Rags to Riches

Sometimes life gives you lemons.  Yesterday was our travel day from Paris to Genova, Italy.  We were up early which turned out to be a good thing as you will soon see.  We rode the subway to the correct train station, there are six train stations in Paris.  Once we were at Garde de Lyon we noticed that the ticket offices were closed. Not  a problem, we already had purchased tickets.  As we looked at the arrival monitors our train disappeared from the schedule.

A few minutes before we had noticed a crew of "red vested" people mixing through the crowd.  They were breaking the news to the travelers that the railroad workers had gone on strike.

We waited our turn to talk with one of the "Red Vests".  They were very nice and their advice was to hop on the next train going our direction.  We along with 100's of others made a mad dash for the platform where a fast train was about to leave for Marsilles.  It was a good thing we had arrived at the station early.

We had reservations and assigned seats but that was no help because we were on a train leaving an hour earlier than our assigned train.

What to do?  We were in the same "boat" as many other people.  So we all found isle space and sat on the floor.  Soon we were all buddies and people began talking.  After a bit many folks that had assigned seats began offering to trade spaces to give us a break from sitting on the floor.  People sure can be nice.

Terri was a little more clever than most of us.  She crawled into a baggage storage area, curdled up and took a nap.

My smart wife, stowed away in the luggage rack.

Soon a kind business man asked if I would like to sit in his lady friends seat.  She went and sat on his lap.  We were both happy.  He turned out to be a very interesting person and we talked for over an hour.  OK, if I'm talking, I'm happy.

In hind sight it was a great experience.  Lemons to lemonade.  It is all part of the adventure.  The first half of the trip was crossing France. The second half (3.5 hours) was on a slower train that we transfer to.  The Italians weren't on strike so we had seats on the new train.

This train followed the coastline of the Mediteranean Sea.  It was beautiful.  We saw Cannes, Antibes, Monte Carlo, Monaco and Nice along our route.

Now for the "Rag to Riches" part of the day.  We arrived at our new AirBnB.  I'm feeling like an aristocrat.  This home is something else.  It's definitely a step up for the lowly Rangers.  I'll show you photos after we settle in for the next four days here in Genova.

Sittin' on the floor on the train..... a more normal station for me.

Life is GOOD.... no matter what curve ball gets thrown at us.