Thursday 10th September
Today we are travelling to Basel by train, from Charlbury to Paddington, then by tube to St Pancras, Eurostar to Paris, across Paris from Gare du Nord to Gare de Lyon by RER, finishing with a TGV from Paris to Basel. Following a couple of days of chaos caused by Air Traffic Control melt-downs, I was intending to start this post with "Well, it's a good job we aren't flying to Switzerland today". In hindsight (I'm writing this in Basel) I can still say that, but I wasn't so sure earlier today. We caught the train at Charlbury, right on time, but shortly after we left Oxford an announcement was made that the police were dealing with "an incident" at Hayes & Harlington and that the train would terminate at Didcot. My heart sank; how were we going to deal with that? For a start we would be in competition with the hundreds of people on board, not to mention those travelling from Swindon, Bristol, Swansea and beyond. Initial thoughts were that if we could get to Reading we could catch the Elizabeth Line to Paddington. But would any trains be going as far as Reading? If not would there be a replacement bus service? My mind went into panic mode, and prompted by Jo, the thought that, in a worst case scenario, we could we get a taxi, maybe all the way to Paddington, if not Reading was under serious consideration. At least we had a bit of time on our side; it was about 6:35 when the announcement was made and the Eurostar did not leave until 11:30.
We arrived in Didcot and to my huge relief an announcement was made that we would be going to Reading, and that the relief lines (perhaps they're not called that by accident!) were open and we might continue to Paddington. Sure enough, after that scare we stopped at Reading, and continued to Paddington only arriving about 10 minutes late. However, just to give me a reminder that there was still time for things to go wrong, an announcement was made just before we reached Paddington that both the direct routes to St Pancras, the Circle and Hammersmith and City Line were both suspended! In the event this wasn't really a problem, Bakerloo to Oxford Circus and then the Victoria got us to St Pancras with hours (and hours) to spare.
About five days before our holiday I became aware that it is possible to upgrade to Premier Class on the Eurostar. The benefits of Premier being a lounge at St Pancras offering food, drinks and relaxation, a fast track through security, more spacious seats on the train as well as a meal. As I was being cautious with times I knew, in theory, we would have hours to wait at St Pancras and the prospect of a lounge was very appealing. I thought it was worth exploring. There is no fixed upgrade price, rather it is a bidding system where one can bid for an upgrade. One enters one's ticket reference on a Eurostar website (which at first sight was not that easy to find), which led one to the bidding page where one could 'bid' by moving a slider. As the bid value increased the site suggested whether the chance of the bid was 'Poor', 'Fair', 'Good' or 'Strong'. After much internal debate, and dithering, I settled on a bid of £145 (per seat) which the system indicated was in the 'Good' range. (I really wanted to avoid the crush at St Pancras!) I placed the bid on Saturday and the site stated that I would receive an email with the outcome of the bid between 48 and 24 hours before departure. Needless to say I spent the next few days checking my email. 48 hours before departure came and went without any email. Surely I would hear overnight on Wednesday/Thursday? - Nothing. 24 hours before departure came and went and still I hadn't received an email. Had I actually completed the bid? A check of my emails from Saturday found one thanking me for my bid, so what had happened? What I suspect had happened was the Air Traffic Control problems had sent people desperate to get to Paris, either to get to Paris itself or, more likely, to get to Paris to get flights elsewhere had flooded Eurostar and that all tickets were selling like hotcakes, including Premier Class. A quite logical decision for Eurostar was to accept those possible bookings and disregard bids to upgrade. Eventually, about 23 hours before departure I heard that my bid had been unsuccessful. Oh, well, that saved £290!
In the event I wasn't too disappointed my bid had failed. Particularly as I later discovered that access to the lounge was restricted to two hours before scheduled departure. We found a cafe (Granger) a five minute walk from St Pancras and had a very pleasant, un-rushed, breakfast before returning to St Pancras and some sitting around. Our departure time was 11:31 and we could queue for security and passport control from 10:15. I suppose we probably queued for 15-20 minutes, but it wasn't unbearable, with no particular problems or hold-ups - the queue maintained a steady speed and eventually we were though to the 'holding' area where you wait before finally being allowed on the train.
I had feared hold-ups and or other problems with the European Entry System (EES). I need not have worried, there was absolutely no sign of it.
Eurostar Standard was fine; we found a space for our luggage and were entertained by three English people in their mid twenties talking about all sorts of things to an American lady the whole way. Sounds terrible but wasn't. Amongst other things I learnt was that Newcastle United football team is now owned by some Saudis and that none of three English, two men and one woman, could drive - no point if living in London.
It took a surprisingly long time to get off the Eurostar platform at Paris. The exit was about two people wide flanked by about 4 or 5 French customs inspectors - not sure what/who they were looking for.
Across Paris with RER almost without incident, but I was sure we had to catch the RER Line D going south (but was it north? - no I am sure it was south), but what confused me is that there are two RER Line D, going south and you have to pick the right one! Eventually found a map and the problem was answered, but a tip for the head of the RER if he/she happens to read this - more maps please!
TGV from Paris to Basel was fine; we had seats on the upper deck so could enjoy the view. Route via Dijon seems a little circuitous, but we arrived on time.
Our hotel (Hotel Euler) is ideally situated about 2 minutes walk from the station main entrance/exit, providing one can avoid being run over by a tram!
Dinner in the hotel (underwheming) and to bed. Jo says the pillows were brilliant - I just went to sleep...
