Although we had ordered a taxi to pick us up with our cases and bags from our partment at 3 am, there was no sign of a taxi anywhere. The streets were quiet and deserted at that hour. Then we heard our phone ringing which was very annoying as we had explicitly informed the taxi copmany that we would be waiting outside. Besides, we had been very efficient and already dropped our apartment keys through the keydrop at the Accommodations Office. I decided to quickly walk up to the end of the street in the hope of locating a taxi of any description so that we would not miss the train. A taxi came by almost immediately and soon we were squished in along with our cases and bags and on our way to the station.
The train took the usual time from Haifa to Ben Gurion at that time of night - about 1 hour exactly. we soon breezed through the security department and in no time we had passed through the hand luggage security check as well as passport control and we had time to relax with a nice Aroma coffee and a snack in the airy and spacious airport.
The flight to London with BA was on time. I was quite 'zonked' having had little sleep over the previous 3 days. We had experienced quite a stressful week having our apartment packed up for shipping followed by lots of cleaning and sorting other items -not to forget having to say farewell to so many wonderful friends in Haifa.
After we landed at Heathrow and collected our baggage, we organised ticktes on the Express train to Paddington. From there we took a London cab to Waterloo Station so that we could make our connection with Eurostar to Paris.
As we needed some food, we had some delicious cornish pasties and coffee at Paddington before heading off to Waterloo. The London taxi was so comfortable and spacious after the Haifa cabs - they are so well designed to accommodate luggage and people that need to be moved from one spot to another. Then there was the view from the taxi window. Oh! to be in London again! What an incredible city! The beautiful leafy, green parklands, elegant old buildings, Buckingham Palace, Queen Victoria's Monument, the Royal Guards, beautiful horses, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, Cleopatra's Needle, the Thames ... all in a taxi ride to catch a train!!
We arrived at Waterloo station with plenty of time to spare, so it was nice to just sit and have a drink, eat a snack and catch up with a newspaper. Then there was an announcement that the Eurostar service to Paris would be delayed around 2 hours as there were service problems - turned out to be a problem with the electricity supply. Although we were called to board the train at the normal time, the journey was very slow at first and took much longer than usual. Eventually we arrived in Paris . I slept for at least an hour of the journey as I was so exhausted. At Paris Nord station we had to queue with many others to wait for a taxi. Eventually our turn came, but we were rejected by the driver as our cases were too large for his vehicle. Luckily,we fitted comfortably into the next taxi and in no time we were delivered to our hotel that I had organised on the Intermet. 'Hotel Jardin de Villiers'- which is situated at 18 Rue Claude Pouillet -75017 Paris. It was wonderful to collapse into a very comfortable bed for the remainder of the evening.
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