July 18 – The Chunnel Train to London

We were up pretty early today, got a quick breakfast and then checked out.  The original plan was to catch a taxi to the Gare du Nord to catch our train to London.  Unfortunately, for some reason no taxi’s at all were available.  So, we walked to the nearest Metro stop and lugged the luggage down the stairs.  Liam would wait with the first load of luggage while Paul went back up to help Mary with hers.  Most of the Paris metro stations do not have elevators or escalators.  What a pain.

Our trip had one required change of trains at Chatelet.  That station had some escalators but mostly stairs which helped only a bit.  We made it to Gare du Nord in plenty of time and eventually boarded our train to London.

We were in business class, so they gave us (another) breakfast.  We all enjoyed the fruit and croissants…and then they came by with a couple of selections hot dishes.  We were all full by then so declined. 

Our transfer driver was waiting for at the station.  We dropped our luggage off in her car and then went over to the St. Pancras station to see the Harry Potter Platform 9 ¾.  There was quite a line and Liam wasn’t interested in waiting so we checked out the Harry Potter shop and then headed to the hotel. 

London is having a major heat wave with temperatures at about 100⁰…well above their normal temperatures.  So it was a very hot walk when we headed out for lunch at an almost nearby Gourmet Burger Kitchen for their burgers and amazing chocolate milk shakes. 

We didn’t get out to do anything else the rest of the day.