April 18, 2010 - Still in London. Will we ever leave?

Much better day. We found a working travel agent, got train tickets and British Air announced they are paying for our London stay. Hooray!

18.04.2010 - 19.04.2010
View Dordogne and Occitanie on Beausoleil's travel map.

Barbican Center - Early Morning (even the ducks aren't awake yet)

Day 5 — April 18, 2010 (Sunday)

Slept until seven o’clock and went down to breakfast where the hostess said we could save about 6 £ by getting a voucher at the desk. Breakfast was 16.50 £ and the voucher brought it down to 10.50 £. We quickly decided to go to our pub for a better breakfast for 4.79 £. We did and it was great.

After breakfast we walked to and through the Barbican Center taking photos and ending at the Museum of London. Walked back to St. Joseph’s Church for Mass. Tiny but very diverse congregation.

The Barbican Centre - London

The Barbican Centre - London
Ed with Union - Horse with Two Discs by Christopher Le Brun

City Wall - London

Saint Giles at Cripplegate by the Barbican Centre

The Barbican Centre - London

The Barbican Centre - London

Back to the London Museum where we got directions to the nearest tube station to get our Oyster cards. No ticket office (Sunday) so we walked over to Liverpool Station and got the cards.

Used our new Oyster cards to “tube” to St. Pancras International Station where they were not selling any Eurostar tickets. You couldn’t even get in line unless you had a confirmed reservation. On to British National Railways who also could not help. AAAGH.

We passed a Vodaphone store and decided to go in and see if we could buy minutes for Edie’s cell phone. As we talked to the fellow, we decided the French cell phone wouldn’t be practical here . . . but another customer listening told us about a nearby travel agent (STA Travel) who could get us Eurostar tickets. We happily got directions, hopped back on the tube to Russell Square Station and out to STA Travel on the opposite corner.

Joy! We have tickets to Paris tomorrow at 5:30 PM. We arrive in Paris Gare du Nord at 9:00 PM and will deal with getting to Toulouse from Paris. At least it’s on the right side of the English Channel.

Back to St. Pancras and printed our tickets. We are ready! We found a Paul’s in St. Pancras (there are two of them) and had a croissant and Badoit. Went back to our hotel to the delightful news that British Airways is paying our entire hotel bill, dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow.
Rested until dinner and tried to e-mail the kids to give them the news but we’ve run out of Internet time again. Ten dollars to send three e-mails seems expensive so it will have to wait.

Posted by Beausoleil 13:56 Archived in United Kingdom

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Comments

Good to see a day going your way.

by irenevt

After all your stress, i smiled at the phrase "on the right side of the English channel"..If something has to be, at least London is English speaking !

by alectrevor

Good to read about your fortunes finally turning! And great that BA paid for your hotel stay. Not all airlines looked after their customers so well during that crisis.

A few pedantic Londoner points, if I may? We never use 'tube' as a verb - we get the tube, take the tube, catch the tube, use the tube Also, it's the Museum of London rather than the London Museum, and the station you went to is Liverpool Street station. Not that it really matters, I knew exactly what you meant - I just thought you might like to know for the future, should you ever be back in London (if this episode didn't put you off for life?!!)

by ToonSarah

Hi Sarah. Thank you for visiting. I've tried to make all your corrections. I left the original verb "tube" since I put it in quotes to indicate it was being used strangely. The others have been removed. We did, in fact, go to the Russell Square Station for STA Travel. It was located at 40 Bernard Street, (opposite Russell Square Tube station) and has since gone out of business undoubtedly because of the virus pandemic shutdowns. I hope they are all okay since they were very kind to us.

by Beausoleil

Hi Sally. I'm sorry they came across as 'corrections' - I was really just trying to highlight how Londoners used the word Tube and make some possibly helpful points for future visits I didn't intend you to feel obliged to change your text!

I think I remember STA (or was it Nomad Travel) opposite Russell Square tube, and if it's the place I'm thinking of they closed down a couple of years ago. We used to go there for travel vaccinations. They reduced the number of outlets in London, I think because people were doing things more online. So in this case, not COVID-related, although plenty of London businesses have unfortunately been badly hit by it, especially those aimed at tourists and/or travellers. I just hope this latest news about the progress on a vaccine is the light at the end of the tunnel for all of us!

by ToonSarah

Hi Sarah. Now that we've discovered Manchester Airport, there may not be any more London trips. LHR is not a favorite airport. It was definitely STA Travel as I got email ads from them for years afterwards. They were so nice and got us on a train the next day which we couldn't do online or at the ticket office. I guess they purchase tickets in blocks and I'm sure they sold all of them during the volcano crisis. We were so grateful.

by Beausoleil

I know what you mean about LHR Sally (although it's so close to us we put up with its deficiencies for the convenience). And on reflection I think the STA office at Russell Square was taken over by Nomad and that then later closed down. They always had a good reputation so I'm glad they lived up to that during this crisis and helped you on your way

I'm also glad to see that you seem able to post comments again