On a Sunday afternoon in late July my wife and I will be departing from
St. Pancras station in London via Eurostar. Prior to this we will be
using a rental car for a few days, based in Cookham, Berks. We have
not yet booked the car, but before we do so I'd like to ask the group's
advice on the best place to drop it off so that we can then easily get
to St. Pancras with as few rail/taxi/bus transfers as possible.
We would rather not have to drive into London with it, but have driven
in Madrid, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Milan and Naples during rush hour
without disaster, (though not without frustration,) so could pull it
off on a summer Sunday afternoon if a better alternative is not
forthcoming. (However, is St. Pancras within the congestion fee zone?)
The main problem seems to be that all of the stations on the Cookham
side of London connect into Paddington, Marylebone, or Euston, so we'd
need to then make it through the Underground system with luggage.
The fact that one of our party (father) needs to be dropped at Heathrow
at 6:30 AM the same day may also figure into our plans, though a taxi
from Cookham to Heathrow for them is an alternative. (This raises the
possibility of simply dropping the car at Heathrow as we let them off,
and taking the Underground from Heathrow to St. Pancras, which looks
like it involves a single line (Piccadilly?) and hence no transfers.
Is this correct?)
Thanks in advance,
Chris (in California) |