My trains planes and automobiles moment…

So what was I trying to do, get from my home in SW France to Limerick in Ireland. The plan was to get the TGV Train from Angouleme to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport, the fly to Dublin in Ireland and drive to Limerick.

All started well enough and my wife and daughter got me to the station at Angouleme in plenty of time to for the for 6:38 TGV departure and the train duly departed on time. The first hint of trouble was when a school party got on the train, they must have been coming from or going on a very long trip as they had more luggage than I have ever seen before. However the train arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport on time and by some miracle I got off the train before the school party.

So I took out my internet booking for my flight to find out where I have to go to check in, as there are three terminals at Charles de Gaulle. There was nothing on my print out, in fact all it said was Paris to Dublin, so was I even at the right airport? I quickly found an information desk and they pointed me to Terminal 1 Now I was in Terminal 2 and for those that do not know CDG airport, Terminal 1 is at the opposite end of the airport, infact you must pass through Terminal 3 to get to Terminal 1. This meant a 5 minute trip on the transit. So a quick dash to the transit, but no problem we should still make it on time. However when I got to the transit the platform was heaving, and more people were being taken off of a train that was in the platform, and what looked like the fire service were checking the train over. So having got down to platform level I had to wait about 20 minutes before I could even get on a transit. Now I knew it was going to be tight, I had given myself 25 minutes to get to the check in desk, it was tight but that was the best I could do without leaving home the day before.

So having waited 20 minutes to get on the transit I only had 5 minutes left to reach the check in, this train seemed to know I was in a hurry and at each stop the doors closed after only being open for about 20 seconds which was not long enough for those wanting to get on and off so lots shouting and stopping the train from proceeding to allow families friends and luggage to be re united meant that instead of taking 4 minutes to get to Terminal 1 it took 10 minutes, I was now in trouble. Sure enough my fears were confirmed, the check in desk had closed and all the personnel teleported elsewhere so no way to blag my way to getting checked in. This is the first time I have ever missed a flight, so what to do now.

I decided to go to the Gard du Nord and take the Eurostar to London where I would have several options to catch up with myself from various London airports. The Eurostar journey was great, on time departure and on time arrival, I even made it to a meeting in person in London that I was due to teleconference into from Ireland. After the meeting I got onto the internet and found a flight to Shannon leaving at 18:10 from Stansted, as it was only 15:30 I thought that flight would be easy to make so I headed over to Liverpool Street station to get the train to Stansted. First of all after they got us all onto the train they changed the platform so we had to make the dash to the new train, so already late leaving Liverpool Street, then as we reached Tottenham Hale we were told the train in front of us had broken down and once they had off loaded the passengers at the next station, we could proceed, but we had to pick up those passengers and stop at an extra station on the way to Stansted. So in the end I arrived at Stansted on train that took an hour and 10 minutes to do a 45 minute journey, but no problem I still got to the check in with 10 minutes to spare. Then I discover the horrible truth that I had pushed the wrong button on my computer when making my internet booking. Instead of booking a flight for the 30th June (my inteneded day of travel), I had booked it for the 30th July, so I had to go and get the ticket changed, and of course once I had to do that there was no way I would get that flight.

Not a big problem as there is a later flight, so at the ticket desk I got my ticket changed for the later flight, rearranged my car hire and phoned the hotel to say I would be a late arrival. I then went off to get something to eat drink and read for my 3 hour wait before the check in opened for the last flight to Shannon at 21:45. I was so engrossed in my book that I did not see the check in desk open so I joined the queue to check in and after 15 minutes it was my turn to check in, and you guessed it another problem. This time when I changed my ticket at the ticket desk they only changed the time of the flight not the date! and the price to change the ticket to the correct day was more than £200.00, so expensive that it was not worth doing. So I hired a car and drove back to my parents for the night and booked myself very carefully on to the 1st flight from Stansted to Shannon the next morning for £35.00, so even with the car hire charge of £42.00 it was still cheaper than changing the ticket. Once again I re arranged the car hire and called the hotel to tell them I would not be arriving until the next day.

So that was my Trains planes and automobiles day, I tried and failed to get onto 3 flights, was delayed by 2 local trains which all led to 1 frustrating day.

I have to say thanks to Avis for being so patient as I kept ringing up and changing my booking as the day unfolded and also to the Kilmurray Hotel in Limerick who said I did not have to pay for my missed night, and credit to the TGV & Eurostar for on time journeys. Just one foot note regarding the TGV I still do not understand their seat booking policy, in theory you cannot get on unless you have a booked seat, but there are never enough seats to go round, and in fact on one journey my seat did not exist, so perhaps that’s the way they do it.

I am now sitting on a plane to Shannon and will be arriving in Ireland in time to start work at 9:30 in Limerick, what a difference a day makes…