As we near the end of June, there has not been a lot going on in the trip planning department. The main reason is that Stephanie and I have been consumed with preparing our house for sale, actually signing a contract on the house, and then going through all of the trials and tribulations associated with closing the sale of a house. We are in the process of relocating to South Carolina, sometime after this trip is completed
We are now at the point where we are pretty well past all of the sales contract contingency items, so the only thing left to do is move our belongings to a rental condo as we approach the closing date.
Enough on that little side distraction, now onto the trip planning update.
We are now within the 90 day window to be able to purchase advance discounted train tickets for the first part of the trip, specifically, the Paris to Lucerne route. In looking at both the French Train site SNCF, and the Swiss train site SBB, we determined that purchasing the discounted tickets from the French site was the best option. Interestingly, both are purchased in different currencies, with different exchange rates, which was part of the consideration. The final determining factor was the special being run by the Swiss Train company, SBB, where we could purchase a Buy One, Get One Free, better know as the ole BOGO on the Swiss 4 day Flexi Pass. This allows us to travel free for 4 days within a month long period, and also gives us discounts on most of the cable car tickets we will purchase in Zermatt. We had already considered purchasing the Swiss “Half-Fare” card for the discounts, but for a small additional amount, we get free train, boat, bus and local transportation for four days, plus the same discounts as the Half Fare Card.
Using this approach, our train ticket purchase from the French Rail Company, SNCF, only gets us to the border station at Basel. Once there, we actually purchase the BOGO Swiss Pass from the Swill rail ticket counter in Basel, and will use that for the highest value 4 days of travel in Switzerland. Since the half fare for Basel to Lucerne is only Euro 15.50 per person, we will most likely opt for that as an additional purchase instead of using the Swiss Pass and burning that as the initial day on the ticket. It really depends on keeping track of the 4 qualifying days on the pass, and which offers the highest return for value.
We will certainly use it for the Golden Round Trip and Mount Pilatus excursion on Lake Lucerne since the boats also are covered under the pass, as well as other portions of that excursion. The other days of usage will be the train from Lucerne to Zermatt, and certainly the train from Zermatt to Strasbourg, France, later in the trip.
The actual purchase of the train ticket from SNCF for the Paris to Basel trip was almost an adventure in itself. The cheapest way to purchase these tickets is to “trick” the internet site into thinking you are in/from France. Otherwise, it sends you to their sister company “Rail Europe”, better known in the internet as “Rail Ripoff”. Apparently, the Rail Europe site sells tickets at full fare, with no discounts, but you can purchase them on their English Language website, and they will graciously mail you your tickets, literally in the US Mail, for the small fee of an additional $18.00. There are a couple of sites that help with the “translation” of instructions required for the purchase of the tickets directly from SNCF in France, since the site is entirely in French. Once you get the hang of it, all of the sites ask for the same general information, date of travel, start city, destination city, time of day, first or second class, etc. It was pretty simple, with a little bit of guidance on some details on entering names, and a couple of other items that required me to use Google Translate to interpret. One item that was confusing was the request to enter birth dates. Of course, in Europe, it is always DD/MM/YYYY instead of our normal MM/DD/YYYY. Picking seats was a little confusing as the train is a double decker, and you need to select your preference, with the preference normally being for the upper deck.
Then came the time for the credit card entry, and all was looking good up until then. I entered in all of the information, but the card was rejected. I had thought about calling the credit card company first, but thought that they would allow a $130.00 transaction to go through. Well NOT. The transaction was flagged for fraud. After calling Capital One for clearance, it was back to the SNCF site, and on the second try, it all worked well, and electronic tickets were issued. So, this part of the journey is now set. The tickets were discounted, but they are also non-refundable, and good only for that date, on that specific train. Another cost to be allocated against the travel insurance should something happen and we miss that connection.
The other item of interest in the planning effort is trying to determine if we will actually go on this trip with carry-on bags only. We have been looking at some specialty bags form both Eagle Creek and Osprey, both of which are maximum sized wheeled and wheeled backpack bags, with integrated day packs (smaller backpacks that connect to the main bag). Since it is difficult to fully evaluate this decision without having the bags to physically see and trial pack, we may order a couple of them, evaluate the options, and return if necessary. Thankfully, most of the online luggage or hiking stores have great no hassle return policies, only giving up the cost of return shipping as the penalty to review the actual bags. Part of the consideration is camera gear, and the camera tripod, which we normally pack in a checked bag. It is not a security issue, but a space issue to contend with. Another consideration is the weather/climate, and the need to consider some heavier clothes for the cooler weather portion of the trip in Switzerland.
A few other less impressive planning issues are determining whether to do a dinner cruise on the Seine River in Paris, or just opt for a night river cruise and eat elsewhere. Most reviews seem to indicate that the food is only marginally good at best, as large group dinner functions would dictate. Other reviews say that you need a good window seat to enjoy the dinner cruise, and that usually means a higher price. For perspective, an average starting price for the dinner cruises is about euro 85.00-99.00 per person, then additional cost for better seats, additional cost for beverages, etc.. On the night cruise only, no dinner, you can bring your own refreshments, and probably wander around on the boat for better views. Most people in the reviews say to go on the 10:00 PM cruise, since it is normally just getting dark by then. We did experience this on our trip to Paris two years ago, it was still twilight at 10:00 PM. The dinner cruises normally start earlier.
All for now, back to packing and moving……..