Well, we made it to London - Just made the train. A series of unfortunates combined to work against our planned time table. The first was that the taxi took ages to arrive (though probably we should have been ready earlier) Then the nasty Paris traffic conspired to make us later and then there was a bomb scare at the station. What surprised us the most however was that even though the UK is part of the EU, there is strict  passport checking.

We ended up with the group of people getting the next train and realised our trouble. It didn't matter to Stan and I as we were staying in London, But Mum and Dave had to get a connecting train. They were UK citizens, so we told them to hurry on the train and not worry about us, but that wasn't easy either because of Dave's temporary passport issued from Amsterdam. But they got through in time.

An official felt sorry for us and let us join the line for UK citizens, but we ended behind someone with passport issues. The passport man yelled at me for not standing in the correct place in line and we were sure the train had gone....Then it all turned around... The man apologised to me when it was our turn, a lady arrived asking if anyone was anyone was still in the line who was meant to be on our train. About 6 people responded....Come with me she says. We scurried after her as if our life depended on it.

Debates and arguments were happening all around us, some complaining the train should have left, some wanting to make sure the station was safe, we just scurried after our saviour. Run she said once she pointed our train out to us and run we did.

Made it - just as the train pulled out of the station. When we looked up we are on the carriage we are meant to be on, with Mum and Dave in the next seats. Needless to say...I enjoyed the beer once we made it through the queue.

We travelled 2nd class on this train, the First class was too expensive considering how short the trip was, but I wonder if the First class people had their own kiosk, as the line we were in was very long and they had run out of parts of the menu very early.

Once in London, we found the train that took us to our hotel. It was the same one Mum and Dave needed to take them to the Victoria Bus Station.

Our hotel was amazing. Stan weakened and let me upgrade to the iconic view room. It's just a clock says he...but once in the room, even he appreciated it.

Once it was dark we headed out and enjoyed the views offered by the London Eye. We later chose badly for dinner, think it was the All Bar One. The food was excellent, but it was a Friday night and we were surrounded by drunken teenage dramas.