The Eurostar

This morning we had a very quick visit back to Disneyland Park as it doesn't open till 10am. It was very short really at around an hour, not enough to queue for anything but enough time to walk around and enjoy the spectacle and the excitement of people arriving for the first time. We've had such a great time at Disneyland. Thank you Linda for all your recommendations for visiting Disneyland Paris. Your suggestions were just right for us. We caught the train back into central Paris and changed trains to get up to Gare du Nord. We had another accordion player on one leg of the journey. The Eurostar train is such an easy way to travel between London and Paris. You only have to check in 30 minutes before traveling and you pass through immigration and customs just after the check in point. So we got a stamp in our passports for leaving France, walked 10 meters and got an arrival stamp for the UK even though we were still in France. It made it so simple when we arrived in London as basically you just hop off the train and leave the international section and head out into the main train station at St Pancras. The Eurostar travels at 300kilometres per hour and so it only took 2 hours and 15 minutes to travel between Paris and London. Much faster than flying if you include the traveling to the airport and 3 hour check in time! We had first class tickets and it was just bliss. We got a meal served at our seats, had lovely big comfy chairs and clean toilets. We'd highly recommend travelling first class on the Eurostar. We got to London at 4pm local time (just had to wind our watches back one hour) and caught a black cab to our hotel. We are staying in Euston tonight and we went walking after we'd checked in. Turned out we'd gone wandering along Tottenham Court Road and unbeknownst to me we'd turned around to walk back just before Oxford Street. I only found out when I bought the London A to Z! We stopped and had dinner at a Cafe Nero! Haven't been there for at least 8 years. It used to be my favourite coffee shop when we were living in London. It was good to have a latte as we know them in NZ - a cafe latte is quite different in Italy and France. It's great to be in a country I know and in an English speaking country again. I'm so looking forward to having the rest of this week exploring and travelling as we please. We have the Harry Potter tour in the morning and then I pick up the rental car after lunch. We are catching up with some families whose children I used to teach at Dundonald School in the early evening. Can't wait to see the girls all grown up! I taught them when they were just starting school and they are 16 years old now! Love to you all, Deb & Finn