Passage to Paris

This morning, I was on Chief Suitcase Security duties at the Munich train station, when a man walks by with a serious look on his face.  I pointed to his tee shirt.

"You have to smile.  You are Mr. Happy.". He obliged, then scurried away from the Mad Woman.


We arrived on the correct platform.  We found the display which shows where our carriage will board from, between Points D and E, so walked all the way down there.  

An official approached and told us, for today, our train was leaving from a different platform.  We had enough time to walk back down this platform, over and right down the correct one.
Changing at Stuttgart (hello Gisela who was born, raised and went to Uni here) I was waiting for Rob who was in a bookshop, again on Chief Suitcase Security detail.  A young US couple parked their bikes right by me.  She went off so I asked him how the riding was going.  They were cycling around Germany and to date had all good weather.They are both in the US airforce.  He is a rescue pilot and instructor, with  Black Hawk helicopter with about $30,000,000 extra equipment in it.  He signed on for ten years, which starts once his pilot training finished, so he is just 5 months from the end of this ten year period.  He may resign; both were considering their options he told me.  


We found our new train and getting on board, I wandered past the correct seats, by mistake, to discover Gary and Jan from Denver, who we were on the train with to Vienna.  They have just had a restful few days around Lake Constance and were off for a week in Provence.  Regretfully, a train official told us we were in the WRONG one of the two first class carriages.  So down comes the luggage and off we go to the next one.


This train displays on the engine it reached 574.8 kmh on 3rd of April 2007.  I can tell you it fairly flew along the tracks  today as well. (Hello to Andrew, a train driver and enthusiast from Boronia.)


When we pulled into Paris, I noticed the America  woman in the row in front had two magazines IN ENGLISH.  I would have asked to borrow them during the trip if I had noticed.


"English language magazines," I lamented.


"You want them?"  she asked, handing over recent copies of US Weekly and People.  Now I can get the very latest update on Katie and Tom!!


God Bless America!!!