Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Taking the Eurostar
Eurostar trains depart from and arrive at London's St. Pancras International Station. Check
in at least 30 minutes in advance for your Eurostar trip. It's very similar to an airport check-
in: You pass through airport-like security, show your passport to customs officials, and
find a TV monitor to locate your departure gate. There are a few airport-like shops, news-
stands, horrible snack bars, and cafés (bring food for the trip from elsewhere), pay-Internet
terminals, and a currency-exchange booth with rates about the same as you'll find on the
other end.
CROSSING THE CHANNEL WITHOUT EUROSTAR
For speed and affordability, look into cheap flights. The old-fashioned ways of crossing
the Channel are cheaper than Eurostar (taking the bus is cheapest). They're also twice as
romantic, complicated, and time-consuming.
By Plane
Check with budget airlines for cheap round-trip fares to Paris or Brussels (see “Discounted
Flights from London,” earlier).
By Train and Boat
For additional European ferry info, visit www.aferry.to . For UK train and bus info, go to
www.traveline.org.uk .
Building the Chunnel
The toughest obstacle to building a tunnel under the English Channel was overcome
in 1986, when longtime rivals Britain and France reached an agreement to build it
together. Britain began in Folkestone, France in Calais, planning a rendezvous in the
middle.
By 1988, specially made machines three football fields long were boring
26-foot-wide holes under the ground. The dirt they hauled out became landfill in
Britain and a hill in France. Crews crept forward 100 feet a day until June of 1991,
when French and English workers broke through and shook hands midway across
the Channel—the tunnel was complete. Rail service began in 1994.
The Chunnel is 31 miles long (24 miles of it underwater) and 26 feet wide. It
sits 130 feet below the seabed in a chalky layer of sediment. It's segmented into
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