Travel day (and an open apology to Italia Rail)

Fateri Errorem

I have been advised by my lawyer that previous posts by this blogger could be deemed libellous to the Italian Transport Network and its employees. The author would like to unreservedly apologise for any offence caused in thought, action or deed to the fine members of the Italian Public Transport organisation, and commend them on the fine work they do with the limited available work hours per day (ie, 1). As soon as we can find an employee sober enough, I will follow up with an apology in person.

Now todays update (subject to further legal review when my lawyer wakes up from his Shiraz coma)

I would further commend Italia Rail on its fine work today, achieving the admirable result of departing a train 15 minutes before its scheduled departure, perfect for the few of us who had arrived early at the platform.  Thanks to the incomparable efficiency of the Italian system, they managed to get the train to the Swiss border only 40 minutes overdue following their 15 minute head start.  Kudos to the driver who managed to limit his rest breaks to 4 during the 2 hour trip - true professionalism at its finest.

The Swiss don’t like anything to run late, and have adopted a novel approach to dealing with train handovers from the Italians.  Shortly after crossing the border and handing over to their Swiss counterparts, it was announced in 7 languages (English not included) that the Swiss don’t do late, therefore they would be terminating the train at the next stop.  The very happy and polite stewardess (take note Italia rail) explained that we would need to find our own way for the final 1 hour journey, and she couldn’t be sure if we would make our Paris connection or not.  However, Swiss Rail were very proud to have successfully solved their problem of a late running train and we should congratulate them.

Luckily we had a very helpful Scotsman (have those two words ever been used together in a sentence?) who spoke multiple languages (including English, somewhat surprisingly) who not only helped us find the right train, but showed us which platform it was on.  

Long story short (well actually, it’s a pretty long story already) we made the train and made it to Paris.

Le Marias is beautiful.  Been shopping for some supplies, it’s going to be steak, potatoes and salad at home for dinner tonight before we embark on our Paris exploration in earnest tomorrow.

Le Marais

Welcome to Switzerland. Your train will be terminating
if it’s running late

Plan B was to trek up the path you can’t see there

This is where we were meant to be