Apologies for the gap in update - essentially last few days have just been spent down in Tunbridge Wells (Royal Tunbridge Wells as I keep getting reminded) for the wedding. Staying in the Premier Inn, a chain that's apparently famous for its bedding. Decent rate I think came to 400 AUD for two nights.
Friday was spent on a pub crawl before the wedding, some real gems of a place like the one below. Beer is not as cheap as I thought it would be, on par or even in some cases more expensive than in Aus.
Survived the wedding, which was held in the nearby town of Robertsbridge rather than Tunbridge Wells itself. I can definitely get around the British tradition of going to the pub before the wedding for a few drinks, then drinking throughout the very brief ceremony, and then continuing to drink for the rest of the evening. Admittedly it was a very low-key thing - the "proper" ceremony was done in Australia a few months back - but the weather was amazing.
This morning was the world's okayest full English at the hotel restaurant, 12 GBP for the buffet. It was very busy and the food was being constantly topped up to keep up with demand.
Then a couple of trains back to London and I'm now in the Eurostar Premier lounge at St Pancras. I decided to splurge on Premier instead of first or second class and it earned its keep straight away - Premier check-in meant avoiding the horrendously long lines for everyone else, then straight through immigration and security via the separate Premier queue and into the lounge.
The lounge is a decent space, much quieter and less packed than outside but still fairly busy. No hot food, just bar snacks, but free pour spirits and wines.
The other perk is that Premier comes with unlimited free changes to earlier or later trains. My original booking was the 1401, so I just asked to move to the train an hour earlier - they seem to run about every 30 minutes - which still gave me a chance to check out the lounge. I could have taken an even earlier one and gone straight to the platform to board.
I lose a couple of hours to the time difference heading to Paris, so I'm glad to be getting in a bit earlier than planned.
Friday was spent on a pub crawl before the wedding, some real gems of a place like the one below. Beer is not as cheap as I thought it would be, on par or even in some cases more expensive than in Aus.
Survived the wedding, which was held in the nearby town of Robertsbridge rather than Tunbridge Wells itself. I can definitely get around the British tradition of going to the pub before the wedding for a few drinks, then drinking throughout the very brief ceremony, and then continuing to drink for the rest of the evening. Admittedly it was a very low-key thing - the "proper" ceremony was done in Australia a few months back - but the weather was amazing.
This morning was the world's okayest full English at the hotel restaurant, 12 GBP for the buffet. It was very busy and the food was being constantly topped up to keep up with demand.
Then a couple of trains back to London and I'm now in the Eurostar Premier lounge at St Pancras. I decided to splurge on Premier instead of first or second class and it earned its keep straight away - Premier check-in meant avoiding the horrendously long lines for everyone else, then straight through immigration and security via the separate Premier queue and into the lounge.
The lounge is a decent space, much quieter and less packed than outside but still fairly busy. No hot food, just bar snacks, but free pour spirits and wines.
The other perk is that Premier comes with unlimited free changes to earlier or later trains. My original booking was the 1401, so I just asked to move to the train an hour earlier - they seem to run about every 30 minutes - which still gave me a chance to check out the lounge. I could have taken an even earlier one and gone straight to the platform to board.
I lose a couple of hours to the time difference heading to Paris, so I'm glad to be getting in a bit earlier than planned.
