Chunnel and London arrival Sept 5

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Day 13, 9/05 - train from Paris to London
Not much to report today. And I have time to write! Lost an hour, so it feels like 9:30, when here it's 8;30, and have already had dinner and done my laundry. This is the shifting day, and the going home day or on to other things for everyone. It's been a fun group of people - lots of good humor, and a really good tour guide.

Wake up at 7:45 a.m., but I was already up and on the way to brkfst when the phone rang. Suitcases out at 8:30 (people going home from Paris had much earlier times), and then on to the bus at 9:30 to go to Gare du Nord to catch Eurostar. Mario drove the scenic route thru city center, so we had views of many main sights (or sites, in this case), again. “Oh well, there's the Eiffel Tower again, ho hum” - but not really. I suppose the millions of people who live here (Paris traffic is frightening and hilarious) get used to it, tho. It's really quite big and seen from many angles.

We hung around standing on the concrete (or in my case sitting on a curb) at the station waiting for another group for some time after our suuitcases had been collected. Emptied our water bottles for security (shouldn't have done that, tho). Went thru French and British customs in station in Paris. Free RR/WC and time to get a snack for the train ride - it's about 2 hours, no warning when going thru the Chunnel. We got to the hotel about 2:30, and of course it was raining (got a little sprinkled on in Paris as well). Can't complain tho about the weather - expected rain in UK anyway, and we had fantastic weather for two weeks on the continent.

Forgot to keep a few Euros for the train station so bought about E3,00 from an NC co-tourite for $5.00 so I could get a drink for the train (Orangina, pretty refreshing). It's tricky to plan the money right, so you have enough for whatever country, without much left over, especially coins that are hard to exchange.

Got settled in; it will be nice to be in one place for a few days. Walked out to see local neighborhood - there's a handy drug store, and a grocery store, and lots of other shops. Hotel is a huge convention hotel, but so far, no wireless signal. Business center doesn't have capability of burning CDs/DVDs from my camera's SD cards (major darn).

Had beer and nice dinner with couple from Australia that I came back from Venice with - they've been good company and fun, altho they can't do all the extra stuff. They leave in the morning. I had salmon again - this was good, much better than last night in Paris (which was very dry, overcooked, just like the lamb the night before - not impressed with food in France; it was the worst of the trip so far - and I'm not the only one who's said that).

Did some more laundry, using the hangers I brought along - that seems to be working better for me than the line and pegs/pins. I tried to follow the “Pack light” advice, but I didn't bring enough clothes, and brought too much food and toilet supplies (the food partly because it fit into all the little spaces in the suitcase - it has certainly come in handy, but have more than I think I'll need).
The tuna snack pack was handy again for lunch today after we got to the hotel; on the train I snacked on some more of the small baguette and roquefort cheese I picked up in Paris yesterday, when the restaurant wasn't open at the hotel.

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