# London, England and Back Home

Source: https://sumnerevans.com/posts/travel/2022-lisbon-and-paris/london-back-home/
Published: 2022-06-19
Travel, Trip to Portugal and France, London, United Kingdom, Paris, France, Munich, Germany, Denver

Today, I was in a total of five countries. Why? Well, one of the things on my
bucket list was to go on the Eurostar from Paris to London under the Channel
tunnel. I don't know why it was on my bucket list; I think it was because I have
always liked trains.

Anyway, I woke up early and navigated my way to Gare du Nord for my 09:00 train
to London.

The process to get onto the Eurostar was very streamlined. They have automated
machines that scanned the boarding pass as well as automated passport scanners
for French and UK border control all before getting onboard the train.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to use the high speed tracks through France. That
was part of what I was looking forward to, but it was still a pretty view of the
French countryside out the window.

We entered the Chunnel at Calais and after the twenty minute transit in the
dark, we emerged in Folkestone! Obviously there wasn't much to see in the
tunnel, but it was very cool to go *under an ocean* in a train!

Due to not going on the high-speed tracks in France, we arrived over an hour
late into London. Eurostar has a decent refund policy, and I will be able to get
$40 compensation for the delay.

Initially, I was planning on leaving Europe via London, but it ended up being
way more expensive than flying both directions out of Lisbon, any my company
said they'd only cover the cost of a round-trip to and from Lisbon.
Unfortunately, I'd already booked my Eurostar, so it made sense for me to just
book a flight from London back to Lisbon and the fly from there.

The flight from Lisbon leaves tomorrow at 6, so I booked a late evening flight
out of London so that I could at least spend a few hours in the city between
arriving via my Eurostar and departing for Lisbon.

My first stop was the British Museum to see a special exhibit about Stonehenge.
It's a temporary exhibit, and I had seen that it was going to be there while I
was, so I'd booked a ticket ahead of my trip.

The exhibit had many artifacts from around when Stonehenge was built. They
demonstrated the sophistication and craftsmanship of the people living around
Stonehenge at the time of its construction. There were also displays discussing
a number of other related structures built around the same time such as
Seahenge. The items that archaeologists have found point to fact that the people
who build Stonehenge had a wide trade network that spanned vast areas of the
European continent.

After finishing at the British Museum, I wandered over to Chinatown for some
food. I ate at a very authentic dim sum restaurant, and I enjoyed it greatly. By
that time it was about time for me to head for the airport. I went and picked my
bags up at the luggage storage location (the name was [Kings Cross Luggage
Storage](https://kingscrossluggage.co.uk/) and it was super convenient). Then I
took the train all the way out to Heathrow via the Tube.

My flight to Lisbon was uneventful, and I went through Portuguese border
control. At that point it was around midnight in Lisbon, but I stayed up until
my flight with the intent of sleeping on the plane to line up my sleep schedule
with Denver time. So, I got a bite to eat, pulled out my computer to write some
on my blog, and waited for my flight.

My connection was through Munich, Germany (the fourth country for the day
(though, to be honest I wasn't quite sure what day it was when I arrived)). I
had a bit of an adventure going through border control in Munich, because they
noticed that the Portuguese border control had (a few hours before) marked me as
having arrived ten days in the future! The border agents talked for quite a
while (probably wondering why they'd allowed Portugal into the Schengen area),
but they let me through after explaining the issue and encouraging me to check
my stamps I was given.

By the time I got to the gate, I was quite exhausted. To make matters worse, we
had to take a bus to the plane. You would think that Lufthansa would have enough
jetways to accommodate all of their planes in a hub like Munich, but nope.
Eventually I got to my seat, and I think I was asleep before we took off.

Despite all of this, because of forcing myself onto US time through by the time
I arrived in around 14:30, I was actually felt decent.

It was quite a whirlwind of a day (or days, I don't know at this point), but I
got back home safe and sound.

I always like travelling, but I always like returning back to the comfort of
home. After the
[retreat](https://sumnerevans.com/posts/travel/2022-lisbon-and-paris/ericeira-portugal/)
and a week off, I'm rejuvenated and ready to get back to work tomorrow!