From Cairo to the Connemara: A Sojournal

 Pt3 - 23 PARIS I parked the silver bullet at Chiswick and rode another bullet to Paris. The Eurostar left Waterloo at 9:53am and pulled into the Gare du Nord precisely two hours later. The ride was a little ricketty brocketty racketty bucketty on the English rails but the minute we launched into France from the Chunnel at Calais the ride was so smooth you had to look out the window to confirm the train was actually moving. In coach 3 an elderly gentleman sat between myself in seat 55 and the panorama window. He kept to himself until I spread my Printemps map of Paris on the fold down table. “Your first time?” he asked. I felt a bit like a schoolboy on his way to a brothel. “Yes, it is.” He peered at me through tinted bifocals. “You will enjoy it,” he said, a gentle smile on his kindly face. There was an American inflection to his accent, but he ordered from the refreshment trolley in fluent French. “You are a native?” I asked. “I’m American, but I’ve lived in Paris for m...

    PART THREE: EUROPE FRANCE, SOUTHERN GERMANY, AUSTRIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, NORTHERN GERMANY, THE NETHERLANDS, BELGIUM, ENGLAND, SCOTLAND, NORTHERN IRELAND, IRELAND, WALES and back to FRANCE     PREFACE TO PART THREE Taking delivery of the car in Nice on Monday 2 nd of June marked the completion of the first third of the trip and signalled a fundamental transformation in how the next six months of the Awfully Big Adventure would unfold. The 1.9ltr Renault Clio Oasis diesel, with just 10kms on the clock, conferred a new freedom on our travels; it was goodbye downtime and backpacking and hello flexible planning and camping. The Silver Bullet, as it quickly and affectionately became to us, had plenty of space in the hatch for both our packs and then some, and a large back seat which we promptly filled with all sorts of stuff. It was comfortable, smooth, powerful and very economical. Our arrival in France also gave us a unique opportunity to take a ...