Friday, 25 April

finally it's the end of a really busy week! I retuened to work after my weekend in London on the 5.25am train - which is not the best way to start the week. This time my trip to London even made the news. Shortly after the Eurostar left Paris it slowed down to the speed of a regular train. Then after some time there was an announcement to say that the train would make an unscheduled stop at Lille, where the driver would check something in the engine. After a few minutes of waiting at Lille, there was an announcement to say that all the passengers on the train would have to transfer to a replacement train. Twenty minutes later a train arrives on the opposite platform, but it was full of passengers - I was thinking that it was another train to Paris, but then there was an announcement to say that the passengers from my train should get on the train that had just arrived from London. Then there was a period of about 30 minutes of chaos, as all the passengers on the two trains swap trains... you can imagine the scene - bags everywhere, crowds, arguments, general discontent. Eventually my train left without further event. I arrived in London nearly two hours late - though Eurostar offered all passengers on my train a free one-way Eurostar ticket. The passengers who transferred to my original train ended up arriving in Paris at 9am the following day!