Friday, December 5, 2014

Friday 5 December - Travel to Luxembourg

It is amazing what the Paris garbage pick up will do. They come round most days. Yesterday they picked up an old chesterfield and today they picked up a toilet complete with tank.
As departure was at 1340 we decided to take food which we would eat while waiting to get on the train. I made myself a sandwich with Serano ham and the remains of the Langres cheese. It stank out the metro and the waiting room at the station. I resolved the problem by eating it. 
Monty Python 
"How do you defend yourself against a man armed with a ham and cheese sandwich?" 
"Eat the sandwich, thus disarming him."
We took the TGV from Gare de l'Est to Luxembourg.  SNCF say they will announce the platform number 20 minutes before departure. It is a stub end terminal so everybody has to enter past the buffer stops. It was finally announced 10 minutes before departure which caused problems for many as there were two TGVs joined together (20 cars) and the front coaches were a long way down the platform. SNCF doesn't care about its passengers.  No water in the wash basins again. None of the trains I have been in this trip have had washing water.
The trip over the high speed line was boring as usual. We changed from left hand to right hand running leaving the high speed line on the approach to Metz.There were several abandoned steel works in the Metz - Thionville area.
The hotel is conveniently situated to the station but it is about 15 minutes walk over a wide river valley to the interesting part of Luxembourg.  There is a big Christmas market in two parts. It has all the usual attractions - mulled wine, junk fast food and slimy Christmas music. We had dinner in this area, it included suckling pig in aspic with roast potatoes.
Suckling pig in aspic with roast potatoes.
Interesting store name
This is an interesting building when floodlit but we did not find out what it was.
Christmas market
Decorations outside the cathedral