Monday, July 8, 2024
We checked out and went to Nando’s again. Recognize it? We ordered exactly the same things as yesterday, even though we carefully studied the menu for possible changes. Why ruin a good thing? There are a gazillion restaurants, but we decided Nando’s is a London thing for us, so we had to do it again. I texted with my friend, Daniel, and he said he and Amanda once flew to Chicago, had lunch at Nando’s (there’s one in Chicago?!), and took the train home. He is now my hero!
We bought some Coke zero for the suitcase (in case we aren’t near a grocery store in France. An 8 pack at the grocery store is the same price as a bottle at a convenience store), then took the Circle Line to St. Pancras station for our EuroStar train through the chunnel. The 2:30 train had a medical emergency and was delayed. They said it would be 15 minutes, but they were still there when our 3:30 train left 10 minutes late. They said there had been a medical emergency and they would keep everyone posted, then they actually said there was a medical emergency ongoing and they were trying to figure out what to do. I hoped they were talking about the train situation, not for the medical emergency person. Keith said he saw them take a bunch of those little, tiny bottles of water up the elevator to track 9 – obviously enough water to sustain British people for days. The waiting area seating was full when we arrived and just got fuller and fuller. We were lucky to be standing next to an A/C vent in the floor. Sometimes, I was standing ON the A/C vent in the floor. Nice. A family came and stood near us. I had scored a section of pole to lean against – there were three others sitting against it. The dad of the family slowly started encroaching on my space. Our luggage was in front of me and I wasn’t giving up my leaning, so I held my ground. I shifted around, so he would feel me move and back off. No luck. He really started leaning hard. Keith suggested he thought he was leaning on the pole. I said, “Excuse me, I think you think you are leaning on a pole, but you are leaning on me. Please move back.” He stopped leaning so hard, but didn’t seem to care that he was WEIRD. His adult daughter gave me sorry eyes, and that was nice.
We got on the train and the configuration of the train had changed since we bought our seats. Instead of looking at the backs of the seats in front of us, like Americans like to do, we were facing two serious looking men. The first man grumbled back when I said hello. The second man opened his laptop right away and scowled. Okay. We will not talk to you. But that was okay, because the guy across the aisle made a business call – on speaker phone. He had a lovely, rich, deep voice – a radio voice even – and he reverberated through the car, telling Anna to put in for a full roof replacement and a bunch of other stuff. At the end of the call (5+ minutes later) he delightedly told her he had been talking quickly because he was afraid the call would get dropped because he was on the fast train (we were going 183mph) and going through tunnels. Wasn’t that cool? They talked about how cool that was. The serious men were looking perturbed, but didn’t say anything. The phone guy then watched videos with the sound loudly on his phone. DUDE! Where have you been? You are not doing it right. Shhhhhhh.
This is a picture of France going by very fast:
We went under the ocean and it was dark outside the windows. There was a screen playing a video about how to mind the gap, where to store your luggage, and how to be kind to other passengers (BE QUIET) over and over. There were two quick mentions of facts about the depth of the chunnel and the speed limit. I thought it should have DO DO DO DOOOOOO YOU ARE ABOUT TO GO UNDER THE OCEAN! IT WILL BE SO FAR DOWN. IF IT BREAKS, YOU WILL BE DEAD. Wait. Probably not that. IF IT BREAKS, THERE WILL BE A MOVIE ABOUT THE COURAGEOUS PEOPLE WHO SAVE YOU! GET READY, GET SET, HERE YOU GOOOOOOOO! But no. Nothing.
Three minutes after arriving in France, we were eating France sammiches. They were good, but NOT as good as Epcot France sammiches. We took an Uber to our hotel, rather than two subways and a train. We kept our luggage to a suitcase (kinda heavy now with 16 cans of soda in it), a backpack, and Keith’s soprano cornet, so it would have been possible, but we just were wimpy. The traffic was mighty and it was about 40 minutes to get here. We will shuttle to the airport in the morning to meet the band! (Hello Band! Nice to meet you.)
The hotel lobby is lovely; the room is nothing special, but fine. The time changed forward an hour while we were under the ocean and the sun did not set until after 10:00pm. Fun. Keith is practicing. He doesn’t even know I took his picture because he has squishy, concentration eyes. When I think hard, I get concentration mouth. It looks tucked in and very straight. Like a cartoon person.
