Day 7

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After a very hot night in Paris we woke up to a day promising to be no cooler. In fact it was likely to be a scorcher and we were not tooo unhappy to be leaving for London. After our last delicious breakfast at the Altona, we had showers and packed. We left the hotel at 9am and received sad looks from the mad brothers and a "Bon Voyage" from the black guy who did the night shift on reception. I wish I had asked them if I could take a photo of them.

We dragged our bags down the street the half kilometer or so to Gare du Nord and checked in at the Eurostar departure. There was a passport control where an unsmiling British woman enquired as to the purpose of our visit to England. We had to fill out departure cards and an older official looking guy came up and laughingly suggested that as they had spent so much money putting in nice tables for us, the least we could do was use them to press on! I jokingly explained that we were from NZ and we were used to "making do." A few minutes later the same guy turned up and insisted that we move to the head of the adjacent queue. A move that did not win us any friends with the other people waiting but it was a lovely thing for him to do. We passed through to a little departure lounge where we waited for about half an hour. Kristy had a wander round the duty free shops. At 9.53am we were allowed to board the train. We dragged our increasingly heavy bags down a travelator and onto coach 04 which was, not too surprisingly, 4th from the front. The train was really nice. Cool and comfortable. We stowed our heavy bags on a luggage rack at the end of our carriage and smaller bags went in overhead lockers. At precisely 10.13am (the exact time on the schedule) were were underway. We spent over an hour on French soil which I was really delighted about. The countryside was interesting. Not too dissimilar to NZ with the irrigation and fields of crops. The most different thing was the little villages, each with a stone church.

We only spent a matter of minutes under the channel. In fact, for a while, I thought it was just another tunnel. I was a bit surprised but it actually makes sense as the channel is not that wide. Before we knew it we were on UK soil. It was such an exciting moment. I was filled with a deep sense of thrill and contentment at being in the home of my ancestry for the first time in my life. Such a special moment. I will never forget.

The train arrived at St Pancras International Station at exactly 11.28am. We were most impressed with the efficient schedule. First stop was the toilet and then we waited in a fairly long queue for a taxi. We chatted to a woman from New York while we waited. She worked at a university there.

We finally got a taxi - it was marvellous. It had no seat next to the driver - that's where the bags went. We sat in a very spacious back. The traffic was really busy but seemed a bit more orderly and less manic than in Paris. We eventually arrived at our hotel in Surrey Gardens. the taxi ride cost 13.50 pounds which I thought was pretty reasonable. We were pleasantly surprised by our room as it had not received brilliant reviews we had read. The room was very small but looked nice and clean. We carted our bags up to room 306 which opened with an electronic card.

After a short rest we set off for a walk. The weather was great. Quite a bit cooler than Paris which we found a bit surpsing as they are not that geographically distant from each other. First stop was a little cafe where we had some yummy fish and chips - compulsory fare in London we thought! After lunch we carried on and walked through Hyde Park. We stopped and admired Albert's lavish memorial, the Royal Albert Hall and finally arrived at Harrods which is every bit as lavish and sumptuous as we had anticipated. Coats for 1500 pounds, shoes for 350 pounds. Even a bra was 92 pounds. A little beyond our budget pockets! We did discover that they were having a sale though - after considerable hunting we managed to find some underwear cheap enough for our limited means. You have to buy something from Harrods!

By then our feet were really feeling the pain so we decided to head back to our hotel via the underground. After our considerable experience on the metro we felt that the underground couldn't be too hard to manage. We got quite a shock when we had to pay 4 pounds each for a ticket! Pretty jaw dropping. We probably need an Oyster card or something but not sure it will be worth it for just 3 days. We'll look into the options tomorrow.

After recovering from the shock of the ticket price we managed to navigate the train system without any trouble and got ourselves back to Paddington Station which we worked out from our London map, was the nearest to the hotel. I had bought a map of London in Palmerston North before we left NZ and it proved to be a fantastic help.

We stopped at a small supermarket and and bought a bit of bread, cheese and fruit and finally staggered home at 6pm. Not sure how many times I have said it but travelling is exhausting!

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