Tag:stairs
It was time to head from London to Paris via the Eurostar through the Channel. We had a transfer arranged already thanks to our travel agent, and he arrived earlier than expected to load the bags. Five adults, five big suitcases, plus camera bags, small travel bags. Down those two flights of steep stairs for the (thankfully) last time.
St Pancras Station
We arrived at St Pancras Station in plenty of time and checked the luggage through to Paris. Then it was our turn. Passport control out of London. Ten steps later, it was passport control into France. While still in London. Twilight zone stuff. After clearing passport control, we then battled through airport security. I understand that they have to be careful, and I am glad they are. But geez, I was so over doing a semi strip at every security counter. Passing through the barrier and hoping it stayed green, thus avoiding the pat-down. Then retrieving everything once through. While they open the bag, checking the camera’s, looking in every pocket. “do you have any more camera’s or electronics”?? no! isn’t this enough? Came, lenses, iPad, iPhone. Road trips are starting to look so good.
With the early arrival of the cabbie, we had about 90mins to wait after getting through passport and security. We were on the 10:24 to Paris, not much to do, which led me to people watching.
The Channnel Tunnel
Sometimes called ‘the chunnel’, the Channel Tunnel is an undersea tunnel linking southern England and northern France. The Tunnel is 31.5 miles long, or 50.45 km, with 23.5 miles (37.9 km) of the Channel Tunnel is under the English Channel, making it the world’s longest undersea tunnel. The Eurostar travels through the Channel Tunnel at a speed of 100 miles per hour (160kph), although when the train is outside the tunnel, it reaches the rate of 186 miles per hour (300 kph). The ride was comfortable and even though we were racing along at speed. Although walking and not swaying to the buffet car was easy.
Hello Paris
London to Paris was just a two-hour journey, and we arrived in Paris again to meet our transfer driver. Booking into the hotel, we were horrified and dismayed to find the elevator in the hotel was out of order. And being a Sunday, the engineer hadn’t turned up yet. So again we lugged the suitcases up two flights of stairs to our room..and one of our party was on the FOURTH floor, though thankfully, they weren’t as narrow or as steep this time. The hotel was charming, and the rooms were lovely.
After settling in, we all met up for dinner before a reasonably early night. The following day we met up for breakfast in the ‘salon’ (using the stairs still, no one trusted the tiny elevator) before heading out for the day. We jumped on the hop-on/off the bus and made our way into the city with all the signs in french, we had no idea where we were going. Eventually, we ended up on embassy row. The US embassy is off a side street, with many other embassies and fancy shops lining the street. Soldiers with machine guns told us not to take pictures of the checkpoints (who are we to argue?). Even some doors were off-limits. Oh well. Here are some of the pics I didn’t take.
Wandering up and down, I tried some street photography before heading back to the bus and the Palais Garnier.
Paris Opera House
The Palais Garnier (Paris Opera House) is an AMAZING building. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go in, but the exterior! OMG. Built from 1861 – 1875, the 1,979-seat theatre was designed to house the Paris opera. The building is a blend of baroque, classicism and renaissance architecture. I could so see the phantom of the opera haunting the place.
Leaving the Opera House, we jumped back on the hop of/off the bus, headed back to the hotel for some downtime before heading back out to dinner.
It didn’t always go to plan
On our third day in London, we were due to do a Stonehenge and Bath tour. All five of us were (we thought) on the same tour. A cab was booked to pick us all up at 7 am and take us to the tour collection point. At 6.45 am we realised that our tickets show TWO different drop off points. Same destination – but different tours.
Cabbie decided to drop off the three at their pickup point for an 8.30 am departure – then took us to our drop off point for an 8 am departure. And naturally – we didn’t make it in time. While the others were still waiting for their bus to go, ours had gone. No refunds for missed buses, money done. Cue anger and frustration. We went for a very grumpy breakfast while we took stock of what to do with our day now.
Saved by the tour agent
After pulling up the big girl panties, we decided to start with the hop on hop off bus and take it from there. While we were on the bus back in Australia Benjamin Lord of Expert Class Travel had seen our post bemoaning our missed bus, and had pulled the iron out of the fire. Benjamin gave me a call and offered to rebook us onto a tour the next day, to which we readily agreed. He then booked us on the Bath/Stonehenge tour at no cost to, us which was extremely generous and him. So we decided we would change our ticket for the Tower of London from tomorrow, to today and visit the tower.
Riding around on the hop on/off bus, we rode around for a while and got off at Tower Bridge.
The Tower
We wandered around and over the bridge and down to the Tower of London on the opposite bank. By the time we arrived, it was already packed. It was term holidays in London. And considering it was a glorious sunny day, even the locals were out. The lovely lady at the ticket booth changed our ticket without a hassle, and we entered the tower.
The tower was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. It’s amazing (to me) that the building is so old… old buildings in Australia are around 200yrs yrs old. This one was over a thousand! Loved the building and the architecture – but I must say I was very unimpressed with everything else. I expected rooms set up like it was in the day.. and while there was a couple – there wasn’t many.
The queues for anything were miles long (or so it seemed). I wanted to see the torture room – but that had a queue extending back to harrods.. and the queue for the Crown Jewels went almost back to the airport.
Characters in costume
Adding to the historical tone of the tower were several costumed actors, strolling around. They reenacted various events regularly. Sir Walter Raleigh on his way to the scaffold. Queen Elizabeth I as young woman was kept there, a courtier, a Lady in Waiting etc., I loved the characters in costume 🙂
Hop on/of bus
Leaving the Tower we headed back to the Hop-On/Off bus stop. And then got promptly got lost. So we walked all over and eventually found the stop for the bus before changing routes at another stop to get on the red line hop on/off. Finally arriving at Harrods Department Store.
Harrods
The store was massive and expensive! Up on the Christmas floor 2 metres of tinsel was 25 pounds (around $50!) The deli floor was fabulous. I loved the way they all dressed like back in Mr Selfridges time LOL
