With car break downs the day before we hadn't got quite as far with our last minute packing as we had hoped, pushing some of it to the morning. Our willing volunteer (thanks John!) to drive us to the first train stop arrived amid us running round grabbing the last few items before heading to Didcot station. This holiday was to be all about the trains and we soon started to become a little more focused on our multi-wheeled friends than is perhaps healthy. Train 1 was Didcot to London, trains 2 and 3 were two London undergrounds. train 4 was the impressive Eurostar, very fast, very quiet and very cramped. We arrived still marveling that the price of London to Paris was only £39, where as train 1 was £22; remarkable given the comparative distances.

Once in Paris we walked round to the station from would later be heading to Berlin and took trains 5 and 6 to go into and then out of the center of Paris. These came with extra amusement as a busker with a trumpet entertained us for most of our trip only to set off as one with a trombone stepped on for the encore! The luggage lockers in the station were not open on Saturdays so we carried all our bags which limited our walking but we did take in the glass pyramid on the Louvre and the Eiffel tower. After a bite to eat we went to find train 7, our first overnight train of the trip. We knew we were in carriage  96 but to keep us on our toes they were not in numerical order - very un-German like I thought. We were at the very front of the train and the service got full marks from the off with someone to show you your cabin and take your breakfast order. We had gone for a two berth and while small it had all we needed. Including a plug so I could charge my phone, the latest game was taking it out on the battery somewhat. This came back to haunt me as the plug was above the sink and I left my phone to charge resting on a towel but the tap rather callously dripped on it all night, by the morning it was broken. This did not make for a happy Colin.