Well, we arrived in France today guys, and I'm only blogging about London now. We've just had such a busy past week in London that's it's been hard to find the energy and time to write, but don't worry, you'll get to read about it all :) Starting now!
On the afternoon of our arrival in London (after the whole driver drama at Heathrow) we checked into our hotel, which is really nice :) It was a rather modern hotel and has very nice clean and attractive rooms. The room we were in had a double bed that Mum and Sam slept in, and two single beds (those ones that fold up into part of the wall) Dad on one and I on the other. The bathroom is very nice and the room is warm, which is lovely :) And a lovely treat was the free wifi! I especially loved that!
Once we'd settled into our room, we set off to have a look at the two stations across the road. We literally only have to walk about 3 metres to the right of our hotel door until we reach the stairs to the underground railroad. Mum got a great spot :)
We managed to find our way to the main area at King's Cross through all the hussel and bussel of the station. It's so busy all over the city. You don't even know what a city is until you have been here, it's manic, and that applies to the stations too. It's crazy, but rather exciting. We managed to navigate our way over to St. Pancreas Station. There was actually shops throughout a large portion of the station, which was suprising. It had things like wine tasting bars, cafes, clothes stores, gift wrapping stores, restaurants and almost a whole market lined up a long one long wall. I've never seen anything like it in a train station! We also had a peak at the entrance to the Eurostar (the international train that goes from England to France).
We travelled up the escalator, onto the next level up from the shops and was suprised to see a wedding occuring! They had the full orchestra and all. We were lucky enough to see the happy couple walking down the ailse, the first time as a married couple :) I personally would not have my wedding in a massive train station, but it was still pretty awesome haha.
We travelled up the escalator, onto the next level up from the shops and was suprised to see a wedding occuring! They had the full orchestra and all. We were lucky enough to see the happy couple walking down the ailse, the first time as a married couple :) I personally would not have my wedding in a massive train station, but it was still pretty awesome haha.
On the same level we saw a very large statue of a man and women kissing. We assumed it was to signify some kind of cliche fairwell or coming home, at a train station (you know, all hollywood style...) but we spoke to a lovely elderly couple who explained to us that it was to signify the soldiers of WWII saying goodbye to their wives and families at the train station when they were being sent to country areas. You know, like at the beginning Narnia? I thought it was rather nice :)
That same couple got chatting to Dad and before we knew it we were being lead across the road, through busy crowds, all the way back to King's Cross. The man told us about an old steam train they had seen come in only about 20 minutes earlier. He explained that it this wasn't a usually occurence and it wouldn't be too long until it came back again and that it was worth waiting for. Mum and I weren't too fussed, but Dad and Sam were very keen on seeing the train. So we waited... and waited. A train pulled in... but Dad said it wasn't the one we wanted to see. So to pass the time Mum and I went for a walk and located a special Harry Potter platform 9 & 3/4 thing that they had put in a random place on platform 8 (I know right.. you at least would have though that they could have put it somewhere on platform 9). When we returned to the boys, no steam train was in sight, just the one that was there before. So we showed the boys the Harry Potter thing, but decided to come back and take photos another time due to the massive cue.
On our way back to the platform, that the steam train was apparenly going to arrive at, Dad talked to a railway employee and found out the train that "wasn't the right train" turned out to be the back of the steam train! So we had waited for all that time for no reason haha. Oh well, we found the fake platform 9 & 3/4 :)
We all walked down the very slippery and long platform and stood down right at the very front of the train, along with many train enthusiests. Many cameras were flashing away and video cameras were out too, but unfortunately we hadn't bought our cameras as we were just going to check out the stations, we didn't expect this! But oh well we have the memories :) It was very loud and busy, but was pretty cool and the boys especially enjoyed it. My level of enthusiasm however was not even close to the fanatics around me. I made the mistake of saying to Mum (quite loudly by the way, due to the noise of the train) "We better move back a bit and let the people who actually like trains get a good view." ....I recieved a fair few dirty looks from the people around us because of that. My bad.
Once the train left, we decided that we would just use the Maccas down the road from our hotel for dinner. I'm not a big fan of the whole Maccas thing and neither is Mum, but it was a quick, easy and cheap solution to feeling hungry and tired.
We had had a long day by that point and just wanted to get rested and start a new and better day, exploring the beautiful city of London :) Which you will hear about over the next few days when I get everything back up to date :)
Goodnight my Australian friends & family! I must be getting to sleep, I have a big day in Paris tomorrow!
Love you all
x
That same couple got chatting to Dad and before we knew it we were being lead across the road, through busy crowds, all the way back to King's Cross. The man told us about an old steam train they had seen come in only about 20 minutes earlier. He explained that it this wasn't a usually occurence and it wouldn't be too long until it came back again and that it was worth waiting for. Mum and I weren't too fussed, but Dad and Sam were very keen on seeing the train. So we waited... and waited. A train pulled in... but Dad said it wasn't the one we wanted to see. So to pass the time Mum and I went for a walk and located a special Harry Potter platform 9 & 3/4 thing that they had put in a random place on platform 8 (I know right.. you at least would have though that they could have put it somewhere on platform 9). When we returned to the boys, no steam train was in sight, just the one that was there before. So we showed the boys the Harry Potter thing, but decided to come back and take photos another time due to the massive cue.
On our way back to the platform, that the steam train was apparenly going to arrive at, Dad talked to a railway employee and found out the train that "wasn't the right train" turned out to be the back of the steam train! So we had waited for all that time for no reason haha. Oh well, we found the fake platform 9 & 3/4 :)
We all walked down the very slippery and long platform and stood down right at the very front of the train, along with many train enthusiests. Many cameras were flashing away and video cameras were out too, but unfortunately we hadn't bought our cameras as we were just going to check out the stations, we didn't expect this! But oh well we have the memories :) It was very loud and busy, but was pretty cool and the boys especially enjoyed it. My level of enthusiasm however was not even close to the fanatics around me. I made the mistake of saying to Mum (quite loudly by the way, due to the noise of the train) "We better move back a bit and let the people who actually like trains get a good view." ....I recieved a fair few dirty looks from the people around us because of that. My bad.
Once the train left, we decided that we would just use the Maccas down the road from our hotel for dinner. I'm not a big fan of the whole Maccas thing and neither is Mum, but it was a quick, easy and cheap solution to feeling hungry and tired.
We had had a long day by that point and just wanted to get rested and start a new and better day, exploring the beautiful city of London :) Which you will hear about over the next few days when I get everything back up to date :)
Goodnight my Australian friends & family! I must be getting to sleep, I have a big day in Paris tomorrow!
Love you all
x
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