Beanie and The Big French Storm, Day Two!!

 On Monday, we got up early and had a breakfast basket downstairs!!!  We had Panno Shoko Lah (Andrea knows that's my favourite!!!)  Rice Krispies, coffee, apple juice and a mandarin.  Yum!!!

 Then I tied another weathergram in the loo!!!!!

 And then it was time to pack and check out!!!  Where are we going now???

 That's King's Cross Station over there.....

 Oh!!  We're going to St Pancras!!  The Eurostar trains leave from there!!!

 OH WOW!!!!!

 That's a tiger made out of plastic milk cartons!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Isn't he amazing!!!

 Then we went through customs to the Eurostar departure lounge.  Wonder where we're going.....

 Well, we got on a train, and just as it was leaving, it started to snow!!!!

And we had more snow.......

 And when we got through the tunnel to France, it was STILL snowing!!!!!

 I had another look at Andrea's phrase book..... Mool Marrinnii...... Mool Mronnoi..... Oh, this one's hard.

Mool Mah-Rinni-Air see voo play

Oh, now I get it!!!  Wonder what that means??

 We're in Lille!!!!  We came here before a couple of years ago and really liked it!!!

 We took a different way into town this time and got a bit lost.  We found a new drain cover though, with a Fleur De Lys design on it!!

 And then we found EuraLille!!  This is a huge shopping mall not far from where we're staying, and last time we found the most amazing art and craft shop here called Loisirs et Creations!!  BUT IT WAS CLOSED!!!  It was a completely different shop there now and no Loisirs et Creations!!!  The bastards shut it down!!!  Creative Neanderthals..........

 So me and Andrea stomped off to the hotel because we were both really grumpy.  But we did see this lovely building on the way....!!

 That's really pretty!!!

 Oh here we are!  We're staying in Le Grand Hotel in Rue Faidherbe.

 And it's next door to a chocolate shop!!!  EXCELLENT!!!!  Oh, that's just a stroke of genius that is!!

We got room 25 on the second floor and a whopping big double bed all to ourselves!!!

 Oh, there's a Thai restaurant down there..... could be handy for dinner time.

 Now, let's check the amenities here...... small bathroom but I'm a small mouse so that's OK.

 And freebies too!!  Excellent!

 Andrea showed me my passport - I got another stamp from the youth hostel in it!!!

 And then we wrote some postcards!

 After that, we decided to go for a stroll.  It was still snowing, and a blusteringly cold wind too......

 That's my favourite clock on the Grand Place!

 OH!!!  That used to be a big pharmacy shop and the only place we know in Lille that sold Kniepp bath oil (aromatherapy stuff and wonderfully smelly in a good way!!  Andrea's favourite thing to get in Europe)  But the shop was shut down!!!  Even some of the windows upstairs were broken out!!!  Oh dear.....

There's the Opera House.  That's not me singing - that's my teeth clattering together!!!

Only one thing for it......

CHOCOLATE!!!!!

Ah, that's better....!

 Later on, we got hungry so we decided to go to the ElephanThai restaurant for dinner.  Started with a fizzy drink......

 And then chose from the 23 Euro Menu.  We had a starter of Soup De Crevettes, which is a creamy shrimp soup and rather yummy.  Rather sweet, but yummy!!!

 Then for the main course, we had Thai style fried rice with an unidentifiable meat (some kind of bird we think but not chicken) and veggie fry up thing.  The meat, whatever it was, was very VERY chewy, and we couldn't swallow it!!!  Chewed and chewed and chewed, but wouldn't go down.  So we left it.....

 But for pudding, we had Lychees which were fabulously yumtastic!!!  I love Lychees!!!

 Well, that was, erm, "interesting" I think is the word!!!!

By now, we were both exhausted, so off to bed!!!

TO BE CONTINUED.......!!!

Beanie's BIrthday Weekend, Day One!

Last Saturday, Andrea said we're all going on A Big Trip!!!

So we all helped with the packing!

All done!  Let's goooo!!!!!

And we're off up the road.....

To the train station!  Excellent!

We tied one of my weathergrams to the seat!!!

Oh wow, that's pretty!!

And then, when we got to London, all the bus lanes were taped off!!!

We asked a Nice Bus Company Chap, and he said that we needed to get the 24 bus from down the road and then change at Tottenham Court Road.

We waited for ages and ages and ages and only one Number 24 bus came and it was packed to sardines and we couldn't get on!!!

Then, a Number 11 came along and Andrea said let's get this one instead.  I know how to get to where we're doing with the Number 11!!!

But even the Number 11 bus got diverted over the river!!!  We found out later that there was a Big Demonstration at Trafalgar Square about the financial cuts and another Big Sit-in (hey!!  They should've entered the Synchronised sitting contest!!!) in Pall Mall too!!!  All the whole of Central London was crazy mad for traffic!!!!!

Anyway, after a while, we got up to where the Royal Courts of Justice is (behind me in the photie!) and the bus was on the normal route by then.  Even I know where we are NOW!!!!

We also got a seat too, and I tied another Weathergram to the seat in front!!!

We finally got off at the last stop, here!  We then had to go down the road and round the corner.....

To here to get the Number 205 bus!!!  We've never used this one before but Andrea said we need it tomorrow anyway, so it'll be useful to see what the route is that it takes.

And I tied on another Weathergram to the seat in front!!!

Then we ended up here at Kings Cross, which is where we got off.

And then we walked past this funny building!!!

And ended up here, 2 and a half HOURS after arriving in London!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We got a room on the fourth floor and a top bunk.  Andrea doesn't like those so much because they're difficult to climb into.

We were all hungry by now, so we went out for dinner.  We lost a CD on a railing on the way!!!

And went to Pizza Express.  We had a fizzy drink....

And a pepperoni pizza!!  Yum!!!

Then it was back to the hostel.  That's the door to the elly vator!!!

We're whooped.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzz......