Flying the long way to Europe to take the world's slowest express train (plus a wedding) - HCO

[PrezRegan]

Apologies for the gap in update - essentially last few days have just been spent down in Tunbridge Wells (Royal Tunbridge Wells as I keep getting reminded) for the wedding. Staying in the Premier Inn, a chain that's apparently famous for its bedding. Decent rate I think came to 400 AUD for two nights.


Friday was spent on a pub crawl before the wedding, some real gems of a place like the one below. Beer is not as cheap as I thought it would be, on par or even in some cases more expensive than in Aus.


Survived the wedding, which was held in the nearby town of Robertsbridge rather than Tunbridge Wells itself. I can definitely get around the British tradition of going to the pub before the wedding for a few drinks, then drinking throughout the very brief ceremony, and then continuing to drink for the rest of the evening. Admittedly it was a very low-key thing - the "proper" ceremony was done in Australia a few months back - but the weather was amazing.

This morning was the world's okayest full English at the hotel restaurant, 12 GBP for the buffet. It was very busy and the food was being constantly topped up to keep up with demand.

Then a couple of trains back to London and I'm now in the Eurostar Premier lounge at St Pancras. I decided to splurge on Premier instead of first or second class and it earned its keep straight away - Premier check-in meant avoiding the horrendously long lines for everyone else, then straight through immigration and security via the separate Premier queue and into the lounge.

The lounge is a decent space, much quieter and less packed than outside but still fairly busy. No hot food, just bar snacks, but free pour spirits and wines.

The other perk is that Premier comes with unlimited free changes to earlier or later trains. My original booking was the 1401, so I just asked to move to the train an hour earlier - they seem to run about every 30 minutes - which still gave me a chance to check out the lounge. I could have taken an even earlier one and gone straight to the platform to board.

I lose a couple of hours to the time difference heading to Paris, so I'm glad to be getting in a bit earlier than planned.

 

[RooFlyer]

Eurostar Premier

Great that you’ve covered this, thanks. I’m on it next year.

Hoping for some pictures from on board facilities

 

[PrezRegan]

The train was delayed mid-trip by about 1.5 hours due to a signals issue. Compensation is apparently available in 24 hours. I think had I gone with the original train I'd have been even later.


Food was good, but it's not like a flight where you can keep getting drinks - I think after the meal service the drinks stop, which would normally work fine for a 3 hour trip. Used the stop to wander up and down the train and see how the other half live. First is not bad, but second is pretty packed, like a zoo. There were some large groups just sprawled out across the chairs with food everywhere and spilt all over the carpets. I do not regret going Premier now, particularly with that delay.


Made it in the end, and a very quick 5 stop transfer on Metro line 4 to my hotel in the 1st arrondissement - Novotel Les Halles. Slightly hard to find, it just says "hotel", but it's located off what appears to be a very bustling square with lots of bars and takeaway joints.

Checked in around 2000. Room is nice, no mention of status or upgrade or anything - I've heard Europe is not great with status acknowledgement for Accor. Room is decent though, and whilst not cheap you can't really fault it on location, right on top of the RER with the Louvre a short walk away.
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Wandered around the city for a little while before heading to Notre-Dame for the tower climb. Originally booked for 1930 but couldn't make it due to the delay, so rebooked a later slot. Climbing towers appears to be becoming a thing across my trip.s Got a nice view of the Paris cityscape at night and was also able to see the Eiffel Tower sparkle at 2200.
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Short walk back to the hotel, and decided I needed to refuel so stopped by Macca's to see what regional delicacies they have. They don't seem to have anything special that's French, just more sharing chicken things. The special burger is a spicy Chicago one, which was not spicy. Interestingly the receipt said "Macdonald's" rather than "McDonald's" - turns out that's the actual name of the French operating company, though everyone here just calls it McDo.

It was very much stretching my memory of my one year of high school French to work out how the server would say the order number (5238) but I managed to get the right order.