Interrail Pass Travel Day 10, Tuesday 31 March, gets us all the way home from Paris. No early start for our last day, had a leisurely breakfast at the Bistro Terminus Nord under our hotel with some original 1925 Art Deco fittings and offering traditional French style cuisine (and service).
Walked across to Hall 2 with a large Union Flag where Eurostar departs and all the new check-in, immigration, Customs etc. takes place. Asked about changing our ticket for a train leaving one hour earlier but despite having a ‘fully flexible reservation’ it would have cost us 2 lost of 50€!! So we waited for the 1311 as booked.
Hall 2 looks quite well organised but was not a particularly pleasant experience with at least three different sets of consecutive queues for ‘non EU pre-registration’ checks and other sorts of passport checking on the French side. After finally getting our Schengen exit stamp (despite all the digital palaver, we still got a ‘wet ink’ stamp!) there was the usual unpleasant, surly UK Border Force official to get past and we could go to board the trains . . . after baggage check we waited for half an hour or so and boarded the train – no actual ticket checks at all! A friendly SNCF steward welcoming passengers at the door asked what my seat no. was. I said I think it’s 11 and she said is your name Yates? Some of the IT must work OK!! The busy train left on time and we enjoyed the very good on board catering in our ‘Plus’ seats, chatting with an American family from Delaware who’d been in Paris and were looking forward to a few days in London.
Regained that hour we lost on Sunday, arriving into London St Pancras International at 1430. We managed to get out of the Eurostar area pretty quickly and got to the departure gate for the 1508 to Derby with about 15 minutes to spare. After nearly a month travelling, the Interrail app froze, refusing to let Bev activate the London – Matlock Bath train. Appealing to the good natured man on the departure gate, he let us through and told us to talk with the train manager. As we’re allowed 1st Class on the homeward journey, we found seats but the app still wasn’t letting us add the journey. The kind ticket inspector said she trusted us and brought us complimentary drinks and snacks. After several attempts, the app finally came back to life to display the QR code.
Caught the connecting train to Matlock Bath and hauled the luggage up the hill – the garden looks lovely full of blooming Spring bulbs planted last Autumn.