Today we'd be leaving Paris and travelling to Strasbourg by train. The plan was to spend two nights in Strasbourg and then come back to Paris for one night before then going on to Brussels in preparation for the flight home.
Since we'd be coming back to the same hotel in Paris, we had arranged to leave our big luggage with them so we didn't have to cart the luggage on and off the train. So we were travelling light with backpacks for things we'd need for the Strasbourg trip. I would also be taking my laptop bag and camera bag.
We checked out from the hotel at 11:30am and caught a taxi to the Gare de l'Est railway station. Our driver seemed to be very patient and skilful. You'd have to be in order to navigate your way through Paris traffic. I'm glad I wasn't driving. It was stressful enough just being a passenger.
We arrived safely at the station at 12 noon which was in plenty of time because the train was due to depart at 12:42. The weather forecast had talked about wind and the wind was certainly very strong. It was cool (12C). We needed our heavy puffer jackets.
We bought baguettes to have for lunch on the train.
The display board didn't show Strasbourg. We eventually figured out that Strasbourg was just one of the stops on its way to its final destination in Germany.
Theoretically the platform number is supposed to be displayed 20 minutes before the train departs but it was less than 10 minutes when it came up. So there is not much time to get to the platform and find your carriage in the very long platform. This explains why everybody runs for the train when the platform number comes up.
Our seats were upstairs this time and so it's just as well we didn't have our big bags. Suzy had booked first class again and so the seats were comfortable.
The TGV was soon travelling at high speed through the countryside. Most of the time we were passing green fields and occasionally we saw sheep and cattle. We saw farmhouses and some small villages each with its own church spire.
There were three stops at small stations before we reached Strasbourg. Surprisingly the train was 5 or 10 minutes late in getting there. Quite a few others were getting off the train there too.
Suzy had done research to find out how to get to our hotel from the railway station and the solution was to get a tram. The platforms for the tram are under the station on level -4. It wasn't easy trying to work out how to buy tram tickets but we figured it out in the end.
We reached the hotel, Hotel Maison Rouge, at about 3:15pm. This is a high class hotel right in the centre of Strasbourg.
Our room was on level 4 with a view of the tram tracks in the street below. It has a queen size bed, work desk, safe, fridge, carpet, wardrobe, large TV, tea and coffee making. The bathroom has a shower in the bath. The wifi speed was about 70Mb/s down and 65 up.
It was more spacious than our Paris hotel and so there would have been plenty of room for our luggage if we had brought it.
Suzy went shopping and I went out to take photos of the nearby streets, plazas, shops and buildings. In the main plaza, there were cranes installing a large Christmas tree.
The trams regularly came through the street and so you need to be alert. All the streets I saw were closed to other traffic. They were all cobblestone streets.
As I was leaving the plaza, I saw a soldier carrying a machine gun and then another and then another. All three looked as though there were on patrol in a war zone. They weren't strolling through the plaza - they were on alert with their fingers on the trigger. It looked scary.
I chatted to one of them but I'm not dure he understood what I was saying. When I got back to the hotel, I asked the concierge if it was normal to have soldiers on patrol. He said it was normal since the terror attack. I thought he was referring to the Middle East but he said he was referring to a terrorist attack here in Strasbourg.
When I got back to our room, I googled it and found there had been a terrorist attack at the Christmas markets in Strasbourg in December 2018. A man with a gun and knife had killed and wounded people.
Suzy came back with her shopping including a bottle of wine which had cost her only 5 Euros. Unfortunately the bottle had a cork again. When I rang downstairs, a waiter came up to our room and opened it for me. Great service.
Suzy had booked for dinner in the hotel restaurant for 7pm. It's an elegant restaurant called Le 1387. They didn't seem to offer bottles of wine - just wine by the glass. We both had a nice glass of red for 10 Euros each - double what Suzy paid this afternoon for a full bottle.
I enjoyed my Angus steak. Just as well I ordered medium because it was fairly rare. Every restaurant has a different interpretation of medium and medium rare. My guess is that if I had order rare it would have still been running around in the paddock.
The dessert was delicious.
We were back in our room by 8:30pm where I could have another glass of our cheap red.
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