To London

Woke up to a grey, drizzling day today. Packed up and out of the apartment at 8:30 for another morning of lugging cases up and down stairs as we made our way to the metro and then to Gare du Nord station.

Filled in our immigration cards at the station and went through border control before getting on the train – had a lovely chat with the guy checking our passports who commented on what a wonderful holiday our girls must be having especially having started in Norway and how we wouldn’t be having a usual hot Christmas this year. Lauren sat and played on the piano that was there for anyone to use in the departures area and then it was time to board the train. We had a rapid train ride to London – only took just over 2 hours and we left Paris right on

time. It was a bit rocky at times – made walking down the train to the dining cart for a coffee a little bit challenging – I don’t think the track is well enough designed for a train that is going at over 200km/hr but it wasn’t a bad way of doing this leg of the journey.
From St Pancras we got on the underground to Victoria station and then walked to our hotel for the night – had ironically booked into the Sidney Hotel. It was a bit of a longer walked than we thought it was going to be especially dragging suitcases so we were rather warm when we arrived. We had left the rain behind in Paris and, even though the skies were grey, it was fine. Checked in but couldn’t go to our room as we were a bit early so we left our bags in storage and hopped on the bus from right outside our hotel door into the centre of

London.

We went past Downing Street and Westminster Abbey before alighting at Trafalgar Square, which was teaming with people. I felt really excited to be back in this bustling city again, filled with so much history and many iconic sights. We had coffee in a café overlooking Trafalgar Square and then decided to go for a walk around the streets, soaking up the atmosphere and admiring the Christmas lights. On the way we stopped to collect our London Pass which we had organised before leaving Mandurah and needed to pick up near the Garrick Theatre. By 3:30pm it was starting to get a little bit dark and trying to drizzle with rain so the Christmas lights were all starting to come on and it looked beautiful. We stopped and watched a street performer near Leicester Square – he was very good with his magic tricks and constant patter to keep the crown entertained. There was a pop up Christmas market in Leicester Square so we had a walk around that then continued on Regent Street. Stopped for a drink in a bar down a laneway off Regent Street and watched the world go by for a little while then decided we were ready to head back to the hotel. Jumped back on the bus rather than the underground so that we could see some sights along the way – very novel for us to ride upstairs on the double decker red London bus! After checking into our room and having a bit of time to relax we walked to a nearby pub for dinner. Had a lovely meal and then headed back to the hotel for bed