Travel day - London to Paris - July 6, 2016

With a huge thanks to our hosts, Kelli and Tim, and hugs all around, even though Tim hates them, we jumped on the tube to King's Cross and St. Pancras International train stations this morning.  Outside King's Cross there was a local food market with many stands peddling breads, cheeses, baked goods, and ethnic specialties.  Since we had a few pounds left over, we sampled a few things - a sauerkraut and mushroom pierogi, an English muffin, some apple strudel, and a chocolate hazelnut pan bake, all wonderful, of course.  Inside King's Cross, we stood in a much shorter line than last visit to get our photos taken at Platform 9 3/4 next to the Harry Potter shop - we didn't even have to fight over the Gryffindor scarf since they had 2, and we opted not to do a picture together anyway.  Across the street at St. Pancras International, we made it through passport check and onto our Eurostar train without any issues, and 2 1/2 hours later we were at Gare du Nord station in Paris.  It took a few minutes for us to acclimate to the Metro system, but we hopped 2 trains 4 stops total to within less than a kilometer of our Airbnb flat.  I gasped at my first glimpse of the Eiffel Tower, and Margo beamed from ear to ear, as this is what she has been promising me for close to 20 years.  Our flat is small, but perfectly functional, and it probably only took us 10 minutes to walk to the base of the Eiffel Tower.  All around were Portugal and Wales soccer fans - the 2 teams faced each other in Lyon tonight in the semifinals of the European Championships.  Wales lost, 2-0, but there's still Germany vs. France tomorrow night - perhaps our streak of being in the country of the winning team will work for France.  We walked back toward the flat along the Seine, just soaking it all in, and then found a place for dinner, the Bistro de la Tour Eiffel, just a block from the tower.  I had a wonderful salad with shrimp, smoked salmon, and avocado while Margo ordered a chicken club sandwich with French fries, which, sadly, were not anything different than we have at home. ;-)  No alarm set for tomorrow - we're just going to walk the area, pick up our Paris Passes, and maybe take in Boulevard Saint-Germaine.