Good obnoxiously early morning, also more commonly known as late night.

It’s 2:20 am and I am writing a trip report…

To understand why, I point you to excellent reports written by JapesUK and recent report by HON_FRA who travelled to Paris to enjoy the Games.

Both to test my new setup for on the road, and to give another angle to the trip by HON_FRA, I have decided to document my little excursion.

And because of reasons of budget, availability and timing, I ended up with a departure from BRU at 6:10 and a hour and half long drive, it’s about time to get in the car and go. I’ll check in with you from BRU.

Superb! Now don’t break anything

The drive went as well as can be expected. Nice weather in The Netherlands, became foggy by Belgian border. A pit stop shortly after Belgian border means I counted my gas right, and will be making full use of price arbitrage.



Registering for a Pcard+ with Interparking has shown itself to have been the right choice. Drive up to the ramp, system sees my car, says Welcome Mr. Fabo.sk on the screen and lets me in. Wonderful, I wish it was always this easy (and expecting it to be even more so on leaving, as no pesky payment machines will need be used.)

BRU has also welcomed me with foggy weather, hopefully there won’t be much impact on morning departures. The flight to Paris I am on seems quite full, so I don’t want to end up having to battle it out for free seats later in the day, even if my FB status would help.



One lame scam attempt just in front of the entryway bypassed and I am in. That’s driving up the ramp. at 4:40, concourse 4:50, landsice 5:00 exactly. I like it when things go this way.


Love me a mechanical departure board

The mood in the airport is the one I like, shortly before sunrise people are moving, but nobody has woken up enough yet to actually rush. Doubly so today, as traffic is very leisure heavy, with the associated “let’s suddenly stop in the middle of a narrow walkway so we can discuss if we want to buy duty free” type moments, but I don’t mind. Doesn’t take me more than 10 minutes to reach Diamond lounge anyway.

TIme for breakfast.


Warm on the right, cold on the left, pastry behind me, cereals and sweets around the corner

Decent spread, a number of warm options, a number of cold options,pastries, sweets, cereals… Pretty much everything you could need.

Lounge was pretty full when I walked in, started cleaning up at around 5:20, I guess the bunch of 6am departures were where bulk of the guests went to. I’m off not long behind. Departure is estimated on time.


You know I wouldn’t leave this out.

No chasing someone to give a lost unwanted trinket at great personal cost anymore, I promise

No drama on the flight. Boarding started at the expected time and despite fairly full flight, it was only a small 175, so everybody was seated prior to departure time. Still we pushed about 10 minutes late due to traffic around us getting in the way.


This wetlease(?) Airbus was bound for Alicante

Fog was actually pretty bad, RVR getting as low as 225 meters had me worried for a second but it ended up not being an issue.

Minimal service on this flight, but give a coconut macaroon and I'm a happy man, so no complaints here.



26 minutes total in the air, I even managed to doze off for a couple of them.

Rather than being late, we ended up landing early. By the time of scheduled arrival, I am already in Crown Lounge.

As an aside, the area close to passport control is undergoing renovations at Schiphol. This is the new estabilishment open on Schengen side, roughly at the location of the old, I think it was called, Paleis? The big one anyway. Looks alright I think. I’ll give it a try one of these days.

The only way to start a travel day

It seems that I have timed my arrival at the gate perfectly. SkyPrio boarding was already underway, Group 3 just about to start, and as I walked down the jetway, people were already streaming in, none of that “wait in the jetway” crap. Just how I like it.

This 737 has the new interior in it, great bins, workable seats. Economy comfort legroom is fine, however cabin width is forever the issue of the type.

I was going to type out the details of my routing and what went into the decision process, but as I did end up getting a seat mate in the middle in the end (plane seems to be packed to the brim, I was sort of hoping for an opup, but no such luck today) I think I will leave it until Paris. If I am lucky, I will be typing in the 2F lounge, if not…. I will be typing somewhere.

It is not clear how the lounge access in Paris after arrival works. Some people say there is none, some people say they have been able to enter, but it’s only for Gold and up, some say only Platinums get to do it. We’ll see in an hour and a bit I suppose.

——————————————————

Another remarkably unremarkable flight. Coffee was had, another macaroon, and an on-time landing followed by a 10 minute wait for gate to open.

The only thing of note was that I noticed my seat neighbor had connected to wifi, which prompted me to check and apparently KLM now offers free messaging in the wifi enabled aircraft. Good to know.

After arrival I was unfortunately not able to enter the lounge, that remains departure only. Not the worst thing to happen, I will attempt to get an early check in in the hotel and nap for a bit instead then.

Which reminds me of what was supposed to be the point of this part - the trip and how it is planned.

I was lucky enough to get a fairly early position in the ticket lottery when the sale opened. With that, I grabbed a couple of tickets, for this weekend and next. I was already fairly sure that the second weekend will be incorporated into a driving holiday as a stop enroute to the south, so that was not something I had to think about much, but getting here for my events today and tomorrow proved more difficult than expected.

I have considered driving, but the idea of driving 5-6 hours at night after a day out and about did not appeal to me too much.

Flying was the obvious first choice, however there was an issue - the last flight of the day being at 17:50, plus travel time to CDG and early arrival…. No good. Expecting outrageous prices for accommodation, I did not want to stay an extra night either.

The last train left at 20:25, which was fine. The one-way fare to get to Amsterdam was not too bad and the train wasn’t too bad either.

I almost ended up with that, but when looking up prices, I considered ending in Antwerp as well, and finally have seen Brussels, which obviously has more trains than Amsterdam and a good bit cheaper. Flight BRU-AMS-CDG was also ever so slightly less and gave extra XP. The parking cost would be more than covered by the savings on the train. And I could take a bit later train to be able to get a dinner in Paris as opposed to eating whatever the bistro car could offer… so here I am.

Flight in today, train out tomorrow, drive in next week. Good variety, eh.

The last thing was hotels, and boy, did the hoteliers of Paris decide to get in on it. Couldn’t find an ibis Budget for under 200 a night, if not 250.

However I did luck out in the end, as Mercure Nanterre showed up one day, having missed the last years start of sale due to construction delays. That seems to have forced the hotel to offer reasonable prices and also not be locked with mandatory non-flex Olympic rates. So I’m “only” out some 175 tonight. OTOH, right outside of Nanterre RER, fairly good location at least compared to what I was considering before (Orsay and the likes).

And that’s where I will head to now. Maybe there will be some napping, maybe I’ll just drop off my backpack and go out, we’ll have to see. I will be getting back to you tonight to tell you if I messed up with the hotel or not.

Proud of you! Enjoy your trip!

I thought this was trademarked.

this one is with espresso, doesn�t count 😂

Well that didn't go according to plan.

First, the RER B train out of CDG broke, so I had to wait for the next departure. Then a navigation fail has me get out at Nanterre Prefecture instead of Nanterre Ville. So I resolved to get the next train� but didn't realize until too late that trains towards St Germain stop at a different platform� so I of course miss the next train. And then the one after that is cancelled because of a security incident.

All in all I planned to get to the hotel at 12 and try for early check-in, or at least a nap in a quiet corner of the lobby. I got in at 1, and of course, rooms not available.

Hotel leaves an interesting first impression too. Not the best area, but less than three minutes walk out of the station, freshly renovated. Decor in your standard issue beige.
What I didn't expect at the Mercure is reception desk at the bar. I honestly might just prefer a self service a la Citizen M.

With no prospect of a room, a delay, and places to be, I just have to leave and hope for the best. First course of action is to find lunch, then some energy drink, and after I'm done with my football, no messing about in the city, but an early night. Fan zones will have to wait until tomorrow.

I promise the next update will have pictures again.

Well there goes my early night.

​​​​

To quote Captain Barbossa �sleep when you�re dead�

Trust me, I am no stranger to that tenet, but after getting average of probably less than 4 hours of sleep per night over the last week, I was looking forward to the lie-in. Once again, my body has surprised me by its ability to pull energy to go on seemingly out of nowhere, despite not being 20 anymore, or anywhere near so.
Now it seems that I will have to sacrifice a workday next week to catch up. At least it’s off-season.

I have decided I will catch you up until the quarter final football ends and abandon you for the night in the metro.

Rest, including how I ended up still being in a RER train at 10 past midnight despite my plans to the contrary, will have to wait.

edit: I will say though - hotel is fine. Weirdly the vibe around the station at 1am is better than the vibe around the station at 1pm. Rooms are nice and new. The one fault I will say, sound insulation is abysmal, chiefly between rooms.

I could about kill for a croque madamme at this point. While walking back to the RER station (Nanterre-Ville, not Nanterre-Prefecture) I looked up what route do I need to take to Parc de Princes and noticed that it changes at CDG-Etoille station, which reminds me of a small but nice shopping centre that I have passed through some years back during my stay in Hyatt Regency Etoille. Eventually I find out that this hotel is one station up the M1 line at Porte Maillot, but a plan is a plan, so I go there.

Well, half a success. The small shopping centre is there (and as expected, the hotel and adjacent conference centre have an official function wrt the games, which explains why this one, my otherwise favourite Paris hotel, had even crazier rates than the others) and I have found a cafe of the exact style I was looking for. However, when I attempted to order a croque monsieur, the man just says “is finish sorry”. Damn and blast. Well, fresh baguettes to the rescue, in the end I was quite happy with my lunch, for 11 euros including the can of beer.



After that, it was time to head to the actual venue. I knew already I would be late, but as it turned out, I was far from alone. A steady stream of latecomers trickled towards the stadium.

I did get in just in time though to catch the first Moroccan goal, and capture the “home fans” after.



In retrospect I feel a little sorry for Team USA. The Moroccans made themselves heard, and it really felt almost like the match could have been in Rabat.

But… that is exactly what I came here looking for. I enjoyed the game immensely



And am quite happy to learn my tickets in a week are in virtually the same place.

The whole experience really renergized me, and I decided to try and pay the National Houses at least a short visit (stadium having only non-alcoholic 1664 beer, and me knowing the Czechs brought in Czech craft beers might have played a role) and stop for a dinner on the way.

To that effect, I took the metro from a nearby station.

And man, I have to say, the organization of volunteers is on point. From only letting in a reasonable number of people to actually enter the subterranean station, to straight up handing out water in the hot&stuffy environment of the metro… my hat is off and I bow as deep as I might.