Switzerland here we come!

After a late night of partying we had to be up at 7 am for our long journey to Switzerland. We had to make so many connections that are precisely timed and one wrong move and it could throw it all off. We discovered first class was only 100 euros more total for the whole trip so we decided to splurge since we had saved so much money not eating out for last 2 weeks.

We arrived at Laval Station 10 minutes before the train arrived at 8:40 am that took us to Paris Montparnasse Station. Then we had to enter the metro with all our luggage and go to the Bercy Station then change metro trains and go to Paris Gare de Lyon. We had only an hour to do our metro switch and with all the stops we were starting to get really nervous. We entered Gare de Lyon with only 20 minutes to spare and no idea how to get from the metro to the SCNF train platforms. It is a huge station. We see the signs that look like the train and we follow it to a main lobby and then NOTHING, there are no more signs directing us where to go and we start freaking out. I then saw a sign at an elevator that said to "Grande lignes" and hoped this meant that one of our trains could be found on a Grand sized line. A woman who was waiting for the elevator didn't speak English but when I pointed to the elevator and asked if SCNF was there she said "oui". I decided to put my faith in her and we got in. We now had only 15 minutes until our train departed. I think she sensed how stressed we were and she motioned for us to follow her and she would show us where we needed to go. Thank goodness she did because we had to make a few more unmarked turns through Gare de Lyon. She took us to the main train lobby, a completely separate and unmarked station within the metro station, and finally we see our train up on the board with 10 minutes to spare. After validating our tickets we start looking for our train car and see we were starting at car 18 and had to go up to the front for first class in car 2. Holy Moly! It is about 1/4 a mile to the front of the train. We get to the front and it is only car 12! Oh no! We ask someone and he says that there was a mistake and we are supposed to be in 12 not 2. Phew! We finally get in and find our seats. Oh crap! Someone is sitting in our seats! After comparing tickets with them we found we went the wrong way and were in car 13. Okay, turn around, go to the other entrance and find our seats. Oh *$!%! Someone is sitting in our seats. After comparing tickets we find that our seats were double booked because of the mistake. They try and tell us that we must have the wrong train and we find another conductor coming through. He directs us to just to take some empty seats on the other side of the aisle. If this is how things go in first class I can only imagine what the people in second class had to go through. But finally we have a seat and we are exhausted, maybe we can take a nap. Nope, the family who has our original seats have a toddler who is behaving, well, like a toddler. This is going to be a long 3 hours until our next connection. Luckily they ended up getting out in Dijon halfway and we take our assigned seats back and I spread out onto 2 seats and try and take a nap. The seats are much more comfortable in 1st class =)

I wake up 10 minutes later to find we are stopped at a station. There are announcements overhead in French and people start standing up to stretch their legs. Eric found a gentlemen who speaks English and he explains there is something on the tracks ahead and we must wait for it to get cleared. I look out the window and this is what I see:

 Umm, what exactly is on the tracks ahead? Hopefully they always protect their stations in the middle of nowhere this way. 30 minutes later and we are on the move again.  Phew! Luckily we had an hour layover in Mulhouse so we should be okay. It is so frustrating when they make announcements into the intercom on trains. They speak fast and it is a bit garbled so even if we spoke decent french they would be hard to understand. Luckily there has always been someone kind enough on trains to translate information when we ask.

From Mulhouse we headed to Basel. We discovered that in France they call it Bale (when there is a hat on a letter that means that a "s" has been omitted. I learned that from a local in Paris =) So after lugging all the luggage up to the designated platform 7, we check the sign again and it says to platform 5, which is where we just came from. Back down the stairs we go with all the luggage. The train starts to come in and everyone else turns around following an announcement in French and we discovered our train actually came into #4. Good thing we aren't jet lagged travelers (maybe just a little sleep deprived). While waiting on the platform, Ally was eyeing the candy in the vending machine. We had already spent all of our Euros so she was disappointed. She was swinging the door of the machine to pass time and a miracle occurred, a bag of M&M's fell out. She was grinning from ear to ear and wanted to make sure I told all my blog viewers about her lucky day! On the train to Basel we were asking a local how easy it will be to get to our next platform since we only had 9 minutes to switch trains to go to  Interlaken Ost. He spoke great English and helped run us through the station and we made it with 2 minutes to spare. Traveling can be so stressful but as soon as we crossed the borders into Switzerland our stress seemed to melt away with the beautiful views.

 Every time I tried to take a picture this lady kept staring at me in the window.

 Taking pictures on a moving train with tinted windows is more difficult than it would seem, I just wanted to give you an idea =)

 The nice comfortable seats in first class

When arriving in Interlaken Ost we needed to take a local train to Wilderswil and we knew there was one leaving 5 minutes after we arrive if we could find the train, buy tickets, and get on the train in time. Knowing there was another one 30 minutes later we weren't too concerned. We made it to the train but couldn't find a ticket counter or machine. I found a worker and she said that we should buy it from the counter next time but she would sell us tickets once we got on the train so we didn't miss it. We finally arrived at our destination and can't wait for our new adventures.

 Here is the list of people I would like to thank who enriched our lives today:

To the lady who helped us find the trains in  Paris Gare de Lyon
To the toddler who reminded me why I use birth control
To the man who translated the overhead announcements so we knew why we were stopped
To the man who led us through the crowded train station so we could make our connection.
To the woman who agreed to sell us a ticket on the train so we could make the connection and
To the vending machine for freely dispensing candy and cheering up my child who was being so good during such a long crazy journey. She carried her own luggage on her back and ran through the stations when needed. She was such a trooper!