In transit

Tuesday, Oct. 18

We were up early (there was no sign of light yet) to make the trip to France (ok, it wasn't that early, it just doesn't get light in England in October until like 8 a.m.)
A few things about the hotel since my trip posts have been heavy on the photos and light on the writing. I think it is a pretty decent budget hotel in London (I'm not sure of the price though since everything was taken care of as part of the tour). Our room had two twin beds (that were farther apart than in Paris), a TV with about a dozen channels, a phone and a view of Russell Square. The bathroom was unlike anything I'd seen before - when you enter the room on the left was the toilet and bidet, while to the right was the tub (which was very deep) and the sink. Both "rooms" were made private by sliding a wooden door. I thought it was weird...
Another curious thing was when we left the hotel we had to leave the key (which was actually a key attached to a nearly foot long thin metal stick type thing). The bed was kinda uncomfortable, but the hotel was close to everything (either by walking or by tube).

We drove to Dover to take the ferry to France (which Dover photo to you prefer, altered (left) or unaltered (right)?). I love ferry rides because they remind me of my childhood trips to Prince Edward Island. Our tour manager said the water would be relatively calm. I found the English Channel choppy so I'd hate to see it on a bad day. The best part about the ferry ride: finding out the duty free sold Cadbury chocolate bars (English Cadbury is different than Canadian Cadbury and by different I mean oh, so much better. Dairy Milk comes in such varieties as mint chip, shortcake biscuit and turkish. I brought some home...although, sadly, not enough...).

This was my first view of France as we began to get closer to Calais.
We stopped at a rest stop after a half an hour or so (not sure where). It was here I first learned France is expensive (scene: walk into convenience-type store. Me (mouth slightly ajar) "Two Euros for a (can of) Fanta [pop]! That's like $3 CDN!!". I would repeat this scene every almost every time I bought anything in Paris. I never did this in London, despite the fact it takes $2.15 CDN (or so) to get one pound. (Sidenote: The fish and chips evening cost just 10 pounds for dinner, two coolers and cheesecake). This is also where I learned of the pink toilet paper. I was so in awe of this discovery I took 10 sheets or so as a souvenir. Apparently we used to have coloured toilet paper here, but they discovered the dye isn't good for the ladies. On my last day in France I found out not only does toilet paper come in pink, but also orange and purple. I came close to buying some, but I really only wanted one roll and I didn't think six would fit in my suit case.

Stay tuned. Paris posts to come featuring art, really big churches, very big palaces, quite big monuments and a trip to visit Monet.