London Town

It was finally the end of our adventures in Paris and Kimberly and I headed towards the Eurostar… just look at this queue.

Kim packed a her suitcase so large that on the way there she could not physically lift it so I had to cart the damn thing about for her. On the way back she could just about manage it but ended up with a lovely bruised knee (don’t feel sorry for her, that’s how she learns her lesson to pack lightly).

As she was flying out the next day we stayed the night in London in a hotel called Malmaison which I thought was just awesome, massive shower and all the free toiletries and stuff were really nice and the brands matched.

The room had beautiful interesting furniture, free magazines like Marie Claire left out for you to flick through.

I even wanted to eat the stuff out of the mini bar, I took great delight in playing with the espresso machine and selecting a good apple to eat the next day. Kim was more interested in doing her hair and sorting out her luggage but I know where my priorities lie.

Then once we’d dumped our bags we set off out to meet my dear friend Nadine at a restaurant she chose in Covent Garden called Maxwells.

We got tasty food and shared this ginormous cocktail, so yeah that was fun.

And then Nadine led us to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park, I’d never been before so it was nice to have a look round at all the stuff there.

It was pretty cold there, just to make it feel extra wintery but it was really busy (although maybe not as busy as it is during the day?).

We found one stall that had a blacksmith who engraved horse shoes with letters and numbers of your choice and so Nadine, who recently got engaged, got one for her fiance.

We got Crepes too, yum. The next morning at the hotel we didn’t have to check out until 12 so we had a lazy morning and monster breakfast.

Such a big breakfast.

Really big…

So that was delicious. Then we had to wait an hour or two so we went and got coffee and played cards (we’re so cool). They have a pigeon scaring falcon man that wonders round, see in the hi-vis jacket?

And then it was the train home… wah

Off To Paris

So Kim and I left Wiltshire, and set off to Paris, we got the tube to St Pancras.

And finding the Eurostar and getting through security etc was relatively painless.

Before we knew it we were there. I do wish they’d make the channel tunnel a bit more scenic though, they should make its replacement out of glass so everyone can see under the sea. In fact I’d even be happy if they just recreated this with tv screens. They need to look into that.

We got the Paris Metro to our apartment – the Metro is so good here, very fast and easy to navigate. This is our apartment –

The showers kind of hard to use without splashing the floor but never mind, it’s not my floor.

This is our courtyard, the apartment is one building back from the main street on the 3rd floor, and is typical of all the flats in this area. Heaving our cases up 3 flights of beautifully polished wooden stairs was not fun.

Our bedroom’s a pretty good size and also over looks the courtyard.

And the lounge is very comfy.

Although there’s a mystery switch on the wall and we can’t figure out what it does…

More later!