Beanie's Big Holiday, Day 10

Today's home time. What a fab hols!!!

So we finished off the brioche with jam on top.  I'm going to miss these breakfasts....

Then we brought our cases down four flights of stairs and put the keys into mailbox eight for the owner to collect later!

And then we walked over to the bus stop to get the number 54 which goes to Gare du Nord!

Here we go....!

And we got off here - there's the station!!  Behind that white van!

 Gare du Nord!  It's quite fancy really isn't it?!

 Hall Londres?  Andrea says that's where we go because  we're going back to London!

 When we got through the customs bit, Andrea bought a ham and cheese baguette to eat on the train for lunch!

 Then it was time to get on the train and we're off...!
I don't really want to leave but it'll be nice to see Tango and George again...!

 We're in England now!

 And here we are at St Pancras!!!

We then had a short walk up past the British Library.

And got the 73 bus back to Victoria Station!

 We saw some funny graffiti on the way back!

And going down Oxford Street.....

We saw a funny sculpture in Park Lane!!!  It's a juggler balancing an elephant!!!

And here we are at Victoria Station!

We got off at Hove Station, and on the way home we stopped at Tesco's to get some food in...

.....and came home!
I got new stamps in my passport..... what a brilliant holiday!

Beanie's Big Holiday, Day 2

On Monday 19th May, we got up and had breakfast downstairs!  Coffee, cereal, yoghurt and fruit!  Yum!

After that, we went up and packed our stuff up and checked out of the hostel!

We're going on Eurostar again?!  Fab!!

We went through customs and passport check, and then had to wait for our train!

 And we're OFF!!!  Yippee!

Now we're in France!!! YAY!

Oh!!  We've arrived!!!

In Paris!!! YAAAYYY!!!

First we had to get the Metro to Clignancourt to collect the keys of an apartment we've rented!  Oh!  We're not staying in a hotel?  Oh!
We stopped for coffee for a while and about half an hour later, Elizabeth arrived and explained how to get into the apartment!  How fun!

 Then it was on the Metro again to Brochant and then a five minute walk to the address.  We saw these tiles on the way, they're pretty!

 We arrived at the building and put in the entry code and then had to walk up four flights of rickety uneven stairs to out apartment.... and this is the view!  Gosh...!

Then we went off and did some basic shopping to tide us over until after breakfast tomorrow.  We got erfs (that's French for eggs!), three frommages (that's cheese! We got Beaufort, Emmenthal and cheddar) and those boxes in the background are dental crepes which we had for pudding.
(Ed's note: Gavottes Crepe dentelle, chocolat au lait)

Then we got a Brioche loaf, croissants and Ber (that's French for butter!)

Then we also got Joo dorange (orange juice!) and Lay (milk!)

Our first dinner in the self catering apartment is two cheese omelette!! Yummm!!

We had a cuppa tea afterwards and started in the art journal that we brought.

Then we were so knackered, we went to bed!!!!!

Beanie and The Big French Storm, Day Four!!!

 On Wednesday, we got up and went down for breakfast.  The television was on again showing the French news, and suddenly, there was a newsflash thingy saying that Eurostar was going to be running later that day!!  YIPPEEEE!!!  We can get home!!!  Andrea asked the receptionist lady if they could find out more details, and she said that there may be delays on the train.  That's OK, so long as they're running!

 After breakfast, we went up to our room and packed our things.  We had time to go out for a bit, but because everything had frozen over during the night, we probably wouldn't get far without slipping over, so we stayed in.

 We tied some more tags to the coat hanger in the room, too!!!

Then, just before noon, we went down and checked out of the hotel.  They got us a taxi cab back to the station too, and it only cost 8 Euros.

 Here we are back at the Lille Europe station.  We had an hour and a half before the train, but that gave us enough time to get some food to nibble on during the ride, and to find out when the train would be leaving.

 Then all of a sudden, I shouted out WHOOOPPPEEEEE!!!!!!!  That's our train to London at the bottom!!!

It isn't late at all!!!  It's arriving bang on time!!!  BRILLIANT!!!!!

We're going home!!!

 We went through the security clearance and passport control down to the departure lounge.  It still looks very grey outside.....

 It even started snowing again!!!

 And we're off!!!!  We got a window seat too so we watched all the clouds and snow.....

There was an announcement later to say there was speed restrictions in place so we'd lose 30 minutes on the way to the Calais side of the tunnel.  Actually, that's not bad at all - they were saying an hour delay on the news.....

 We left another tag on the table!!!

And here we are on the English side of the tunnel!!!  We're home!!!

 Here we are!!!  Exit, this way!

 And we saw the big statue again!!

 On the way out of the Eurostar terminal, we changed our left over Euro money back into English.  There were huge enormous lines of people waiting to get onto delayed Eurostar trains going into France..... the lines were half way to the street!!!  We also saw a chap playing the piano too!  That was fun!

 Oh hang on!  We don't normally go this way...... OH!!  Trains to Brighton go from St Pancras??  Really??  I didn't know that - we don't have to spend another hour and a half on the bus going across London!!!  Oh, that's really handy, that is!!

 We got a First Capital Connect train that went to Brighton at 15:09 hours!  It went a completely different route, and we crossed over Blackfriars Bridge and saw Tower Bridge from it!!  (That's the one that lifts up in the middle to let boats through).  Then the train did a U turn on the other bank......

 And we got a totally different view of The Shard building!!

You get some interesting views from this train!!

 Here we are crossing a Viaduct bridge just before Haywards Heath!  We're nearly home.....

 and we're back....... a short walk home, now!  We got home for 5 p.m. too.

And you'd never know it had snowed......

Because we couldn't get any postage stamps, I didn't have anything for my passport.  Andrea said not to worry...... we found a used Lille subway ticket on the floor on Monday, and picked it up.  Andrea had a hole punch gadget that punches out faux stamp shapes with deckled edges, so she cut out a piece of the subway ticket, and used that as a faux stamp for my passport!!  Then she stamped on a rubber stamp that we bought in Loisir et Creations two years ago, when we last came to Lille!!!

Wow, what an adventure!!!