Eurostar to London for the Weekend, Again

It's still hard to believe how fast it is to go from Paris to London on the Eurostar.  We were rolling at about 300 kilometers per hours, according to the overhead screen on-board the train car.  This translates to 186 miles per hour.  Not bad!  So, the ride takes about 2 hours 15 minutes, and you get dropped off at Kings Cross-Saint Pancras station in central London, with Underground stops right underneath to get you to your hotel.  It's hard not to say Saint Pancreas.  Even harder than not saying Downtown Abbey.

We stayed in a really nice hotel - Serjeant's something or another.  Weird spelling of sergeant.  It was right on Fleet street and had a big, quiet room with big TV, large bathroom, and even a sort of love seat at the foot of the bed.

The first thing we did was go to Shake Shack at Covent Garden for a "concrete", their signature custard ice cream dessert.  Shake Shack concretes are a must on any London visit. This early dessert was to tide us over until dinner.  After we had our dessert, we took off walking from Covent Garden, through Soho, and over to Piccadilly.  Along the way, we saw a bookstore and stopped in to browse.  We don't get to browse in English language bookstores much in Paris.  Jennifer was concentrating on looking into our trip to the Pyrenees in August.

It was a sunny, cool day, and lots of people were out and about walking around.  We were on a long pedestrian-only strip for much of the walk.  When we reached the end of the walk, we found a really huge book store with about seven stories.  So, we went in and browsed some more.  I bought The Sellout, the book that won the Man Booker prize this year.  Jennifer found two books on the Pyrenees we thought would come in handy.

Later that night, we showed up to a packed Ceviche, with reservations I'd made online about a month earlier.  The atmosphere is loud latin music, dim lighting, a tiny bar at the front, and just past the bar, a small room with small wooden tables crowded together.  We love the pork fritters, tuna ceviche, and lots of other small dishes there.  But, the big attraction is the Pisco Sour, which is the best we've had since our trip to Peru.  The egg white foam on top is smooth and creamy and perfectly balances out the sour of the drink.  We had to have two each.  Jennifer having only mixed drinks and no wine!?!?  That never happens!

After that, we wandered home.  We went out onto the pedestrian bridge that looks over the Thames and the London Eye (giant ferris wheel).

Next morning, we found a nice breakfast place near the hotel and sat at a high table looking out the window.  Directly across the street from us were the Royal Courts, in an impressive-looking complex of gray stone, castle-like buildings, with arches and crenelation. It would make a good shooting location for Game of Thrones.