Day 1 Paris to Zurich

Our trip started out with an adventure of its own. We were calmly waiting at the departure gate when Peter reached into his backpack and couldn’t find his phone. At security he’d been told to put it in the tray, and it seemed it must still be there.

I was glad I wasn’t with him as he dashed back to find it - which meant exiting the departure area and checking in again through the Nexus line that was at the other end of the terminal from our gate. Problem was, I had his Nexus card so he had to talk his way back in. Meanwhile they’d called our section to board and he still wasn’t back. Tension was mounting. He dashed back at the last moment - frustrated & deflated - then reached into his backpack for his boarding pass, and low & behold, there was his phone. Disaster avoided. On board, after a surprisingly good meal - for Air Canada - plus a glass of wine we both felt much better.

The next stress point for me was putting in a new SIM card when we landed in Paris. I’d ordered one from SIM Corner - $33 for 1 month with 12 GB of data. As we’d arrived in good time, we went into the Sheraton Hotel, an oasis of calm at CDG airport where, with hot sweaty hands, I tried to insert the card. I was so proud of myself that it went in, the problem was it said “ pay as you go.” 😫. I quickly emailed SIM Corner and they replied instantly saying they thought the activation date was Sept 12 not Sept 1. Another disaster avoided. From now on I’ll be getting sim cards from them.

The next challenge was to see if the Rail Planner app with our Eurail passes worked. It did - but didn’t. As we had to reserve a seat, I had to show not only the Eurorail QR code, but the reserved seat’s code . I’d printed it out, but didn’t think to show it. Instead I dashed into the nearby ticket office and muttering my best French barged my way to the front of the line as the train was leaving shortly. Lesson learned. Once on the train all was fine, but between no sleep, jet lag & stress, I only took 2 pics. Not at all like me.
From then on it was smooth sailing from Paris to Strasbourg to Basel to Zurich. 😊

Must confess I’m writing this on Day 3 after Madeline kindly - and super patiently- got me set up on Find Penguins. It’s been quite a learning curve - lots of glitches along the way - but I’m getting more comfortable with it now.Baca lagi