September 7

Paris to London

We were up early - taxi ordered for 7:00 to get us through rush hour traffic to Gare du Nord for the Eurostar for London.  Signed out at the hotel and the breaky we believed was included wasn't so we paid a whole lot for a not great meal for 2 days.  The good thing about the hotel was one of the front desk gals named Opportunie.  She gave us lots of good advice about getting around in the city.

Surprise, Parisiennes don't go to work until later.  We were accross the city in 11 minutes!  Lots of time to wait for the train.  It was so nice not to ride that metro with its long and multiple flights of stairs.  Not bad if you don't have a suitcase but a challenge when you have one trailing behind you.

What to do to kill time - eat.  Did that.  Go outside and breathe fresher air - did that.  8:14 we could check in.  First they take your ticket, then you go through customs, then they scan your bags and you are free to go to the waiting area.  We met two sisters from California, Eva and Arleen.  They were nice to talk to so the time went quickly. 

On to the Eurostar.  Wow, what a train.  So nice.  We were in the tunnel before we knew it.  The French country side was very picturesque.  Love to spend time in the countryside after I learn some more French because frankly I don't think you'd cope without it.

We were first off the train in London.  After we took a picture of our train we went underground and continued to try to figure out which was the best tube pass to buy.  A lovely girl   who works for the Underground came and gave us advice and walked us through buying an Oyster pass.  Her boyfriend is from Victoria so she was happy to tell us all about Canada.

Found our hotel.  Definitely not the nicest we've ever stayed in but adequate.  Very, very steep stairs and no lift.  We are in the basement - there is a little courtyard out our window.  We have a top sheet.  Yahoo !  not too sure about the comfort of the mattress - we will see in 1/2 hour or so.

We walked in Kensington Gardens for a bit and saw Princess Dianna's Memorial Fountain.  Very cool. You are invitied to paddle your feet and children were playing in it.  Had a pub dinner (early) and went to Leichester Square for tickets to a play.  We got tickets to Mousetrap.  I will let Roy continue from here.  It gets better!!!!  We thought it would be best to find the theatre after we bought the tickets instead of looking for it at the last minute.  The streets are a bit confusing so after a 15 minute walk around we finally found it.  It was about quarter after 6 and the show starts at 7:30 so we decided we should walk somewhere.  Linda was looking at the map and said St. James church wasn't too far.  So we stood there planning out how to get there for a few minutes.  A chauffeur was standing outside his car having a smoke.  He asked if he could help us.  We told him where we thinking of walking to and he asked for the name of the street.  We gave it to him and he said yes he knew where it was and then he thought for must have been a minute.  Give me 2 minutes he says.  I'm going that way, I will take you and give you directions how to get back here as we go.  We couldn't believe it, but in we got and he kept giving us the directions and having us repeat the directions from the beginning over and over.  The car was a Rolls Royce Phantom absolutely stunning.  H works for the Ritz.

 







When we got to the church they were just shutting the door so Winston talked the cartaker into letting us have a quick look and he agreed.  Well we got lost on the way back to the theatre despite having great directions.  Linda flagged down a taxi.  Riding a London taxi was on our todo list for this trip.  He was great, and wants to go skiing in Whistler.  When he got us to the theatre, the bill was 5.20, so I got out a 5 and was digging for some change and he says good enough, its only 20p.  Linda says buy a lotto ticket.  The Mouse trap was excellent, we finally saw it after 36 years and it was every thing they say it was.  The actors were fantastic.  Well worth the money even if we did sit in the nose bleed section.