May 12   After leaving Armenia  and Georgia, we flew into Paris, grabbed our luggage and hopped  the Eurostar to London.

A 2 hour ride through  the outskirts of Paris, beautiful  farmland and with only 15 minutes under the  English Channel. (I was happy the time under water was so short!) A cab to Novotel Blackfriers Hotel  and smoothly checking in…until she said it would be $ 30:00 each for breakfast.  I whipped out my e-mail confirmation with “breakfast included”. She said “but the rules have changed” and I said “but my e-mail hasn’t.”  She went away and returned, all smiles, “we will honor your reservation.”

We had a 12^th floor executive level  room with balcony.

Very nice view. The view straight out was of the Shard Building by Renzo Piano and the tallest building in Europe. Unobtrusive during the daytime and lit with soft colors at night. If you look to the…