Eliot's Travels

We found out Tuesday that Jim had a business meeting in Paris on Friday morning. The weather looked promising and we were able to find a hotel room (after much internet searching on Wednesday) for a reasonable price. So, the boys and I decided to go too! Thursday was spent packing, running a few errands, and getting ready to catch the train to Paris. Eliot was very excited and packed his toy back the night before. At 4:20 we headed to the train station in Delft for the 4:32 train to Rotterdam.

Eating pizza from Pizza Hut and drinking Fanta at the Rotterdam centraal station while we wait for the 5:54 pm Thalys train to Paris

The Thalys train is a high-speed train that runs into Paris. It doesn't go superfast until after Brussels because of the rails and traffic in Holland and much of Belgium. I am not sure how fast it goes but we got from Brussels to Paris Nord in 1 hr 30 min. One person told us is goes as fast as 200 mph. We did pass cars on the highway like they were standing still. We boarded the train in car 17 and took our seats in a cozy little cabin with 8 seats.

Eliot spent the first hour talking about what he saw - the houses, trains, landscape. I am sure our neighbors thought it was going to be a long 3 hours to Paris. The things we liked on the train: the blue curtains on the windows, the door to the train car was green on the inside (Eliot noticed this; Jim and I did not), the "moving bar" in car 14, the seat arms moved up like on an airplane. He really liked "the special track the Thalys was on."
While traveling, we passed a double-decker Holland train. For awhile before they switched tracks, we were going back and forth with them on a track right next to ours - you could touch it, if you dared. We waved at the people below. Eliot asked which way we were going - because it looked like we were going backwards when they moved a little faster than us.

When we got into Belgium, Eliot thought the buildings looked a little "rusty and old." They did look a bit more run down than Holland. The scenery changed from flat and canals to rolling hills in France.

We saw lots of new trains along the way:
White and Maroon with red doors and a B on the engine
White trains with different color splotches on the doors; green for bike cars
Short little teal engines with yellow stripes
Blue and white trains with red doors in France
TGV white high-speed trains in France
Black and yellow high-speed trains
Miles sleeps as we rumble down the track

posted by Whitney @ 1:36 PM