London

Paris' Gare de Nord is an incredible space. The Eurostar took two hours and fifteen minutes to go from Paris to London and at St Pancras’ Station there is a one hour the line up for a photo set up at Platform 9-3/4. London’s black cabs now come in every colour, many with ads.  Our hotel is an 1860 townhouse divided like a rabbit warren and the original staircase remains absolutely gorgeous.  I pity the person who has to polish the brass banister! We use the wifi in what might have been a drawing room it has ceilings which are at least 12 ft. The hotel room is twice the size of the one in Parisand the bath is long enough to lie down in!  

Thursday was full of activities. The Paris hotel's version of a continental breakfast was croissants, breads, pastries, ham, cheese, scrambled eggs, fruit and cereals.  The London hotel's version is basically breads and cereal. This morning we walked to a Spanish Cafe where we sat in the sun and dug into grilled tomatoes, mushrooms, baked beans, egg, toast and tea.  It was so good!  Then we headed off to the Tower of London for a tour by a humorous Beefeater Guard. Never mind the bling of the Crown Jewels; the workmanship on the swords of state and the armor in the White tower is jaw dropping. All of it was done by hand with tools we would regard as primitive.   

After our tour we walked over the Tower Bridge to Shakespeare's Globe and then to Fleet St.  We were so hungry by then we did not do the Globe tour; instead we had lunch at El Vino in Fleet St where I ate my annual treat of cheese.  A fabulous Ploughman’s Lunch of French bread, delicious picked onion, salad, and three different cheeses (an English blue, a French goat cheese and an old cheddar).  El Vino is so far the only bar where the barman has an English accent.  We think Toronto is multilingual and diversified. London is even more so. We rounded out our day with tickets in the top balcony for Les Miz which was very good.

On Friday we walked down Kensington Gardens Road, it is a real embassy row made up of beautiful old stately houses.  No photos allowed and police are set up at both ends as well as the middle. Then we went for a quick tour of Kensington Palace state apts, which were interesting. A display of dresses really brought home how tiny Queen Victoria was and how tall Diana of Wales was.  We had tea in the garden; unfortunately the Orangery was booked for a private function.  It looked like a gorgeous building so that was a shame.  Then we walked through the park watching people lying on the grass, walking babies, and groups of children's birthday parties just like at the Palais Royale gardens in Paris.