I make mistakes, too…

Needless to say, I make mistakes, too, and I knew I was barking up the wrong tree—in this case taking a ferry to a small English town with 1 train daily was unacceptable.  Especially when I considered that the Ferry might be late, and I'd be stranded there unable to get the train until the following date late in the p.m., well after the Queen departed without me.  But I decided that Le Havre was the perfect comforttravel@less$ rest up from train travel that would be stressful re luggage, keeping to train schedules, and having to find the right departure track in Hamburg's central station.     

I started the next leg of my logistics plan, making the reservations for hotels and trains, from square 1, which was my landing in Hamburg.

First, I had to determine whether I could get a train to Paris from which major German city.  Le Havre.  As I determined from more online research, and though I knew nothing about Hamburg's cruise port, as I discovered, Hamburg built a newer more accommodating port for ships as big as the Queen—instead of Altoona which is a distance from Hamburg city, further on down the channel Hamburg opened a huge city-like cruise port that they call cruise center HaffenCity. 

I looked for an online map (Google obliged) to show me how I'd get from there to Hamburg's central train station.   I saw that with luggage, and my need for comfort, I had to take a taxi.  More research online helped me determine that the cost wouldn't be excessive as Hamburg city is just about 15-20 minutes away from HaffenCity.  I looked online for some information about Hamburg taxi fares, and  determined that 20 Euros would be about the most it would cost.  I could have opted for the commuter train as the train station is within walking distance, but I intended to keep my stress level low, and I'm was going to negotiate steps to get down into the station with my luggage. 

More online research helped me determine that that Hamburg's central station is now also city-like in its scope— Hauptbahnhof (central station) is a new and glorious German engineering creation for what they like to think of as their 21^st century city.  And I knew that I needed to find out which Germany city had a direct connection to Paris.  The only city was Frankfurt, and it was possible to get there early enough to overnight. 

To keep my comfort level, I knew better than to try to travel all day and into the night to get to Paris.   I also looked at the train schedule from Frankfurt to Paris to Le Havre, a city within 2 hours of Paris and determined that I could leave for Paris at 8 a.m. or close to that hour, arrive in Paris at Paris Est train station.  From there, I would have to find a way to get to the station (St. Lazare) that had direct trains to Le Havre. 

This part of my preplan was important, because the hassle of traveling by train with luggage can be stressful—my aim remained the comforttravel@less$ , and it was necessary to make the train reservations as soon as possible to get the best fare—Rail Europe offered me a way to have my paper tickets in hand to take with me in my travel documents carrier.  I wanted something that I could put around my neck and have the conveyance of reaching for what I needed without rummaging for it in a carryon or backpack, and I put this item on my "buy for trip" list.  

I linked on line to the Rail Europe website that I had bookmarked in my favorites, from there I found the trains and schedules and picked which trains would be appropriate, then I took a break to figure out the next step in my preplan process—see my next post for more.

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**I am a multitask writer, as I am also in the process of writing my latest fiction novel, Book II, PARIS WARP Jousting Devils And Dragons but this is a trilogy which explores the supernatural as it exists in tandem with the world as we know it.The trilogy starts with Book I, The Haunting And Paradise Taxi/print ISBN 9780615685434 print also available as E-book Nook Smashwords Edition ISBN 9780989053600 BarnesandNoble http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-haunting-and-paradise-taxi-cynthia-lynn/1114061302?ean=2940044602069
Apple https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/haunting-paradise-taxi/id666549806 ; Sony;Kobo