Connections

I blame Air France. Due to their week long strike we were unable to book a direct flight to Paris. Traveling from rural Austria can be a logistics nightmare at any time. But with careful planning and help from the local travel agent we managed to organise it. First a 2.5 hour train trip to Vienna, a suburban train to the airport, then a 1 hour flight to Zurich, change of planes for a 1 hour flight to Paris, shuttle train to the airport train station finishing with a 1 hour train trip to Lille. Fortunately the hotel is right opposite the train station.
The best laid plans....do not account for the late departure of the flight to Zurich, the mad dash to the connecting plane and missing our booked train to Lille by a few minutes due to the long wait fir our luggage to appear. The luggage missed the flight and was due to arrive on the last plane, too late for the last plane to Lille. There was nothing for it but to try to catch the next train hoping that they would accept our ticket. We arrived in Lille at around 9pm. I have left out the 2 conversations with the very nice man at the baggage help desk, several trips to the information desks, a few wrong turns, conversations with the platform staff and train manager. Also the 1 hour round trip walk to the only night chemist for contact lens solution. And the 88€ each for the return ticket the next day to pick up the luggage as it was going to take a minimum of 2 days to send to Lille. So my blip is the satchel with tshirt and toiletries that the lovely man at the baggage desk gave us on behalf of Swiss Air. Letters will be written.