Burgundy to Lille to London

Our journey out of Cluny was a bucolic drive in the rich and beautiful Burgundian countryside. We saw lots of cows, and the villages along the way were planted everywhere with irises. We pulled over often so Larry could take iris pictures.

We finally had to leave the country roads and get on the freeway to continue our journey north. It was a long day, but the scenery, ever-changing, was interesting and full of the wonderful greens of spring.

We eventually arrived at Lille, just in time for rush hour! We made our way (with some GPS struggles - mostly operator error) to our hotel. We found a good local place for dinner - although Larry found the Belgian/Alsatian meats in aspic (cold) to not be quite what he had in mind!

In the morning we did some reconnoitering at the train station for our car drop-off. This was not particularly smooth as the people who were supposed to meet us to pick up the car spoke almost no English. French baffles me (we often wished we could have channeled Kathy Brandstetter!), even with some language skill. We finally had the clerk at our hotel translate for us on the phone. In the end we successfully parked the car, met the local agents, said good-bye to our little Peugeot.
We waited a bit in the station before they started the check-in for the Eurostar to London. The train trip was uneventful. When we first went through the Channel Tunnel in 1998, they made a big deal about announcing when the train was entering the tunnel and when it had come out. Now it's done without comment.

We arrived at the new Eurostar station at St. Pancras and got a cab to our flat. We arrived at just the right time, and were very pleased to see the place where we would spend the next week. It's a flat off the normal tourist routes. (When I gave the cab driver the address, he asked if we had family in London - good indicator of our location!) It is in Holland Park, and very pleasant indeed. We had heard that there was a London Whole Foods nearby, so we set off for there just for the fun of it. It was a lot farther than I thought, but we had a lovely walk in the whole area, and I am always happy to have London pavement under my feet! We returned to the flat with our food, got organized there, and in the evening found our local pub for a pint and some good English food. (It really is good!)