The Trying Travel Day

Last Friday was a very trying travel day! It has taken until now to recover enough to write about it (well, we've also been busy :-D ).

This was always going to be the most hectic of our Parents-in-France days - it was our "move" from Barcelona (where we flew in to Europe, and spent a few days getting over the worst of our jetlag) to Sète (our base for most of our visit).

The plan involved getting *all* SIX of our suitcases on and off the high-speed train, then transferring them to a regional train, then picking up our rental car, splitting up (can't all fit in the car, so some would take the bus) and then all  meeting up at "home." The reality beat the pants off the plan...

Getting to the train - I had Uber, and had been able to practice with it, but found out we couldn't order a big enough car. I tried Cabify, but couldn't get the app to recognize my payment method. I then tried MyTaxi, and could order a minivan. So far, so good! I set it up the night before, and we were ready for our pick-up. Everyone and everything fit, and the ride to the station went well. Until... time to pay! Unlike Uber, MyTaxi requires a handshake via the app at the end - my app was waiting for the driver, and the driver's app was waiting for me 🙄. I ended up paying cash...

Mom and Dad reading the Shopper while waiting for the taxi handshake

Getting on the train - This was really not too bad. We could relax in a café while we waited for our platform to open, and when it did, the line moved fast. We had lower-level seats, and the three smallest suitcases fit behind our seats (but, surprisingly, not in the space above). One of the huge bags made it into the rack on our level, but I had to take the other two upstairs 😡.

The first big hiccup - Everything was going along just fine on our train until we got to Perpignan. Apparently, there was a problem, and everyone had to get off and move over to another train. Which wasn't there yet. Once it got there, it was full of people who had to get off. And move onto *our* train. Hmmm - ok, we're just going with it. Beyond the hassle of getting ourselves and all our bags situated (and, by the way, carefully ignoring the "looks" when I'm maneuvering "too many" "big" bags), this switcheroo cost us quite a bit of time - we knew there was no way we would get to the car rental agency before it closed. So, we called - and got a message tree, that eventually dumped us into headquarters (not the branch whose number we called); headquarters said they would send an email (?!?!?) to the Sète office, notifying them of our change. Well, we did what we could, but remained suspicious that it would help. Meanwhile, we got to enjoy looking at the Perpignan rainbow-colored train station 🙂

Changing trains - The nice thing about our Perpignan switch is that all our suitcases ended up together! So when we had to change to the regional train, getting off the high-speed train was pretty quick. But not quick enough, as it turned out. Even though our train was delayed, and we missed our original transfer, we could catch the next regional train - but we had to change platforms, which meant an elevator. But only one was operational (and not the one near us). So Rick and my parents took some bags on the first trip, and I got the next one. As I got off the elevator, dragging two big cases, I watched my train pull away... A quick search confirmed that my travel companions had caught it. Pretty much everyone had a good trip to Sète! Mom and Dad sat next to a friendly family, and chatted about all sorts of things - when the train pulled into Sète, Mom said "oh, that's us!" And the family jumped into action! One ran to hold the doors open, another started tossing suitcases out, and Mom and Dad ended up on the platform! :-) Rick had gotten on the same train, but in a different car, so missed all the excitement. I waited in Montpellier for the next train with a fellow whose wife had caught the earlier train, and he (yep, because of the elevator situation) had missed it too. We had a very nice chat, and helped a newbie train-rider get onto the right train. Some 20 minutes behind, I finally got to Sète - a group of young men grabbed my two suitcases, and got them downstairs and back up (whew!), laughing all the way about how strong they were :-D

Getting home - we all connected back up at the Sète train station, and, as it was well past closing time at the car rental place, we looked for a bus. Well, the gare (train station) is still a construction zone, so the town buses are all across the canal. Luckily, Mom's back is getting better, and we were all able to go the distance :-) We caught our bus, got a nice tour of the island, and dropped Mom and Rick to get checked in - Dad and I continued on to our apartment, getting three of the big suitcases settled. We walked back, with everyone meeting for dinner.

Driving - we had intended to get groceries, but getting in so late, and not having the car meant that breakfast was a little weird... We eventually got to the rental car agency, and (you know it), they had no clue about what happened. They looked for us last night, I said we called, but... Luckily, someone returned a car just as we were there - so, we actually got a car!

A week later, we're settled in, sightseeing, visiting, and moving on!