Hi everyone! Welcome back to another installment of “Ashley’s Travel Diaries: Europe 2019”! Today, I am writing about our journey to London. I am not going lie, London has been pretty underwhelming so far but I think that is because I have yet to see the places London is known for (up close)! (Big Ben, London Eye, Tower of London, etc.) Read below to find out more about our first day in the British city!
Saturday, August 3rd, 2019
Today started off by awaking at around 9:15 am, by my brother, in order to finish packing our stuff and get ready to leave Paris. Before we left, we had to wait for my mom as she was at the Louis Vuitton store buying a bag that she had wanted for a while. Once she got back, we checked out of our hotel and asked them to call us a taxi to the train station, Gare Du Nord, since we had all of our luggage and that would make it hard to go through the subway safely.
The taxi took us to the train station where we went through ticket checks, passport control, and security before waiting on the platform for about an hour (without wifi, which is basically torture for me since we do not have international cell service) before we finally boarded the train.
The train ride to London from Paris is about 2 hrs and 30 mins in length and includes going through a 31 mile long underground tunnel through the Atlantic ocean. Also the Premium car (where we were) was served lunch. The lunch was salmon (vegetable quiche if you were a vegetarian), bread, and a brownie with walnuts in it. The lunch was good, especially when you remember that it was train food.
Upon arrival at the Harry Potter-looking St. Pancras station, we discovered something new, a travelator! A travelator is basically just a moving walkway that is less steep than an escalator but it is still on an incline. We scheduled an Uber to pick us up and it was a 20-30 minute car ride to our hotel because of the traffic.
Once we got to our hotel, we checked in and rested for all of ten minutes before going down to the lounge for the free snacks they had for several hours in the day. We then relaxed in our room and then took the tube (subway) to Piccadilly Circus, basically London’s smaller version of New York’s Times Square.
We walked around Piccadilly Circus admiring London’s West End (their version of our Broadway) and the difference in culture between the two cities. In the West End, they have shows that we have in the states such as Les Miserables, Matilda the Musical, and Wicked! We stopped in a candy shop, where everything, especially US imported things, were very expensive and went to Hard Rock Cafe so my dad can get his pin. After we made our short trip around the area, we went back into the tube to make our way back to our hotel.
For dinner, we decided to eat at the famous Chicken chain Nando’s, an Afro-Portugese restaurant known for its Peri-peri chicken. The chicken was really really good and this is the only place that we have been to that served bottomless sodas! (That made my dad happy, he needs his daily sugar/Coke intake). After dinner we walked back to our hotel and stopped at the Sainsbury’s next door for candy and allergy medication. I got a Cadbury chocolate bar (Mint Oreo flavored) and my brother got a bag of Skittles.
Once we arrived back at out hotel, we all prepared for bed by doing our various things and turned in for the night. Good night!
Hope you guys enjoyed this blog! There is only a few left 😦 I will forever be grateful for getting these opportunities to travel to all of these amazing places. Stay tuned to tomorrow’s installment to see us “living the royal life” at Buckingham Palace, the home of the Queen!
Ashley's Travel Diaries 