I spent two nights in Bangkok en route to the Camino in Spain. I stayed with my son, daughter in law and granddaughter.

Bangkok was hot and steamy as usual, especially compared with the Canberra winter weather. We went to the park and I paid a visit to Fortune Town, a huge shopping centre a few train stops away.

Leaving at 9:30 on Saturday night meant the 6 hour trip to Dubai arrived late in Bangkok time. Still with 9 hours of time difference to adjust to, every bit helps.

With a stopover at the airport hotel there was no need to immediately get onto the next flight. I never like doing that and don’t generally sleep on planes.

The airport hotel is spotlessly clean and the beds are comfortable.

Arriving in London at 4pm it was a surprise to find the temperature was still high at 30c. After a night there I headed over to St Pancras station and lined up for the Eurostar to Paris.

The Eurostar arrived in Paris on time at 11:47. From seat61.com I had some notes on how to move between Gare du Nord to the Gare Montparnasse in Paris. I had one hour to do that. I found a machine selling Metro tickets and bought one. Then went down to the M4 platform heading in the right direction (Montrouge). At about 12:20 I was at the Metro station for Montparnasse and then walked through the walkway to the TGV station where my train would leave from.

I found the signage slightly confusing and being under time pressure doesn’t help. After a helpful ticket officer helped with advice I found the right set of platforms but could not see which platform my train was leaving from. One person advised me very definitely to go to the right, another said to the left and said platform 4, which turned out to be correct. After scanning my ticket on the phone I was on the right platform and only had to get down to car number 15. After running down the platform several hundred metres announcements and alarms sounded, signs reading words like [departure imminent] and a door on the train opened at about car 11. I and several others in the same predicament all heaved our luggage on board and planned our trip down to our destination cars.

On the previous Saturday I received an email from Loco2 saying that SNCF had advised that this train would not be stopping at my destination Bayonne due to security measures for the G7 summit nearby at Biarritz. But on my train there was no sign of any unusual conditions or limitations. The train was delayed by other issues; by the time it arrived at DAX it was 40 mins behind schedule.

The journey continues.