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greenbagjosh · 9 months

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Friday 14 August 1998 - Saturday 15 August 1998 - The Mariä Himmelfahrt ride to Paris - Banlieu loop around Neuilly / La Défense - lovely pizza at Tony's along Rue Faubourg (Ledru Rollin) in the 11th district

Hi everyone

I hope you have enjoyed the photos and videos of my journeys this past week.

For those driving to work, how was the commute through school zones? Today it was at least a 15 minute ordeal to go just a quarter mile past a middle school, which should have taken no more than three or four minutes. School is open for some districts, so please pay attention to the school zones and slow down as necessary. And avoid the ones that take too long to get through.

I still have remaining stories up to 18th August 1998, last one will appear this Sunday the 19th.

Here's a rundown for 14th and 15th August 1998.

Friday 14 August 1998

- final day of work, work up to lunch time with regular job duties

- filling out paperwork of end-of-project

- leave work at 2:30 PM, shopping at Neuperlach Zentrum

- speaking to roommates to end my lease as I am going home soon

- packing up large bags to take to München Hbf to store for the night

- have dinner and go to sleep

Saturday 15 August 1998

- wake up about 6:30 AM, have shower and eat light breakfast

- take U-Bahn to München Hbf for the last time that summer

- collect luggage from locker and get to the EC Maurice Ravel

- train goes from München Hbf to Ulm, Stuttgart, Karlsruhe, Kehl, Strasbourg, Nancy and Paris Gare de l'est

- About 3:30 PM take metro line 5 to Bastille, line 8 to Ledru Rollin

- Check into Auberge Internationale des Jeunes in 11e arrondissement, leave luggage

- go to Paris Gare du Lyon to buy round trip reservations for 16 August 1998 TGV to Lyon Part Dieu

- take a RER ride from Gare du Lyon, then to Gare St Lazare and return by metro station Pereire Levallois

- dinner at "Tony's Pizza" at

- sleep because of the early train next morning.

On Friday the 14th August 1998, my contract to work at Widgetmeister International was to expire. The work I did was a good start, and my colleagues would have more time to work on the remainder of my project as more of the colleagues were returning from vacation. I would work on my normal job duties for the morning, but in the afternoon, I had to go over with my supervisor on what needed to be done next so that my colleagues could have a plan of action on how to continue. Also I had to notify HR on where to deposit the final paycheck. At 2:30 PM, I had a time balance of 0 hours, so I could leave the office for the last time and turn in my identification card.

I had to buy a few last minute items at the Neuperlach Zentrum, as the 15th and 16th were legal holidays, not just in Germany but also in France. I bought some food at the Kaufland store, 35 mm film and a couple of CDs at the Saturn Hansa. I went home to pack up, and let my roommates know that I was moving away. I let them have any unopened soft drink cans leftover. They were aware I was going to leave early the next day. After I packed up, I had the rest of my lunchmeat, cheese and bread, as well as whatever out of my soft drinks inventory I could drink, so that I would not have too much to carry around the next day. Then I went to bed.

Saturday 15th August 1998 came around, and at 6:20 AM I woke up. I was concerned that I could not carry all of my soft drinks along, as I had no space left. And is it particularly comfortable to carry around a cotton sack with soft drinks, in addition to a day bag, clothes bag and suitcase? I would have to leave some behind. I took my shower, got dressed, had a light breakfast and drank as many of the soft drinks as I could but not so much that I would upset my stomach. For long-distance travelling, that is not a good feeling. Before leaving, I had to write in 15 on top and 08 on bottom of the Eurail pass, leaving one space blank, hopefully for Sunday the 16th.

I left my key and went downstairs to the bus stop for line 37 to Arabellapark, and U-4 to Hauptbahnhof. At 7:10 AM I collected my suitcase and the clothes bag, then found the car of the Eurocity 67 "Maurice Ravel". I chose the one closest to the station but furthest from the engine, because at Stuttgart Hbf the train would switch direction, and it would be expected, that my car would be close to the front when arriving at Paris Gare de l'est. The train left, for the last time that summer, at 7:40 AM, stopping at

- München Pasing

- Augsburg Hbf

- Ulm Hbf

- Stuttgart Hbf <->

- Pforzheim

- Karlsruhe Hbf

- Baden-Baden

- Kehl Hbf

- Strasbourg

- Nancy

and then nonstop to

- Gare de l'est

While listening to the radio, the top-of-the-hour news mentioned that Saturday 15th August 1998 was a legal holiday for most of Bavaria, except for a few villages in northern Bavaria with a protestant majority that declared 15th August 1998 as a regular workday for businesses usually in operation on Saturdays. This would also be a legal holiday in Austria, France, Italy and some parts of Switzerland.

The train went to Stuttgart and changed direction. Until the train arrived at Strasbourg, I was in the frontmost car with the best window view. When the train was stopped at Strasbourg, removing the Deutsche Bundesbahn locomotive and changing it for an SNCF locomotive, resulted in four cars were added at the front. So I was no longer in the frontmost car.

On the radio, I heard a song that I did not know was in Hebrew until years later (I thought it was Arabic). It was Minister Moshe Montefiore, or "השר משה מונטיפיורי". It was sung by Yehoram Gaon. This was received on an AM radio station, so the reception was not particularly of good quality, more like hearing it from a cell phone call. It was almost 12 PM when I switched stations to hear the last German-language newscast before crossing into France.

After Strasbourg, the train went on to Nancy, and after Nancy, the train went non-stop and very fast, almost 150 mph / 240 km/h on average. The train left about 1 PM from Strasbourg, so it would be reasonable to expect the train to arrive in Paris by 3 PM or so.

Once the train arrived at Paris Gare de l'Est, about 3:15 PM, the walk to the entrance hall seemed longer, mainly because of my luggage, and at the time, I did not have a rolling suitcase. Not only that, but the metro train stations did not have escalators everywhere, particularly downward escalators, even at Gare de l'Est or Gare du Nord. It would make the journey to the hostel at Rue Trousseau in the 11th arrondissement near the Ledru Rollin station, a more difficult journey. I wanted to save money so that I could properly enjoy visiting Lyon the next day, as such, I stuck with the metro, no matter how many stairs I had to climb or descend, and make my Paris Visite ticket worthwhile. Therefore I took the M5 from Gare de l'Est to Bastille, and made the transfer to the M8 which went shortly to Ledru Rollin. I made sure at Bastille to be at the front for the M8, as Ledru Rollin at the east end had an upwards escalator to the fare gate.

It was a five minute walk from Ledru Rollin (usually it's two to three without luggage) to the youth hostel at Rue Trousseau. I checked in, and paid the nights of the 16th and 17th in French Francs, about 91.00 FF each night including breakfast. That's about € 14.00 per night in 1998 money. In order to book a bed, the first night is prepaid and that was already done by fax. I had a bed in the third floor, in a four bed room. The shower and toilet were in rooms in the hallway. I left my luggage in the room and put whatever else would otherwise fit in one of the room lockers. I think it was 5 FF for the deposit.

I had to take care of some business, namely buying two reservations for Paris Gare du Lyon to Lyon Part Dieu, and back, in first class. If for some reason they did not have spaces, I would have to pick other trains or cancel the journey altogether and waste the last day left on the Eurail Pass. The way to Gare du Lyon was not particularly complicated, it just required taking the M8 to Bastille and M1 to Gare du Lyon. When I arrived at Gare du Lyon, I was fortunate to be able to buy the reservations needed for the TGV train. I think they cost around 50 FF each.

I thought after that, I should take a ride on the RER D train. Previously I had only taken it in late May 1998, from Gare du Nord to Chatelet Les Halles, but this time I wanted to go from Gare du Lyon to one stop in the south, and towards St Lazare. The RER D went to Maisons-Alfort, about a zone farther than I expected. Just south of Gare du Lyon, there were many TGV trains parked. When I took the train back to Gare du Lyon, I found that the transfer stations of RER D and RER A, are on top of each other. To get from RER D to RER A, you need only to go downstairs. I have been to those two stations enough times, to notice that different soaps are used to clean the stations. The RER D has a banana soap used, and the RER A has a more floral smell. I don't know if that is the case anymore today. While waiting for an RER line A to Auber, I heard the last minute or so of Pascal Obispo "Où est l'elue" on the PA system.

At Auber, this is a big transfer station with long walkways between stations, in contrast to Düsseldorf Hbf where everything seems to be compacted. Particularly between Opera and St Lazare, it is a free transfer provided that you stay in fare zone 1. Otherwise you would have to buy a separate ticket for zones 1 to X. I took the Line L Banlieu train that went from St Lazare to Pont Cardinet and took the shuttle bus to Pereire Levallois. Then I thought, why not make a loop via Issy val de Seine, to La Défense with T2 and back to the 11th with RER A? I could get home in plenty of time to go to sleep. So I did that. For dinner I had a pizza at Chez Tony - as far as Google maps shows, Chez Tony on Rue Faubourg in the 11th arrondissement still exists 20 years on. He gave me to start, a glass of tomato juice, probably the best tomato juice I ever drank. I had a quattro stagione pizza and glass of Kronenbourg.

After dinner I went to my room, gathered together what I needed, including the tape recorder, blank tapes, camera and film, and whatever soft drinks I had. Then I went to sleep. Tomorrow would be the last day for meaningful travel as I needed to use Monday the 17th for last-minute shopping.

Just three or four more days for travel, hope you enjoyed as much as this last week's travel in 2018.

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