Day 2
We got up at 8:30 and got ready. Then we headed down to breakfast. This is where the fun started. We had been given the option of either pre-paying for £10 or making the decision in the morning when it would be £12. As I am not really a breakfast person, we decided to wait and see. When we got to breakfast, they did not seem to get their heads around the fact that we did not have a voucher. Eventually it was established that we wanted to charge breakfast to our room. We were asked if we wanted tea or coffee and then went to find a seat.
Finding a seat was easier said than done. I don't think they had expected that many people and had only set up a limited number of tables. We got lucky. One table was just being cleared and we managed to get this. Graham went first to get some breakfast. He went for the healthy option first and had some fruit and yoghurt. I went straight in with the cooked breakfast and had sausage, egg, baked beans and hash browns. I also got some orange juice for both of us. We still did not have our coffee so I asked for this again and this time it arrived fairly swiftly. Graham decided on some cooked breakfast, too. He went with bacon, egg, mushrooms and tomato.
After breakfast, we headed back to the room. We packed the few odds and ends that we had used and then went down to check out. There we got our third freebie of the holiday. The member of staff told us that there were just the room charges. Graham told her that we needed to pay for breakfast, but she told us that it was OK. We thanked her and headed out.
The walk to the station did not take long and this time the Oyster cards worked. We had a short wait for the train, but there were ominous announcements stating that the train had been reported full and standing. They were not kidding. There was no way we could have got on there with our luggage. A member of staff directed us to the London Overground service. So we headed over to the platform where it was leaving from. It stopped everywhere, but we had plenty of time and it was relatively empty. I was really surprised that this was the same kind of train that the use on the underground. I made good use of the fact that I still had mobile internet and played with my iPad. Time passed quick enough.
We had decided to walk to St. Pancras rather than messing around with the underground. It was a beautiful day. In the end it was probably quicker to walk than take the underground. The queues to get down to the underground were insane and it is quite a walk to get to the right platform at Euston and then the same again at the other end. Even with the luggage it did not take us long to walk. When we got to St. Pancras we stopped to take some photos of the beautiful station beautiful station building and then we headed for the international terminal.
It had been a good few years since I had last been to St. Pancras and this was the first time I saw the international terminal. They did a great job with this. It is bright and modern, but does not overshadow the historical building. Despite ending up on a later and slower train than planned and walking, we got there in plenty of time and check in for our train had not opened yet. There were however some signs that did not make me happy. They stated that due to a change in train type, some of the seat numbers had been changed and if this was the case for us, we would get our new seat allocation at check in. We were supposed to be one of their newest trains and I had been really excited about this. Still there was nothing we could do about this and after all, it was just a train.
I decided to leave Graham with the luggage and go and get some water for the journey. I still had a rather bad cough and air conditioning seemed to make it worse, but drinking water seemed to help. So I set off. I was a little bit bewildered by the process. I found all kinds of designer shops and other high end offerings, but nowhere that sold water. This felt more like a high end shopping centre than a station. In the end, I walked all the way to the mainline station before I found somewhere that sold water. I got some water for both of us and then headed back to re-join Graham. As I walked back, I noticed that there was a Marks and Spencer Food shop right near where Graham was standing. I don't know how I had missed this. Still, there seemed to be huge lines so the detour was probably worth my while.
Shortly after I got back, check in opened. Graham went through first and when I scanned the barcode on my ticket, it would not accept it. Graham had printed the tickets double-sided and had scanned my barcode when he went through. I scanned his barcode and everything was fine. We did get a piece of paper with our new seat assignments. We then proceeded to security. This was interesting. They had x-ray machines there that are about the same size as the ones used for hand luggage at the airport. My suitcase is quite big so I was not sure how this would work. They also insisted on putting it in a tray, which made it even bigger. Sure enough, it did not quite want to go through at the first attempt, but they rearranged it a little and then it went through with no further problems. Once we were through security we cleared both UK and French passport control and then we were in a waiting area. We found ourselves some seats. It was only then that I had a proper look at our seat assignment and noticed that something more than just the seats had changed. They had upgraded us to their equivalent of business class. That was very nice. I spend some time catching up online while we waited for the platform for our train to be listed. We did not have too long to wait and when we got to the platform; our coach was right opposite the escalator.
We stored our luggage and found our seats. We had seats opposite each other and they were really comfortable. The trip was really smooth and to my surprise we travelled nonstop from London to Paris. I had expected that we would stop at least once in the UK, but we were inside the channel tunnel very quickly. While we were still in the UK, I made good use of my mobile internet connection. At the other end I worked on my trip report. Once we had entered the channel tunnel, they served lunch, which was very nice. We both had some Pinot Grigio and some water and our meals came with dinner rolls and Lemon Meringue Tart for dessert. Graham had Mushroom and Stilton Quiche with Vegetable Salad for his main course and I had Thai Chicken with Orzo Salad. We both enjoyed our meal. We then had some coffee and I had a chocolate biscuit with this.
Once we arrived at Paris, I checked out the public transport situation. We decided to take a taxi. This was a wise decision. There were lifts at Gare du Nord, but as I found out afterwards there are no lifts at the other end. That would not have been a lot of fun especially for me as my suitcase was rather heavy. I got some cash and then we headed out towards the taxi. Pretty much as soon as we got outside, there were loads of taxis and somebody approached me to ask where I was going. I had assumed that this was a taxi driver, but fortunately Graham noticed that this was actually the driver of a town car. So we carried on towards the taxi rank. The other driver followed us all the way there, but Graham stayed firm. There was quite a long line for the taxis, but it moved quite quickly and soon we were in the taxi. The distance was actually not too far, but we hit a bit of a snag. I had conveniently forgotten that it was the 1st May, which is Labour Day in continental Europe. In the UK, this is not observed and I had kind of forgotten all about it. Not only is this a public holiday in continental Europe if it falls on weekday, but there are usually a lot of demonstrations. We got tangled up in a few of those and after our driver tried various detours to get us to our destination, he had to give up. Fortunately we were not far away and we decided to just walk the rest of the way. Graham went to speak to the policeman who was guarding the entrance of the road while I paid the taxi driver. While this happened, I got very much reminded that traffic in Paris is all about the survival of the fittest. While I paid the driver, my hand luggage that I was carrying on my shoulder, was hit by the mirror of a passing car. Fortunately due to heavy traffic, there was not much impact and the bag absorbed most of this. It still shook me up a little. Once I had paid, I went over to Graham who had directions to our hotel. So we set off.
) in Cornwall and the South West. And my ex-boyfriend is from Hereford, so I got to know that area there quite well. But there are so many other regions I want to visit and explore, but the exchange rate really has not been friendly for European visitors for a long time now... And with current events, I truly hope that the outcome on June 23rd will not give cause for a lot of change in that regard!!
