Although the tour was officially over at this point, and most people would fly home from Paris, there had also been a option the next morning to ride with Franco and Bogi back to the port in Calais,France. From there you could take the ferry across the Channel and make your way to the airport or spend an extra day in London. We had chosen to get back to London our own way. We figured that since we were in Europe, we wanted to take the high speed train called the EuroStar. It would make it a hectic day of travel for us but we figured it might be a once in a lifetime chance.
We had such a full day the day before seeing Paris and enjoying dinner that our wake up call had come very early. We gathered up our things, checked out of our room and had breakfast in the hotel as we waited for our car service to pick us up. Unexpectedly we got to see some of our tour folks one last time as they were all beginning to make their way home. Then our car picked us up and took us to the Gare du Nord train station. We checked in at the station and found our seats on the train.
A few interesting facts about the trip...
The train travels from Paris to London in just 2 hours and 15 minutes, using the English Channel.
The English Channel or "Chunnel" consists of 3 interconnecting tubes: a rail track for travel in each direction and one service tunnel. The length of the tunnel is 31 miles long, but only 23 miles are underwater. The average depth is 150 feet under the seabed.
The train travels at 186 miles per hour.
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| Wow... do we look tired, or what!?! |
There is no doubt it was a "high speed" train... that thing moved. We saw a lot of the French countryside very quickly!
(Here is the link to this video.)
After a snack and snooze on the train, we had arrived in London at the St. Pancras station.
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| They are getting ready for the 2012 Olympics happening in London! |
We made our way outside and met our car service that would take us to the airport. We checked-in had some lunch in the airport and then boarded our plane. The flight back would be 10 hours instead of the 8 it took us to get to London because of the head wind. We hadn't been as lucky with our seats for this flight and then in-flight movie selection wasn't as good... so it was a LOOOONG flight.
We were delayed a little getting into Houston so it was Sunday evening by the time we arrived. We got to our car and made our way out of the airport and we were STARVING!!! So, we did what any good Texan missing home would do... we found a Texas Roadhouse. We both ordered steak and I got the coldest Dr. Pepper they could give me. It was good to be home.
The drive home from Houston to Georgetown that night was the longest drive of my entire life. We both struggled to stay awake and fell into bed when we finally got home.
It was an amazing and unique trip. We have so many memories and saw some of the most fascinating and beautiful things this world has to offer. But as Dorothy said... "There is no place like home."
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