Day 41, Villevaudé, Paris to London (11kms)
It was a day of mixed feelings amongst the family - some looking forward more than others to getting home. Having said that, we were all looking forward to the prospect of sleeping in a hotel room tonight instead of the campervan.
The pack up and returning to the campervan depot went all according to plan arriving before our 11:00am check-in. The only hiccup was forgetting to defrost the freezer until we were ready to leave the campground. Nothing a little hot water didn't fix, because the walls were quite frozen. Even our Vodafone SIM data allowance lasted long enough to navigate us back to the depot which we didn't think it would.
The process of returning the van was as slow as the delivery. They went over the van with a fine tooth comb and at first tried to charge us for the rear bumper and burn mark to the front of the over table cupboard. The cupboard was burnt one night when you open the door to lower the bed and door surface was sitting up against an under bed light. Problem was, some bright spark had replaced the LED light globe with a halogen bulb in this one light and the damage was done before we knew it.
Standing firm, and after having to convince management that this was not my fault, the van was all signed off as returned without me parting with another dollar. They weren't actually going to get another dollar anyway, was the credit card they had as a security deposit was now cancelled due to the fraudulent transactions back at home.
Then it was into another Uber and we went straight to Gare Nord for the Eurostar. Traffic on the way was pretty bad as we neared Paris, and we even saw a side to Paris that we had not seen before. People begging at the traffic lights.
With time to spare we all had McDonalds for lunch - which was a bit of a challenge with 4 big suitcases to keep our hands on in a packed McDonalds. This is the first McDonalds we've been in that did not allow you to order in person at the counter. You could only order using the touchscreens.
Unlike the rush in London getting here, we had plenty of time to get through customs and board the train to London. The boarding lounge (if you'd call it that) was a bit chaotic and seemed to be designed to handle only half the people that were waiting for the train. When boarding commenced, we were told the escalators down to the platform were not working, so we had to push our way back through hundreds of people to the lifts.
The rest of the journey was all pretty smooth. In with seemed like only minutes after boarding, the train was pulling out of the station and we were away. Goodbye France. It doesn't take long to get out of Paris and the train accelerates to 200+ km/hr. The fastest we observed on the screen was 220 kms/hr, but apparently the train can exceed 330 kms/hr.
Through the Chunnel and we were back on UK soil. It is then quite a quick trip into London and St Pancras station. Disembarking just after 4:00pm local time, the station with the sun shining through the glass roof was quite a sight. There was also a giant statue of a couple saying goodbye to each other.
The Premier Inn hotel that we booked this time was on Euston Road almost, directly over the road from the station. So it was only a short walk and we were within the creatures comforts of 4 solid walls and a roof. There was something comforting about that, but at the same time I was missing our campervan already.
With only hours of our holiday left, it was off to explore some more of London and get dinner. Our first stop - which had been a long time coming, was Kings Cross Station, so that the girls could do the whole Harry Potter experience. Unfortunately when we got there, there was quite a queue to enter and have your photo taken running through the brick wall, so we decided to return after dinner before closing time.
Another little hiccup when we went to purchase our Underground tickets with my Amex (the only credit card we had left that works), as it was declined. This really through a spanner in the works as we didn't have any British Pounds left, and withdrawing some with our travel money cards was going to be a problem, as the Netbank app on my phone was not working! After half an hour of tense phone calls with American Express customer service, they assured me that my card should be working. So we scrounged up the money for the Underground, in the hope that my Amex would work when it came to paying for dinner.
We got off the Underground at Covent Garden and aimlessly walked through the streets of the West End looking for a place to to have dinner. We passed through 7 dials, where the theatre Matilda is playing at is located, before reaching Cambridge Circus and settling on "The Cambridge" pub for our last dinner of the holiday. The menu was what I would imagine a typical English affair and we all enjoyed our dinner before retracing our steps back to the Underground. On the way we passed a very busy gelato shop and indulged in desert. "Yes" my Amex was working again!
Back at Kings Cross station in time to visit the Harry Potter store, the queuing and most of the crowds had dissipated but the famous trolley (being pushed through the brick wall), had also disappeared. Regardless the girls had their photo taken and they each bought some Harry Potter memorabilia. We also wandered Kings Cross station in search of the real Platform 9, and cheekily passed through the barriers to walk onto the real Platform - just couldn't find the famous Brick pillar.
So, as they say in Hollywood - "That's a wrap". Back to the Premier Inn for our last night in Europe.
The pack up and returning to the campervan depot went all according to plan arriving before our 11:00am check-in. The only hiccup was forgetting to defrost the freezer until we were ready to leave the campground. Nothing a little hot water didn't fix, because the walls were quite frozen. Even our Vodafone SIM data allowance lasted long enough to navigate us back to the depot which we didn't think it would.
The process of returning the van was as slow as the delivery. They went over the van with a fine tooth comb and at first tried to charge us for the rear bumper and burn mark to the front of the over table cupboard. The cupboard was burnt one night when you open the door to lower the bed and door surface was sitting up against an under bed light. Problem was, some bright spark had replaced the LED light globe with a halogen bulb in this one light and the damage was done before we knew it.
Standing firm, and after having to convince management that this was not my fault, the van was all signed off as returned without me parting with another dollar. They weren't actually going to get another dollar anyway, was the credit card they had as a security deposit was now cancelled due to the fraudulent transactions back at home.
Then it was into another Uber and we went straight to Gare Nord for the Eurostar. Traffic on the way was pretty bad as we neared Paris, and we even saw a side to Paris that we had not seen before. People begging at the traffic lights.
With time to spare we all had McDonalds for lunch - which was a bit of a challenge with 4 big suitcases to keep our hands on in a packed McDonalds. This is the first McDonalds we've been in that did not allow you to order in person at the counter. You could only order using the touchscreens.
Unlike the rush in London getting here, we had plenty of time to get through customs and board the train to London. The boarding lounge (if you'd call it that) was a bit chaotic and seemed to be designed to handle only half the people that were waiting for the train. When boarding commenced, we were told the escalators down to the platform were not working, so we had to push our way back through hundreds of people to the lifts.
Through the Chunnel and we were back on UK soil. It is then quite a quick trip into London and St Pancras station. Disembarking just after 4:00pm local time, the station with the sun shining through the glass roof was quite a sight. There was also a giant statue of a couple saying goodbye to each other.
The Premier Inn hotel that we booked this time was on Euston Road almost, directly over the road from the station. So it was only a short walk and we were within the creatures comforts of 4 solid walls and a roof. There was something comforting about that, but at the same time I was missing our campervan already.
With only hours of our holiday left, it was off to explore some more of London and get dinner. Our first stop - which had been a long time coming, was Kings Cross Station, so that the girls could do the whole Harry Potter experience. Unfortunately when we got there, there was quite a queue to enter and have your photo taken running through the brick wall, so we decided to return after dinner before closing time.
Another little hiccup when we went to purchase our Underground tickets with my Amex (the only credit card we had left that works), as it was declined. This really through a spanner in the works as we didn't have any British Pounds left, and withdrawing some with our travel money cards was going to be a problem, as the Netbank app on my phone was not working! After half an hour of tense phone calls with American Express customer service, they assured me that my card should be working. So we scrounged up the money for the Underground, in the hope that my Amex would work when it came to paying for dinner.
We got off the Underground at Covent Garden and aimlessly walked through the streets of the West End looking for a place to to have dinner. We passed through 7 dials, where the theatre Matilda is playing at is located, before reaching Cambridge Circus and settling on "The Cambridge" pub for our last dinner of the holiday. The menu was what I would imagine a typical English affair and we all enjoyed our dinner before retracing our steps back to the Underground. On the way we passed a very busy gelato shop and indulged in desert. "Yes" my Amex was working again!
Back at Kings Cross station in time to visit the Harry Potter store, the queuing and most of the crowds had dissipated but the famous trolley (being pushed through the brick wall), had also disappeared. Regardless the girls had their photo taken and they each bought some Harry Potter memorabilia. We also wandered Kings Cross station in search of the real Platform 9, and cheekily passed through the barriers to walk onto the real Platform - just couldn't find the famous Brick pillar.
So, as they say in Hollywood - "That's a wrap". Back to the Premier Inn for our last night in Europe.
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