Friday, 1st July

The Plan

4:45 Taxi from home.

5:17 Train to London Bridge
    (London Bridge Platform 9 @ 5:35)

5:55 Train to St. Pancras [Bedford]
    (London Bridge Platform 5, St.Pancras Platform B @ 6:10)

7:55 Train to Paris Nord arrives @ 11:17am
    ** We then need to get from Paris Nord to Paris Gare de Lyon **

14:41 Train to Turin Porta Susa arrives @ 20:18
    We stay overnight at Hotel Concord
        Email: info@hotelconcordturino.com
        Tel: +39 011 517 6756

---

The News

We are on our way to the Eurostar terminal in St. Pancras. Even Jan is getting excited. In fact, she's so excited that she's rung Amanda!

The hostesses on the Eurostar are smiling and helpful ... with a sense of humour!  The seats are comfortable and there is plenty of legroom in first class.

Breakfast is quite light.  A small roll, a small croissant (not fresh), small orange juice, small water and a small yoghurt.  We only got one hot drink because they were short-staffed.

We ate whilst travelling in the Tunnel for 20 minutes.  The train travels quite fast - the overhead display says we are doing 297Km/hr.

Apparently, Jan and I will be Mr. and Mrs. Gladwin (a copy/paste error) when we get on the train to Turin.  That will make Jan smile.  She will have a new (and hopefully improved) husband for the journey to Italy.

There is a coach to ferry us between the two stations.  It's all well organised.  There was a short walk to the coach but our guide, Papa Duck, is good at herding ducklings.  Nice chap.

We've just had lunch at the Gare de Lyon in their equivalent of Pret a Manger.  €22 for a couple of drinks and some sandwiches!  The place was packed too.  There are very few places to sit outside of restaurants, though.  A lengthy wait here is quite uncomfortable ... and we have two hours.  Numb bum time.  The toilets cost €1 per visit.  On the positive side, there are charging points next to the seats opposite those toilets 🙂.

Wow!  We are on the train to Turin.  The seats are comfortable and wide enough for "cuddly" me.  The leg space is less ideal if you're a six-footer.  Everyone has their eyes shut, trying to catch a few zzzz's after an early start.  There are gentle snores from my shoulder where "Mrs. Gladwin" is resting her eyes.

Papa Duck has been round with the menu for the meal in the hotel this evening.  The hotel expects us at about 21:30.  I'm guessing that we will all sleep well tonight.

There is some stunning scenery as we skirt the Alps.  This is getting near the Italian border.

There was a lengthy wait in Fourneaux as they changed staff.  This gave us all an opportunity to debate whether we still need to wear masks since we are after their June 15th cut-off date.  It turns out that we do!  The border is halfway through a tunnel.  You can go into the tunnel without a mask, but get fined if you are not wearing it as you come out.  Still, it's only a short hop to Turin.

They will have a coach waiting for us in Turin to ferry us to our hotel.  It seems to be a similar setup to Paris - come in at one station and leave from another.

A 10 to 15-minute ride got us close to our hotel.  There was a 2-minute walk to the hotel from the drop-off point and then we had half an hour to freshen up before a really nice 3-course supper.

The room is quite spacious with a huge double bed.  Jan and I will have to use our mobiles to speak to each other.  The bathroom is also quite large and well-appointed.

So, on to tomorrow.  We have the morning to upset the locals and buy a couple of small suitcases.  We're used to travelling by car so it didn't occur to us to use anything but a rucksack and a small holdall.  Almost everyone else had the small cases on wheels which is a much better idea.  Sightseeing will be fun - apart from the Turin shroud, this is where they filmed The Italian Job.