Today got off to an interesting start as the breakfast room of our hotel was on floor -1 which as you can see from the first couple of photos below was probably the cellar of the building in previous times.

Today we were to catch the 16:12 Eurostar train from Gare do Nord to London where the 60th Anniversary Asian Odessey would come to an end. But before that we had some hours to do a lightning visit to Paris. As you will see in the photos below we visited the Cathedral de Notre Dame which is still under repair, walked along the River Seine, visited the area around the Louvre, the Tuileries Garden near the Louvre, the Place de Concorde, the Arc de Triomphe, and finally the Eiffel Tower with its ugly glass fence.

We ended our lightning trip around Paris with a taxi ride back to our hotel where we joined the group and headed for Gare du Nord to catch the Eurostar.

The Eurostar was an interesting experience, the journey itself was fast, with a top speed today of 250km/h (has an all time record of 330km/h) it covered the distance to London in 2.5 hours. But the boarding experience was terrible and without a doubt the worst of the entire trip. The waiting area is far too small for the number of passengers and people were sitting on the floor all over the place.

The final few photos are of St Pancras station in London and our place of arrival.

So this journey of 20,000 km, 60 days and 18 countries is over. We will spend the next week or so visiting family and then head off on the second leg of our personal journey to the UAE.