There were no local trains today because of rain and flooding in the Barcelona area. We tried and failed to find a taxi big enough to take us to Cerbere and ended up despondent back at the same apartment, considering our options. High speed trains don’t take assembled bikes and local trains cover only short distances, slowly. It was maddening to reflect that the train from which we alighted yesterday was bound for Cerbere, only about ninety minutes away, but the weather seemed to have settled down, then the warning came too late for us to react. The long distance coaches didn’t take bikes, the only option seemed to be Ryan Air, but we’re trying to avoid flying as bad for the environment and we also wanted to visit Christine’s aunt in Paris.
Monday: We called into the nearest bike shop, who offered to package the bikes and send it home as freight. This seemed a good option, though not a cheap one, we would then have the tgv to Paris as an option. We left the owner to find out the price from the shipping company while we looked round the city some more, including the Arab baths.
We had lunch at a restaurant, spinach crepes and roast vegetables, which made a refreshing change from cheese sandwiches. Christine wanted to visit the big Decathlon store, half an hour’s walk away. It was close to a Mercadona supermarket so we shopped for dinner. We still hadn’t heard from the bike shop so we phoned, the owner said he was still waiting to hear from the shipping company. In the meantime, tomorrow’s tgv tickets have sold out.
Tuesday: A warm sunny day, we spent the morning walking along the mediaeval city walls which stretch for 3km. They’re so much higher than the walls in York or Chester, an astonishing feat of construction for their time.
We called into “Eat, Sleep, Cycle” to enquire about packing our bike for flying, which they could do for 85 euro per bike, which we’d then have to taxi to the airport. In the meantime Ecobike finally received the quote from the shipping company: 675 euro, way more than expected because of brexit complications. I didn’t think it possible to hate Boris Johnson any more. We opted to take the financial hit and move on, our interrail passes could take us home though we still had to pay for mandatory reservations as far as London.
In the afternoon we wandered round the Jewish area of the old town, with its narrow streets. The direct tgv to Paris was fully booked for tomorrow but there’s an 08:58 AVE to Lyon which connects with a tgv to Paris so we’re booked on that. I was nervous about committing to expensive accommodation in Paris after recent experience, and then we received another government severe weather warning about overnight rain. So fingers crossed it’s not third time unlucky.
Wednesday: With no confidence in RENFE or its information systems, I checked the online departures which showed only a train to Figueres at 08:58, the departure time on our reservations. We struggled to the station with our heavy panniers and the departure board also showed the Figueres train only, then it changed to show the Lyon train, both departing from the same platform at the same time.
We had to have our bags scanned, they picked out our penknives and passed them after inspection, then the reservations check and we were told to wait. No staff were in the waiting area, no announcements and when we heard the sound of a train arriving, everyone descended to the platform. As we were looking for coach 3, the train departed, to our consternation. Someone explained that it was the Figueres train, and that the Lyon one would follow. It arrived at 09:07 and we took our seats. No announcements, no staff on the platform.
I left the Paris hotel booking until we were certain of our exit, I opted for a Staycity apartment for €553.14 for two nights, ridiculously expensive but actually at the budget end of Paris prices for short notice rooms at this time of year. The first time I tried, I lost connection after verifying my purchase with the bank, it went through the second time.
This was my first experience of the AVE train, the Alta Velocidad Española introduced in 1992. This set was rather shabby, with a broken seat in the nearest toilet. The seat fabric was a drab mustard yellow with tiny red rectangles, grubby and in need of refurbishment. The weather was grey and dismal all the way to Lyon where we changed onto a tgv. This was also well filled, but the passenger space was more pleasant. It was wet around Lyon but brighter as we sped north, with some brief sunshine.
We reached rainy Paris at 16:08, Christine wouldn’t entertain the idea of a taxi, believing that Paris taxi drivers are all crooks, so we had to negotiate the metro with our heavy panniers. They use a cheap version of the Oyster card, ironically called Navigo Easy. There were long queues at the two machines to buy and/or load cards. When we reached the front, it was evident that our machine only catered for loading cash onto existing cards so we had to queue for the other one. We actually do have cards but didn’t think to bring them. Tap on/tap off technology hasn’t reached Paris yet. We found the directions for the various metro lines confusing but we eventually reached Staycity Gare de l’est, shopped for food, cooked and ate, then went for a short walk in the rain. We arranged to visit Christine’s aunt Pat for lunch tomorrow.
Thursday: We first visited a boulangerie for a loaf each of pain du seigle and pain complet, plus a chausson des pommes for me, then we could have breakfast. We bought salads from the supermarket and called in at the wonderful fromagerie in the St Martin’s market hall. It stocks over 150 different cheeses so it was hard to decide on three. We continued to Montmartre and then took the metro to Pat’s.
We found Pat in good spirits, in her nineties and rather frail but still sharp witted. We left her to have an afternoon snooze, the journey back to Staycity was straightforward, metro line 8 then a walk.
Friday: Of course we arrived at Gare du Nord much earlier than necessary, anxious not to miss the Eurostar. We had to scan the passports three times, for the EU EES system, French border and UK border security. The scanner picked up my Swiss penknife and Christine’s bike pump, which were examined and passed as non threatening, then the long wait. The train left at 10:17 rather than the scheduled 10:01 and sped through the flat gloom to the channel tunnel, reaching St Pancras 20 minutes late. We had over an hour before catching the 13:02 to Chester from Euston.
The 50 minute wait at Chester was filled by a pint of oatmeal stout at the Spitting Feathers station tap before the 15:53 delivered us to Bangor in plenty of time for the last bus of the day. A week later, we heard from the UK importers, who needed an additional £50, which we expected, to arrange for customs release and delivery.