I feel like a hobbit on an adventure. We have never gone to Europe for so many consecutive days. A bit excited and apprehensive. It’s nice to be going without all the COVID requirements. Since we have to be at the airport on Saturday by 4:30 p.m., and since we won’t arrive in Paris until 8:00 p.m. on Sunday, we will not likely make it to Mass this weekend. Our only hope is a small window of time between the time we land in London at 10:30 a.m. and the time we catch the train to Paris at 3:00 p.m.
You might be thinking: a train to Paris? Isn’t there an ocean in between?
Our flight from Paris to London was canceled. No other alternative than to take train under the English Channel—the “Chunnel” I think they call it. So we’re expecting a $100 cab ride from Heathrow airport to the St. Pancras train station.
Back to the window of time for Mass. There is a Catholic church called Our Lady of Hal about a 20 min. walk from St. Pancras. I don’t know what Hal means but I keep thinking about the computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think its name was Hal. I don’t think it had anything to do with the Virgin Mary.
Our cab driver was Peter Jackson, not related to the Peter Jackson who directed the Lord of the Rings movies. He said he remembers sleeping in underground shelters as a kid when the Nazis were bombing London in World War II. He happened to be Catholic and took us directly to Our Lady of Hal—only 5 min. late. Here in England the Mass was in English.
Peter Jackson and his cab was $124. He gave us his phone number in case we’re in London again.
From Our Lady of Hal we headed over to the St. Pancras train station. I don’t know who St. Pancras is–maybe he (or she) Anglican. Sounds like a saint related to something medical. I took my first video in Europe while we were walking.
The train to Paris was uneventful except that our seats were at a table facing two young people on the other side of the table kissing all over each other. Rebecca thought maybe we should do it too. I didn’t take a picture of them; it would be too weird.
But I did manage to take a picture from the train of England (or it could be France) while we were in the Chunnel.
