Chasing Shiny Pennies

Today (20th). We left Paris today for Strasbourg. We’ll be in Strasbourg until the 26th, when we move to….somewhere else. I love the train system in Europe. There’s a kinda, sorta unified system but each country has their own rules, operators, etc. It has it’s idiosyncrasies but it’s just a great way of getting around, And you can go almost anywhere. We had bought Eurail passes. 15 travel days to be used within 2 months, It was a Black Friday sale I stumbled upon. If you get one, pay attention to the T’s & C’s.

One of the oddities is that first you buy your ticket (pass in our case), then you buy a seat reservation. Not on all routes, though. But you don’t buy your seat reservation from the same place that you got your pass. And while the pass gets delivered electronically, and you use an app and your phone as your ticket (very convenient until you give your phone to a random stranger, then it’s just another tangle to be untangled); only some seat reservations are delivered electronically. Some are kinda delivered electronically….you can buy them on line and they email the reservation to you…..but to use it on the train, you have to print it out. On a printer. Very convenient when you’re traveling. So there’s this odd mash-up of digital and analog in the system that takes some figuring out. I booked a travel day from Strasbourg to Montpellier and it required 2 separate seat reservations (because of a train transfer). One I could buy online and print offline but the second couldn’t be bought online. The message said just that. And only that. No helpful suggestions as to where you might get one……just “..not here.”. So we went to the train station. Just because it seemed like it fit……

We went to the office of the train system whose train we would be riding (because….it fit). I told the agent what we needed, showed her the train numbers and she said….”No. We can’t do that here. Follow those people.” Some other unfortunate soul had also been redirected. So we followed.

We were given a number and we waited for our number to appear on the monitor. Anyone remember the day when you’d go into a meat market, get a number, then wait until your number was called and you could buy a delicious chunk of round steak? It reminded me of that.

We finally got summoned (at this point I’m really glad that I’ve decided to do this 2 days before the scheduled trip….I’ve got some cushion). I explained what we needed, turned over our passports….and waited. He could get us seat reservations on the first leg (which I could have done online) but he couldn’t get them for the second leg (that’s why we were there).

So here’s the deal as near as I can tell….there’s the train service (they’re the ones with the equipment and the station rights) and then there are the train operators. They run the trains. So on routes that require a seat reservation (most of them) you buy a ticket from the service and a seat reservation from the operator. Which may be all smooth and silky if you’re buying a one time ticket and it comes as a package, When you’ve purchased a pass that is actually a ticket on many services covering many countries and then you also have to, separately, purchase seat reservations on individual trips….it can be….rough and sandpapery.

It turns out that the operator on the second leg was a non-French company and reservations could not be made with the operator of the first leg of the journey. Or online. Where of where have my little lambs gone????

What’s funny about this story is that when I was making the plans, I had told Liz that we had a choice of a 7ish AM train or an 11ish AM train. Without a thought she chose the later one. So now the guy asks…”What time do you want to travel?”. Liz (ever the morning person) says…”Morning.” (she has a loose definition of “morning”). I decided that I’ve stepped into the Twilight Zone. The guy says…”I can get you seat reservations on the 6:47 AM train.”. I said excellent and paid him. We got the bonus of it being a direct train. I told Liz she could sleep on the way.

So, I’ve jumped from the 20th to the 24th in that passage. I’ll backfill now.

Today (21st). We wandered (we’re in training). As we were passing a cheese shop, I paused, the clerk sensing my vulnerability, waved a cheese board with samples and gestured us in. So we went. We restocked our pantry with 3 cheeses and one sausage. There’s nowhere like France for cheese. Then we continued on,

We found Notre Dame. the one in Strasbourg. All the towns here have one. It gets confusing. And then you start comparing….Now, THE Notre Dame (in Paris) is something to see, with the flying buttresses and the promenade of kings and queens. But check out the Cathedrale Notre Dame de Strasbourg, They did things with sandstone that I’ve never seen. The result is a monolithic stone structure that appears as light and airy as a fistful of cotton candy. It’s quite amazing.

Have you ever lived in a town that’s on the migration path of Canadian geese? I’ve lived in two. In the Fall, the sound of a gaggle of migrating geese flying overhead is one of the happiest sounds one can experience. Unless you’re on a pedestrian street in Strasbourg…..today. We heard (on the way back to our temporary residence), approaching us, a welling sound not unlike that of an approaching gaggle of geese……It was a large group of school kids (maybe 7 to 9 years old). Then they passed, and faded into the distance. It made me smile. And remember the geese.

Today (22nd). More wandering today. In the event that you’re worried, we have a 30 minute stretching routine before starting our wander and we’re hitting the protein and carbs hard. Then we have a cool down period with beer and wine. It’s working. We’re both looking positively svelte. On our way home, Liz had, what she judged, her best meal of the trip. Confit pork belly. She also discovered her favorite wine of the trip. We’ve been searching ever since. No one has that wine.

Today (23rd). We took the train to Saverne. Nicole’s home town. LIz’s magical Maps app took us on a hike up a nearly vertical incline. About 3/4 of the way up she showed me the map to check (it’s not the app)…..we did a 180 and ran back down to where we started. Then we began again.

We found the house where Nicole grew up, wandered the main street, had a cappuccino, shopped for cheese and then wandered back to the train station. We had a great time.

Today (24th). Admin day. Planning for the next move and beyond. Liz did a small load of laundry. I spent most of the day at the computer trying to figure out how to get us to Larrau. I don’t have it totally locked but I’m close. Liz went to walk and see a Protestant cathedral. When she got back, we went to deal with seat reservations to Montpellier (see above post [way above]).

Today (25th). We took the train to Colmar. It’s touristy. Liz’s magical app was guiding us, but we got rerouted due to roped off (plastic tape) streets. On our quest, we came upon an intersection….to the right was a street taped off and monitored by 2 of Colmar’s finest, to the left was free passage, straight was a taped off street with someone beyond the tape. We went straight. It was in the general direction the app was directing us. We ended up at another taped off street (the one we were on, but shouldn’t have been) guarded by a no nonsense officer who was quite irritated that we had appeared. She asked (in French), “What, in the name of all that’s holy, are you doing on this street?”. I replied (in English), “We’re just out doing our daily shopping, we live just up there (I gestured where we’d come from), can I see some ID, please?”. She begrudgingly let us pass.

It’s touristy, but they don’t have it figured out yet. It’s an old town, too. Many, many restaurants. Nowhere to set and have an espresso. If you want a 4 course meal at noonish, take your pick. If you want to sit with a drink, check things out, take in your surroundings….move along. Do it somewhere else.

Interesting town.

My recommendation…go to Saverne, avoid Colmar

Today (26th) We moved to Montpellier. I packed us a care package for the 6 hour train ride,

I’ll get pictures uploaded at some point. I’m trying to both catch up and get ahead of the game. It’s a hard, it’s a hard rain…….