On to Paris

28 March 2008

This starts early, really early. We were awakened by the fire alarm at the hotel at about 2.15am. After grabbing our passports and our wallets we filed outside and stood around until we were told it was a false alarm due to an equipment failure. So, we climbed back into bed and the alarm kept going off at sporadic intervals for the next couple of hours. You know what its like. Just as you finally drift off to sleep the wail of the siren wakes you back up.

Anyway, we were up and packed and on our way to the new Eurostar Terminal at St Pancras station. London was wet, the rain that had been threatening finally arriving. Unfortunately we had let the hotel get us a private cab at a fixed charge and the driver didn't seem to have a clue as to where we wanted to go. On the other hand, he did have one of those GPS systems and with the aid of that he finally got us to the terminal. Next time we will arrange for a traditional London Taxi, especially now that they have special lanes which speed up their trips - something we first saw in Paris years ago.

The trip to Paris was uneventful although our minds still boggle at the idea that you can get from the centre of London to the heart of Paris in just over two hours! A taxi took us to the flat and after a bit of deoderizing (the last person must have been a smoker) we went and did our basic shopping so we could have a very pleasant Cheese Omlette, salad and wine for a light meal before settling down for the night.

Virginia had some wobbly moments leaving England but will be OK in a couple of days.