yam cartons, bikes, people crushed together standing in the aisles, and blocking the door. We went from one small station to another, hoping some people would get off. They didn’t.

Then the police joined the train and walked through. Not sure what they were looking for (or if they found it), but the delay swallowed several of the six minutes we needed to get to our second train!

We (and a lot of other people from Strasbourg) just made it to the nearest ICE train door with a minute to spare. We got aboard at coach 6, but our seats were in coach 12. We asked a guy which way to go, and he directed us (as it turned out!) wrongly, so we pushed suitcases several carriages in the wrong direction before we twigged.

Sitting in comfortable First Class after the event, the whole series of incidents seemed very funny, like something out of Mr Bean, but it was a bit stressful along the way!

We returned to the same hotel we used a month ago - Metropolitan by Fleming - and we were upgraded to a lovely room for our one night stay.

My Briscoe’s suitcase has not coped well with constant cobblestones - it has only one wheel on each corner - so we thought we might replace it with a local bargain.

Des had researched the local Galleria department store, so that’s where we went. Des has enjoyed her “Hansi” (bought last year in Hamburg, one of the Hanseatic League cities), and thought I would do well with a suitcase like it.

Off to the Galleria 4th Floor where I havered, and finally bought a midnight blue suitcase, at 20% off.

We also found soap, which shouldn’t be worth mentioning, except we have been unable to buy any for a week!

We spent a happy hour looking at the rest of the store, finishing with a beautiful steak dinner in the market hall sub-basement.

Tomorrow night we fly to Singapore and home.

YAY!!Read more