Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Today Daniel and I traveled from Edinburgh, Scotland to Paris, France aboard two trains. The first train left at 8am from Edinburgh Waverly station. It took us a little over four hours to get to London Kings Cross Station. The only thing notable was the fact there was this guy who looked a lot like Dick Cheney who kept walking up and down the aisle. I felt like he was glaring at me every time he did it too. I think that poor couple was from Kalamazoo, MI and was having way too much fun on the train.
Arriving at Kings Cross, we posed for a photo at the location of Platform 9 3/4 – where the Hogwarts Express leaves the beginning of each trip. There is even a partial trolly in the wall for effect. We managed to navigate the Tube with our huge bags and end up at Waterloo station with only slight bag trauma in the tube. Coming off of the tube, I noticed that the top handle of my bag is now missing one screw and another is on its way out. It seems this will be the last trip of the mondo bag. Time to get a new one.
Check in for the Eurostar was a bit chaotic with the tons of school kids from France running all over the place. We waited for about an hour in the lounge until it was time to depart. We enjoyed a Snickers for Daniel and a Dark Chocolate Kit Kat for me which seems to be our snack when we are pressed for time.
The train to Paris was uneventful save for a few crazy French passengers who spent the whole trip talking and talking and talking. We were in seats that faced another two gentlemen. One seemed to give me the booboojeebies. I think he was having a bad day. It also seems that Daniel and I are doomed to ride backwards on all of our trains.
Once in Paris, we waited in the Taxi queue and then landed a taxi to our hotel. I had to show him where on the map the hotel was, but we made it despite the crazy central Paris traffic. The hotel has been upgraded since I stayed here 8 years ago. It is very chic. One thing that was weird, when we checked in, we had to wait for the guy to show up (he ran out for some food). Then, when he took my reservation paper, he looked me up in the computer and then made me a key card. He then showed me the elevator. No paperwork to sign or anything.
Daniel and I had to go up one at a time in the elevator and made it to our room. Its a bit small but typical Paris. We went out and grabbed some dinner and scoped out the Metro tickets for tomorrow. Its up early for us tomorrow so I will upload the photos with the Day 16 photos tomorrow night. Tomorrow we are off to Disneyland Paris to meet up with some people I trained back in 2005 at Disneyland. It promises to be a fun filled exciting day.
