Friday
Not much to report today – we have moved to another country!!
Had an early breakfast then checked out by 9 am. Taxi waiting to take us to St Pancras – still had some money left on our Oyster card, but I decided the taxi would be the less stressful option @ 20 pound. The whole Eurostar operation is very efficient and operates from the fabulously renovated station. Checked in thru passport control and then sat with the hundreds waiting to go to either Paris or Brussels. Train scheduled to leave at 11.01 am and it did and arrived bang on time to the minute.
The seats were comfortable and loads of room and the toilet twice the size of the airplane toilets. We took some lunch and ate that on the train and read our books most of the way. The actual tunnel only takes about 25 minutes, so it is mostly overground. However, on the England side there were several tunnels to go through and both Paul and I had trouble with our ears. We didn’t realise how fast we were going until we were going parallel to a motorway and the cars looked like they were almost stopped.
Jan and Kevin were waiting at Gard de Nord to meet us – they had been out and about and got the Metro back to our apartment.
Jan and Kevin had warned us that the apartment was not exactly as it appeared to be – a lot smaller and 3 flights of stairs. Paul and I are up the top with a generous shower and wash basin, J & K down the next floor with double bed, washhouse and tiny bathroom, then down to the main living area, with a reasonable size kitchen compared with the bathrooms! The only trouble is the only toilet is on the ground floor of the flat, down 3 flights of very precarious steps. Not sure what we will do in the middle of the night! Necessity may prove to be the mother of invention!!
We all went for an ‘orientation’ walk around the area. Not the most salubrious area, but loads of restaurants close by.
Not sure what we are doing tomorrow = watch this space.
Raining here again after a lovely start to the day..