En Route to Paris: King's Cross Station and St. Pancras International

     I've mentioned before that I spent a lot of time delving into London and Paris related pop culture while I prepared for my trip, mostly because I wanted to see movies set in these places to get even more excited about my trip. As a family we watched all of the Harry Potter movies and so of course I had to stop by King's Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4 since it is right across the street from St. Pancras International. At first I was reluctant to let my four year old watch them because I thought she would be scared, but she wasn't scared at all and is now a Harry Potter fanatic! She listens to the books on tape every night and is convinced that she will attend Hogwarts when she is 10. Because she is such a huge fan, I left for the train station with plenty of time so that I could take some pictures for her. 

The interior of the station is gorgeous! Such stunning beautiful architecture that incorporates both old and new. 

After the Harry Potter books came out, I am sure that the number of Harry Potter fans stopping by King's Cross to see 9 3/4 caused a bit of interference and so they created a designated spot for picture seekers. They even built a fairly large Harry Potter store next door and for £9 you can get an official picture. Luckily they don't mind you taking your own pictures as well. 

     Next I headed to St. Pancras to get ready for the departure of my train. The exterior of the building is also gorgeous. I can absolutely understand why poet John Betjeman described it as "too beautiful and too romantic to survive."  

     I saw the cutest car ever parked out front. I want one, NOW! (Funny postscript about this car, I follow a lot of London Instagram feeds and I saw a picture of this car taken a week later when it was parked in a neighborhood near Hampstead Heath). 

     My journey under the Channel on the Eurostar was nice and fast. I was disappointed that the person assigned the seat next to me wouldn't let me have the window (even though he read a book on his Kindle the whole time and didn't look out the window at all) but the little I could see of the French countryside as we barreled down the tracks to Paris (seriously it was fast) was beautiful. I noticed lots of fields of yellow flowers. The train took me to Gare de Nord in Paris and my plan was to meet up with my sister at Notre Dame which wasn't too hard to navigate to. The ticket machine for the Metro was a different story. I got a little flustered, ended up going to the back of the line to wait for another turn, got to the front and got flustered again but luckily had the help of some French women behind me who were able to walk me through the ticket machine through gestures. 

London's Calling, and I must go!

     I just returned from my first trip to Europe and it was incredible! I've been dreaming about going to Europe for my 30th Birthday for several years and my wonderful husband made that dream come true. He stayed home and watched our girls while I met up with my youngest sister.

     I flew over on Norwegian Airlines on a 787 Dreamliner. It has been a few years since I last flew and the plane felt pretty fancy compared to the airlines I usually fly (Southwest, JetBlue). I loved having my own TV with lots of movies, an interactive map, as well as my window seat. My neighbors on the same row as me were also good company. Since my flight left at 7:30 pm from LA I was able to sleep and the flight didn't nearly seem so long as I went from "sea to shining sea." Also the plane food was good, some sort of spicy chicken and mashed sweet potatoes and a salad and dessert. Brunch was a roasted red bell pepper sandwich and a KIND bar. We arrived at London at 1:30 BST and I cannot even describe how thrilled I was as we started to see land. We flew over Ireland and a little bit of the Channel and then landed at Gatwick (which is a little more than 30 miles south of London). 

      Getting my baggage and going through customs was a breeze, as was riding the Gatwick Express into London. The best part of the ride was checking off the first item from my "London Bucket List," which was snapping a picture of the Battersea Power Station for my hubby. That was his number one request, because he loves the band Pink Floyd and they did a photo shoot for the cover of the album Animals here. I didn't realize that I would see the power station from the train, so it was a nice surprise to not have to take a special trip.

   The Gatwick Express dropped me off at Victoria Station and from there it was an easy trip on the Tube to South Kensington where I stayed.

     The neighborhood of Kensington was gorgeous! Lots of pretty building and almost every window had a flower box full of fresh flowers. I stayed the first night in the Meininger Hostel, built to honor Baden Powell the founder of the Boy Scouts. It was a great experience, the room was very clean, the bed was comfortable, and it was fun meeting fellow travelers. The location of the hostel was amazing! Extremely close to the Tube, across the street from the Natural History Museum, and right outside of Hyde Park.

     I spent the afternoon at Portobello Market in Notting Hill, which required a short walk through Hyde Park right past Kensington Palace. The park and palace were so pretty!

     Portobello Road was very picturesque and had a lot of fun shops. Half of the vendors had closed down for the day when I arrived but it was still fun to browse. The area reminded me a little of Georgetown in Washington, D.C. which proved to add some confusion to my navigational skills. I kept getting turned around but that was alright because it was such a pretty place to be lost in. I stopped by GBK for dinner and it was quite tasty. 

After wandering around the market for awhile I was tired of fighting the jet lag and I headed back to my hostel through Hyde Park again. 

     On Saturday morning I stopped by Harrod's for a quick tour because I've been hearing about the store for years. Before they opened the doors a line started to form outside so my expectations were high. The store was very impressive and huge--very easy to get lost in. I had a lot about the toy department so that was my main destination. It was fun to see simple toys like the Melissa & Doug brand sold alongside giant stuffed animals, fancy gowns costing around £5,000, and my favorite a kid sized Atom V8 Roadster for £39,000!

     My next destination was the Victoria and Albert Museum. I had debated on going there or to the Natural History Museum because my hostel was located directly across the street. I picked the Victoria and Albert when I noticed that the line for the Natural History Museum stretched half-way around the block. I think I made a good choice because it was fun to see all of the decorative arts inside. Obviously it wasn't the real "David," by Michelangelo, but they had a cast of the statute there and I was shocked by how big the statue is, pictures that I have seen in textbooks have never done it justice. The cast replica of Trajan's Column was also huge and impressive. Samson Slaying a Philistine is a work that I learned about way back in high school and so it was also cool to see it in person. My favorite work in the museum was actually Dale Chihuly's chandelier that hangs in the entrance.  

     When I was originally planning my itinerary for the day I had grand plans of checking out of my hostel early, taking my bags to St. Pancras and putting them in a locker (it was pricey, £10), and then walking down Baker Street to see 221b Baker Street, and walking a few blocks from that to see the Abbey Road Crosswalk, and touring the British Museum. On top of that I was planning on catching my 2:30 Eurostar train to Paris on time. Clearly my plans were overly ambitious and it was better that I took a more laid back approach to my morning.