European Railroad Discussion > Prague to Paris - 4 trains in one day by dinnertime!

Back in September I was in Prague, winding up a week in the Czech Republic with 86235, and I had to get from Prague to Paris to meet up with my wife on a Sunday (Sept 24), and I had to be in Paris by dinner time (of course)!  This was a timetable challenge - not as tight as the Rome-London on 4 trains in one day sprint that I did in 2016, but close!    Here were the trains I took to make my dinner date:

 - Eurocity 178 "Berliner"  - Prague (0625) to Dresden (0852) - all CD stock
 - Inter City 2048 - Dresden (0923) to Leipzig (1021) - double deck DB stock
 - Inter City Express 75 - Leipzig (1048) to Karlsruhe (1509) - DB stock
 - Inter City Express 9572 - Karlsruhe (1532) to Paris Est (1805) - DB stock

Note that the connections were all scheduled between 23 and 31 minutes, and I made all the connections.  Arrived Paris a few minutes late, met up with my wife, and had a very nice dinner at La Marine on Quai de Valmy and Rue Dieu along the Canal Saint Martin. 

1)  Here's EC 178 sitting in Dresden waiting for time to depart for Berlin. 
2)  EC 178's train info panel on a coach.
3)  Breakfast on EC 178 from the cart - a pre-packed chicken, bacon and egg sandwich and a cup of tea.  Slightly disappointing because the train was advertised as having a dining car, but it was missing this day.
 



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/23 20:02 by dwatry.

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4)  Here's IC 2048 pulling into Dresden for the ride to Leipzig.
5)  Interior of IC 2048
6)  Here's ICE 75 pulling into Leipzig for the ride to Karlsruhe. 
 

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7)  Onboard ICE 75.
8)  Here's ICE 9572 arriving in Karlsruhe for the ride to Paris. 
9)  Onboard 9572 hitting 320 km/hour (198 mph) on the way to Paris.  We did hit 322 KPH but I wasn't fast enough with the camera. 
 

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10)  That's ICE 9572 in Paris Est on the far track, with an SNCF "Grand Est" loco in the foreground. 
11)  The dinner spot - La Marine on Quai de Valmy! 
 



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/24/23 20:04 by dwatry.

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11). Hmmm, I want to eat there....

Impressive! A lovely ride, for sure, thanks for the look.

That was certainly interesting. Thank you for sharing it with us...:):):)

Nice photos and commentary, and a most interesting itinerary. For us on the west side of The Pond, a fantasy dream...oh, well. I've done three quick links in Europe over shorter distance, but not four, and not over that distance. Well done! I like the restaurant in Paris, too - hope you both had a very nice dinner.

Happy New Year!

MC

I would say congratulations on pulling that off, but, as one who has also traveled on European (and Japanese) trains, it is pretty much what you would expect, viz. on-time performance.  I was told before my first trip to Europe that if you don't speak the language, (even back in 1993, seemed like everyone could speak English), just be at the proper track number at the exact time, and you will be fine.  I once got to the "proper track" seven minutes early, a train arrived, I got on, only to discover (not too late to get back off), that I would have ended up in Oslo, instead of Copenhagen.

Thanks for sharing, brought back a lot of great memories, and, that cafe, ooh-la-la.

Very enjoyable series!!

Larry

Well done! That's an impressive journey. You just reminded me of one I did last spring over a much shorter distance... but with far more connections, because of a landslide.