Europe Trip - Day 1: KL-London-Paris

I have been postponing to write this post because I know it is going to be a long one. So here goes.  Following a super tiring trip we had last year, I decided that this year, we were only going to stay at 2 hotels for this 8D7N trip, which means less hassle carrying those heavy bags around. Plus, it was fasting month so we might be fasting, if we could afford too and I kept the plan slightly lose once we were back in Britain.

Itinerary

19Jul13(Fri): Depart from Kuala Lumpur 10.05am. Arrive in Heathrow 4.15pm. Board Eurostar from London St Pancras 7.31pm. Arrive in Paris Gare Du Nord 10.47pm.

20Jul13(Sat): Louvre and sight seeing around Paris. 10.30pm Eiffel Tower

21Jul13(Sun): Whole day Disneyland

22Jul13(Mon): Day trip to Frankfurt via train

23 Jul13(Tue): Board train from Gare Du Nord to St Pancras 2.43pm. Arrive in London St Pancras 4pm. Board train to Bristol from London Paddington 5pm.

24Jul13(Wed): Stonehenge and Bath

25Jul13(Thu): Around Bristol. Maybe go see the hanging bridge we didn't get to see last visit.

26 Jul13(Fri): Bristol to London Paddington 11.30am. London Heathrow back to Kuala Lumpur 10pm

Looks all planned out and well. But a lot of things went wrong and sent me topsy turvy all along. Firstly, it took us quite long to clear immigration and reached London St Pancras. We arrived the eurostar station around 7.15pm but what I didn't know was, they moved our train to Paris earlier to 7.20pm. They could have cleared the way for us to catch the train but it was too late when they noticed us. Next train at 8pm was the last train and they could only slot us in IF people doesn't show up because it's full house. Luckily they managed to slot us in. BUT rushing in last minute, we accidently left behind Tricia's supply bagpack, which also contains all printed bookings and my laptop. Frustrated and tired from the long hours of travelling, I gave up. My brother, however, helped me to ask an assistant on board to call the station and because we were the last passengers to leave, they found our bag and kept it for us until we came back on Tuesday. The end of our FIRST chapter of running and rushing.

Arrived in Paris comfortably, took a cab back to our hotel, Hotel Louvre Rivoli, and was excited to see that it was a nice hotel compared to the budget hotel we stayed in during my first visit here when I was a student (I paid through my nose for this one for the location near Louvre and within walking distance to the metro station). I booked a double room for myself and a twin room for my mom and brother. I thought twin room means twin beds but apparently, twin room means separate toilet and bath area with a double bed. Ah, my bad but small matter.
Booked the room initially on booking.com but cancelled that booking and got a cheaper rate directly from the hotel website. EUR 547.20 for the classic twin room and EUR 617.50 for the superior double room.

We rested before we continue our adventure the next day.

What was weird about this hotel was that they didn't have kettle in the room. I found it quite inconvenient as I had a baby with me and I needed to prepare her milk. Lucky the staff was accommodating and boiled us some water in the middle of the night and put it in a teapot for us to bring up to our room. We had our supper/sahur before we went to sleep because subuh prayer was around 2am. Brought along rice cooker, some onions, serunding and sambal ikan bilis my MIL prepared for us all the way from KL so we had plenty to eat. The next morning, I had to trouble the staff again to help us print tickets I left back in London. I was very thankful they could help to print the tickets for us FOC as it was quite a lot. I thought I would have to waste my beautiful morning looking for a cybercafe or something.