Travel Time: Paris to London

Is it just me, or does traveling always seem to take longer than you expected?

From the time I left my apartment, it took me seven hours to travel to Paris from Aix. I took two buses, one plane, and a taxi.

And it took Lindell, my Mom, and I about six hours to travel from Paris to London from hotel to hotel. We took a subway, the train, and the tube.

And that pretty much sums up Wednesday for us.

I’m not complaining, I suppose I’m just recognizing that life is rarely what you expect. You look at a map and see how close Paris and London appear. You look at a train ticket that says “Departure: 13.01. Arrival: 14:43.” (you lose an hour between the two cities). And you think, one quick Chunnel ride is all and I’ll be in a different country.

I suppose my rant on traveling also has to do with luggage. Up to this point, I have packed my weekend things in a backpack. I did well on this trip, but I don’t know if the same can be said of Mom and Aunt. We had four rolling suitcases between us, and I was in charge of two. Here I will insert a universal truth…

Public Transportation + Rolling Luggage = One hell of a headache (or should I said arm/back ache).

My mom chose to smile and act helpless whenever an eminent, looming staircase would approach, and some generous man would usually assist her plight up the stairs. I would lower my head, grunt, and charge forward, not lifting, but dragging the suitcases behind me on the stairs, unwilling to accept help and quick to lose patience with those in my wide, wide path. Lindell did it herself as well, simply more gracefully than I.

Well, we did make it to London. Our hotel charges for Internet, hence the delays in posting.

Wednesday upon arrival, we ventured up to Harrods and discovered, as we did at Lafayette Galleries in Paris, that having loads and loads of money means you buy more than just souvenirs at a store like Harrods. Of course, our light wallets didn’t mean we couldn’t gawk. And gawk we did. I also happened upon a new game— trying to think of things Harrod’s doesn’t sell. So far, I’ve got cars. That’s all. They literally sell everything—food, toys, clothes, jewelry, make-up, toiletries, electronics, and real estate. Everything.

After shopping, we went to a restaurant recommended by Annie called The Builders Arms. Annie came to London a few years ago and said she ate at this restaurant 4 times because she loved it so much.

Great recommendation. If you are ever in London, you must go to this funky/quaint pub-like restaurant with a fireplace, cushy chairs for seats, and an extremely friendly wait staff. The fish and chips with mushy peas were amazing. Possibly, they made up for six hours of dragging a suitcase up, down, and around two major metropolitan areas.