Traveling over country borders via train was something I’ve only seen in the movies (like in James Bond movies). Little did I know that it was common among Europeans. Riding the EuroStar from Gard-du-Nord to St. Pancras International Station was scintillating experience. For starters, the train travels at speed over 300 kph. It crosses the France-U.K. border underwater! It took us about two and a half hours to travel from Paris to London. Now I can truly say…”I had breakfast in Paris and lunch in London”.
Just like in Paris, we used public transportation to go around London. We use the “Underground” (subway) from St. Pancras to Waterloo. We took a taxi from Waterloo Station to our hotel which to our cab driver’s disappointment was a couple of blocks away (no more than 200 meters).
We went to Trafalgar Sq. and the National Gallery on our first day. We walked around the area of the London Eye which was close to our hotel. It was raining the following day but it didn’t dampen our enthusiasm to visit the Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Transportation Museum, and the HMS Belfast. By the end of this day, we were exhausted. Not having roaming data on our phone, we were not able to locate Wagamama close to our hotel. We sent a text message to our son telling him of our location and he sent back a text message where the restaurant is located which was less than 100 meters where we were. Amazing use of technology.
We also visited the Windsor Castle. It is obvious that the queen wasn’t there because the flight pattern to Heathrow was going through Windsor. Commercial planes are in landing pattern every 2-3 minutes. We got to ride the London Eye, too. The tour guide said that there is a special cage for wedding at the gigantic ferris wheel. It takes over 30 minutes to go around. You get a good view of London when you get to the top.
On our last day, we visited the Buckingham Palace during the Changing of the Guard ceremony. We thought it was just a couple of platoons just like in Ottawa but it turns out it included 3 companies of their armed forces. It was a majestic parade of soldiers and some horses.
I enjoyed our flight back home. The plane was an A330, bigger than the one we took flying to CDG. We left Gatwick before lunch time and arrived at Pearson late afternoon. Going through customs (via airport) was a new experience for me. It was my first time to fly back to Canada! Passports and customs documents were scanned. It was a great trip.