It wasn’t until the middle of the night when I tried to flush the toilet in Room 319 and found that
the button for it was completely broken. We still had the keys for the room next door, so in the
morning, Chris and I were glad to still have the keys for room 320.
Chris wanted the girls to see the changing of the guards on Monday morning, so we were all up
fairly early for our jet lagged bodies.
We met the girls downstairs at 9:45 am for breakfast.
With the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, much of the road was blocked off and everything in front of
Buckingham Palace was off limits. There wasn’t a whole lot to see, a few passing guards, some
guards on horseback. A lot of waiting around for a little bit of excitement.
We stopped for some fun pictures.
The London Eye - Ferris Wheel
Taking the river cruise was a different perspective from what Chris and I had seen before. We
ferried under a number of bridges including London Bridge and Tower Bridge until we got off
at Greenwich Pier.
Franco Marco was our stop for a pizza lunch.
We walked through a park and up quite a steep hill to the Royal Observatory. We found the
meridian line.
The Museum of London Docklands was our next stop. It detailed a history London with the slave
trade, the spice trade, growth of industry, and politics. It had a lot of fun hands-on areas for
younger children to enjoy.
We made our way back to the hotel to retrieve our luggage and then took the train to another
train station to board the Eurostar train from London to Paris. The girls were disappointed that
there wouldn't be much to see whilst going through the Chunnel.
As soon as we got to the station, there was a huge back up and we were directed to a queue that
became fantastically long. There was a broken train coming from Paris, and it was delayed for an
hour. We stood in line for at least two hours and walked at least a mile in our queue.
Finally we made it through security and then immigration. The girls were excited to get a stamp
in their passport.
Once we found our seats on the train, we headed to the cafe car to find options for dinner.
Sandwiches. That was our option.
We were an hour late arriving in Paris. After setting up our Navigo trains cards (Tip * print
your own pictures at home), we were on our way to pick up the key for the Airbnb.
And that’s where the night went downhill further. We had to pick up the keys to the apartment
at a hotel a couple of blocks away. The night desk attendant at that hotel didn’t know which
keys exactly were the one he was supposed to give us.
We waited for the keys for at least 45 minutes. Chris was able to reach the manager by phone and finally we were on our way. We finally reached the right Airbnb with a code for the front door, a key fob to release the second door, another code for another gate, another code and another gate, three long flights of stairs, and finally the key to open the door to our apartment for the next couple of days.
The apartment was unique to say the least. I would never recommend it.
There were two bedrooms and a pull out couch. In our room, Chris and I had a sink and a shower. The shower only had a two foot wide glass wall, so when we showered, the water splashed all over the floor. At least the A/C worked. We finally fell asleep around 2 am.