Very fast trains

Today was a travel day. The Eurostar to Paris and the TVG to Munich (I hope, we are currently stopped somewhere between Ulm and Augsburg).

The Eurostar was great. I hadn't realised French passport control is at St Pancras. The trip went smoothly and quite quickly, mostly because I hadn't factored in the 1 hour time difference.
I arrived at Gare du Nord and managed to find my way to Gare de l'Est with the help and hindrance of google maps.
In my short walk my main impression was lots of people and not very clean (to be fair the area around most major train stations probably isn't very clean.
Everyone speaks English, as everyone said they would. People have been very helpful and I didn't encounter any disdain for only speaking English. I just say merci a lot.
The other thing that surprised me, and again maybe it shouldn't is the visible security presence. There was three army(?) guys walking around, each with a big rifle sized gun. As I got on the train there were police and rail security watching us approach the train.
The TGV has also been very comfotable. The woman in the seat in front of me and I both managed to sit in the right seats in the wrong carriage. The poor teen boys whose seats we were in were very gracious.
There is a group of young women a few seats up who I really want to go and give the spare headphones I got from the hop on hop off bus. Every hour or so they play music for a few minutes
We are on the move again. Hopefully we won't be too late getting into Munich. The hotel is a mile up the road from the main train station.
Photos:
On the Eurostar
Crossing the Thames
French countryside
Gare de l'Est
Crosding the Rhine
German town with a huge cross on the top of the mountainRead more