Friday morning (April 28), we had a full English breakfast at the hotel (bacon, eggs, mushrooms, beans, sausage, tomatoes and toast). The receptionist said it wouldn't be a problem to catch a taxi in front of the hotel (our Eurostar train left from Waterloo station), so we grabbed our suitcases and set off.
Within 5 minutes we spot a taxi dropping someone off, so we put Diane, Eric and Kaitlyn in and tell them we'll meet them at the train station. Jason and I do not have much luck flagging a taxi ourselves. In fact they are all full. A kind taxi driver directs us over to the taxi queue by the bus station. Guess what-there are no taxis there either. After about 25 minutes we are getting a little bit panicked, so Jason calls the hotel and asks them to call a taxi for us.
A few minutes later a taxi pulls up (not sure if it is the one the hotel called) and the driver jumps out saying, one minute please. Jason pleads with him to not take a break as our train to Paris is leaving in about 30 minutes and we are supposed to be checking in right now. He takes pity on us. On the way there-he tells us he's been working since 5:30 am and was just on his way in for a coffee. Jason told him we'd buy his coffee if he got us to the station on time.
As we are driving in Friday Morning traffic, Jason calls his parents telling them to go to the EuroStar ticket counter and see if we can still get on the train. We didn't know that there is a separate drop-off for EuroStar than the rest of the train station. Jason also decides to call EuroStar itself...as long as we get there before the train leaves we should be fine, if not there is another one in an hour-we just won't all be seated together.
Our driver drops us off at the correct entrance-we give him a large tip and we run into the station and jump in line with Jason's parents and Kaitlyn. As we are waiting to go through security, Kaitlyn tells us that her and Grandpa got lost from Grandma and they just found each other.
A security guard asks if anyone in line is going on the 11:10 to Paris (which leaves in 10 minutes) and we raise our hands. He opens up another line for us and we sail through to get our passports stamped and then through to the security check. We sit down and about 2 minutes later the train starts to close up for departure. That was a close one!
We enjoyed a pleasant train ride to Paris. I did fine except for the last 10 minutes thru the chunnel. The thought of being underwater in a train tunnel for 25 minutes is just a bit too much for me.
Once off the train we get a bit of money and search for more taxis. This time Jason goes with Eric and Griffen and I am with Diane and the 2 girls. I had to try to explain to my driver where our hotel was (rusty High School French) and we set off. Traffic is horrendous! After 20 minutes our fare was already at €10. I also noticed that our driver is ready while driving. The French are almost worse than the Italians...there are no lanes you just drive where you can fit. Picture a oneway road the width of a typical 4 lane US road...now have at least 7 cars across all trying to get somewhere. Diane was convinced that our driver didn't know where he was going or that he was trying to rip us off by taking an off route.
Although Jason left after us, he made it to the hotel about 5 minutes before us-same fare though.
Check-in, clean-up and off to explore Paris....
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