Friday-April 22

It’s happening. I’m thinking in French. I don’t know what the hell I’m thinking, but it’s definitely French.

I got to sleep in a little this morning. We had a lazy breakfast, and a slow walk over to Disney Studios. No matter how much I pouted, stomped my feet and pleaded, the answer was “no!” to my going on the Rockin’ Roller Coaster. I had looked forward to this since we planned our trip, since the same ride in Florida is a favorite of mine. Emily was not quite tall enough to ride it anyway, so she and I walked around, shopped, and waited for Scott and Sarah to finish their joy ride.

My family helped me take it very easy today, and we had a nice, relaxing day. I think that all of us needed it with the busy routine of the past few days. Plus, we need to get up very early again tomorrow, to get to our train to take us to the bus that will take us to the train that will take us to London where we’ll get a bus and tour the city. (Somewhere in there is the house that Jack built.)

A nice relaxed dinner, an immediate decision on my part to reduce my intake of food (so I only ate half of the delicious steak and the rest of my dinner, plus I was talked into getting dessert, but didn’t finish that either), and we walked back to our hotel. We have to pack to leave, since we’ll get back so late from London tomorrow night. So, I have a bunch of stuff packed (the dirty clothes), and have picked out our clothing for tomorrow’s adventure. (Yawn)

Saturday, April 23

Today, again we got up at 4:30; left the hotel at 5:30, got the train at 6:00. Well, not really. We were told the first train left at 6am, but it in fact left at 5:40. So, we waited ‘till 6:15 for the next train. It’s Saturday—it’s not the regular service. Wish we’d known.

The 6:15 came and we got on, and my dear husband stressed the whole trip about whether or not we’d make this bus ride to get to the chunnel. I had let the women at the counter know, when we paid for the trip, that we’d be a few minutes late. So, I wasn’t too worried. We got into the station at 6:55 (the bus is supposed to leave at 7:00), and Scott was shaking, he seemed so nervous that we would not get to the bus company in time.

I knew the way to the company, so when we got off the Metro, I led us to it. There is a story about the failed Thursday expedition, our tour “guide” and going the wrong way to the station, but I’ll tell that another time, maybe. We were there in 7 minutes. The ladies were ready for us; we used the facilities quickly, and they led us to our bus. Whew! I don’t know why I wasn’t stressed about it and Scott was; maybe it was the Alprazolam I took the night before. 8^)

We got to see some more of Paris while on the way to the Eurostar train station. It took about 15 minutes to get to Gare du Nord, the train station to catch the Eurostar. We got on the train, in our luxurious first class accommodations. The girls were starving, so I stopped at a café bar in the station for croissants, cocoa, and coffee for the four of us. Little did I know that a full breakfast would be served en route on the train. We had a smooth train ride and a great breakfast! Lots of carbs to keep us warm! Plus fresh squeezed orange juice! We had a table to read, write, play games, or to fold if we wanted to stretch out and take a little nap.

The train left the station, and began a beautifully scenic path to the English Channel at Calais, through a dark tunnel for 20 minutes, and surfaces at Ashford, England, finishing the route at Waterloo Station in London. How cool! Only 2-1/2 hours from Paris to London and no boat ride, and no flying!

As we waited for others from the original bus ride to gather with our “guide,” a purser from the train approached me and said my gloves had been left on the train. I attempted to re-board the train, but was stopped by security, saying that once off the train, no one was allowed back on due to security and customs. I had to go to Customer Service, alert them, and someone would bring my gloves to me. So I did exactly that. I was not going to leave my expensive Italian leather, cashmere-lined best ever gloves on that train! Within two minutes, they arrived, and I was easily able to catch up with the group. The “guide” told us to be back at the station at 5:30, briefly explained the particular tour bus system we would be taking, and disappeared as if he were boarding Harry Potter’s train.

The four of us took a double-decker bus tour of London, not only because we wanted to look like the typical American tourists with our umbrellas and cameras, but because we wanted Sarah and Emily to see as much of London as they possibly could in one day. Not an easy task, but we were able to get off the bus and back on at any stop we found interesting.

We got to see a lot, including the Millenium Ferris Wheel, a magnificent work, towering higher than nearly any building in the city, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Royal Palace, including front and back views, plus the dowager “cottage” that was bigger than anywhere I have ever lived, as well as The Tower of Big Ben. It was very crowded, I suppose because it was the weekend, but we managed to enjoy the city anyway.

At the Tower of London, Scott and Sarah got off the bus, and while Emily and I tried and tried to get round all the people, we could not get off in time. When we finally got down to the driver, and let him know we needed to get off, he graciously stopped at the nearest opportunity, told us where to walk to find the Tower, and off we went. We easily reunited with Scott and Sarah, and all went off together to find lunch.

The girls were ecstatic—they found a Burger King! I found a “tea” complete with scone, tea and a biscuit (cookie) with a piece of fresh fruit and yes, clotted cream. Scott got fish and chips which he really enjoyed. We were all very happy.

Off we went to explore. Yes, we went to the gift shop, and did some quick shopping (Yikes! $2 US to £1!—that’s why the shopping was rather quick).

We walked around the outside of the Tower, and found our way to a boat that took us up and down the Thames River, which was quite a nice and unexpected adventure. I had punted on the Thames in Oxford, but had not been on the Thames in London before. We got a lot of information about the Loft district on the banks of the river, plus great stories of historical nature about some of the locations on the banks. We got off the boat at the Millenium Ferris Wheel, intending to ride on it, but we had 45 minutes to get back to Waterloo, and with the lines to buy tickets plus to get on the Wheel, it would have been more than an hour. We took this as a nice excuse to visit London again, and began our walk to Waterloo Station.

I was quite tired. We got ourselves some dinner-type snacks and boarded our train for the return to Paris. I managed to finish writing the postcards on this train ride as well as get some sleep. I hope to get them mailed so they won’t get to their destinations too much later than we return home.

This day was great! No falls, no slips, no heart attacks, not too much crying/whining, it was great.

We got back to our hotel at about 10:30. We had to finish packing. So, I put everyone to bed so I could pack everything for us and be ready for our flight home the next day.

At about o:dark:thirty, I got to bed, but we were all packed and the travel clothes chosen. I was pretty proud of myself for fitting everything, clothes, souvenirs, shoes, everything into the bags we had brought. We didn’t have to buy a new bag, nor would we have to carry one too much to the plane! Yippee!!