Thursday, October 20, 2011
London, England
The reviews of the hotel we stayed in last night, accessed by booking.com, were uniformly bad. But our experience was not, aided in part by us being exhausted on arrival and falling asleep easily. The bar across the street was very loud, very late, as stated in the reviews, but we were on the fifth floor and with the window closed we hardly heard it. From the second floor, in the heat of summer when the window must be open, yes it would have been rough. But last night was fine.
Out the door just at checkout at noon, then walking the ten minutes down the street to Gare du Nord. We already had our tickets so nothing to do for two hours but go have lunch, which we did. Then into line to go through the passport control, then into the waiting room. In due course, on the train and into the second to last seat in the last car, seats 74 and 78 in carriage number 18. An eventless ride, the kind you like at 260km/h, losing one hour along the way from Paris to London, the journey taking 2 3/4 hours of body clock time but with the clock change only 1 3/4 hours of apparent time.
Once in London at King's Cross/St. Pancras station we quickly found a cab and headed off to Leanne at Moorgate as arranged. We got there and she was waiting on the side of the street and jumped in the cab almost on the fly, and we scooted off to Balham and Laitwood Road.
Finally inside and up the stairs with our bags and with Leanne's help, we were 'home' at last. Our gifts from the road, including the Grappa and desert wine, were trotted out later in the evening. Then, the end of the road, end of this journey, and perhaps the end of this kind of travelling for us. For now, anyway.
