Chunnel to London- Sunday, July 21, 2013

We got all our backpacks packed again, including whatever goodies we got from Disney.  Julie found her jammies as she was packing his morning.   She thought the maid had taken them, but we assured her that the maid wouldn't want those.   She used it as an excuse to buy Disney jammies last night.  We had hotel breakfast early, and took the bus to the station.  We left early mainly because we didn't want to be hauling all of our backpacks on the bus when it was full of people going to Disney.  As we sat in the station, Anna and Emma wrote the postcards that they had bought.

We took the train to the Lille Europe station, where we would catch the train to London.   We liked the first train seats better than airplane seats.  We faced each other and had a table that could fold out in between us.  The ride started so smoothly, we were surprised to find that we were moving.
At the Lille Europe stations, we had to move quickly because we only had about a half hour.  We passed through French security first, where they stamped our passports, and the British customs officials immediately behind them who did the same.  They were all friendly, but next came the security scanners.  The girls laughed when Dad kept getting stopped by the scanner and he kept putting more things in the tray.  He forgot his money belt, some batteries in his pocket, his glasses...   Anna said that after the second time of passing through the scanner, the security guys were looking pretty annoyed.

Our second train was set up more like an airplane, but still had decent headrests on the seats.  A few of us nodded off while we were riding.   The Chunnel itself was almost not interesting.  We passed through it in roughly twenty minutes (though we didn't time it), and came out in England.  Julie had been nervous about the tunnel and her claustrophobia, but she just read a book through the trip and said it didn't bother her.  Now we've all added the United Kingdom to the list of countries we've visited.

When we arrived in London we were at St. Pancras Station, and it was shortly after 1:00 (London time, which is 2:00 Paris time).  We had a few things to take care of after customs, including getting some British pounds at the ATM.   We knew that we were near the famous "Platform 9 3/4" from Harry Potter, and Scott was tempted to look for the photo op, but everyone else wanted to make our way to the hotel so we could dump the bags.  We looked at the line of people waiting for taxis and it was very long.  We remembered that we had paid for "Oyster Cards," which are like debit cards for the London subway system, and figured that we could manage it.  Before we did, we saw a Burger King and had a late lunch.  Julie took a tumble when she didn't see a step down on her way out the door.  It looked worse then it was, though, and she doesn't seem to be seriously hurt. 

We made it to our hotel, which is even closer to the London Eye than our first one was to the Eiffel Tower.  Unfortunately, London is having a bit of a heat wave, and since it's unusual for the area, there isn't air conditioning in the hotel.  There isn't an ice machine either, just like there wasn't one in our last hotel.  We are really missing ice.   Naps and rest were in order for a little while.

We all got going again after 5:00, and we went around corner to the Eye.  It seemed like a great way to get started in London.  We got our tickets and saw a 4-D preview movie of a seagul flying over the sights of London, which was nice.  Then, we had two little girls that needed dinner, so we went to a nearby restaurant which seemed to be called, "Enough to Feed an Elephant," to get something quick.  We stopped in the neighboring gift shop where Anna bought two iPhone cases with London scenes on them to go with the one she got in Paris.   Then we made our way back to the Eye.

The Eye was fun.  After a quick moving line, you step into the big glass bubble with several other groups, but the wheel doesn't stop turning.  You get taken around the circuit once, which is supposed to take about a half hour (though we didn't time it).  The view is great, and is dominated by the Houses of Parliament and "Big Ben," across the Thames from us.    It's what Rick Steves calls the "Wow, I'm really in London view."  We saw Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral quite plainly, though there was not much else we could identify without the key.    

We were "hoping" to do some laundry tonight, but being Sunday, that's a problem.  Julie and Scott went back to the souvenir store to buy some shirts to get us through tomorrow.  We stopped at a nearby 24-hour store to get some drinks and snacks (We didn't have one near us in France, that we knew of).  While waiting in the hotel bar to see if we could get some ice, we did catch the awards for the Tour d'France and the lights on the Arc de Triomphe.  We just missed that (thankfully, but the lights DID make it look cool).  In other news- The Great Kate Wait?  She's Late.