Jeremy had his birthday that same weekend, and ended up appropriating the 3 days either side of it as designated Birthday events - the disastrous Arsenal vs AS Monaco game, followed by the much better Arsenal vs Everton game. If he could do that, why couldn't I appropriate the two weekends either side of my birthday weekend, which was coming up?
So deciding that the weekend before my birthday was prime for a trip, I did some cursory research and booked it then and there that Tuesday night beforehand. So where did I go for the weekend?
Brussels, Belgium. Why Brussels? A couple of main reasons - the Eurostar goes there, so I could finally travel on it and go through the Chunnel; and Belgium is the home of Tintin, and being in Brussels particularly I could go to the Tintin museum and related things. A train thing and a Tintin thing - two of my biggest likes, so makes a rather fitting 30th birthday trip, does it not? Almost like it was planned long in advance, but I assure it you wasn't - plus I had very little idea about what else to find in Brussels, as I knew stuff all about Belgium as a country either - its kind of one of those countries you know of, but always is in the shadow of the more prominent countries such as Germany and France. I knew they spoke French there though, but would discover the rest as I went along!
Day 1 - London to Brussels
I was now in France, transiting my way to Belgium. But it was dark and you couldn't see much - not that it mattered, I didn't want to know where we were in so much as how fast we were going as I knew we were now on the famous high speed lines of France. Across France, we averaged 290km/h but hit and exceeded the magic 300km/h a few times - the fastest I've ever been on a train yet, and I doubt that will get exceeded anytime soon. I was looking at the map on my phone and the thing that I particularly noticed was how quickly we zipped across the map - the train doesn't muck around, not at these speeds. We stopped at Lille, where across the platforms I got my first glimpse of a fabled TGV French high speed train. They do 300km/h right across France and are what the Eurostar is based on. The crossing of the border into Belgium was unmarked, except for my phone changing cell providers and the blue dot on the map suddenly jumping across the line.
After work on Friday 6th, instead of going home I went with my stuff to St Pancras Station to catch the 7.34pm Eurostar to Brussels. Checking in was fairly straightforward as was processing through security and border control; waiting in the lounge for boarding was the most tedious aspect, as it was very busy and there wasn't enough seats in the lounge.
I had chosen the hotel because it was the cheapest option I could find for the central city, and had good reviews. It was good, I can't fault them on that - and I was expecting it to be fairly basic but for some reason didn't quite expect it to be as much as it was. Not so much that facilities were lacking, but moreso that the bathroom and shower was shoehorned into what must have once been a wardrobe space, and the single coat of red paint on two of the walls when the others were a beige shade of much thicker paint, and the whole appearance was a bit tired. I suppose the hotel was 2-stars after all - what they lacked in decor though they made up for in their bed making skills - those were some very tight hospital corners!
Day 2 - Tintin, Comics and Getting Around
Day 3 - Morning in Brussels and the Trip Home
The bus duly arrived, everyone put their bags in the hold, then fought for the door to get on but the driver had to check names and passports as people got on so in that respect it was somewhat futile. I got a seat on the right hand side of the bus as I'd hoped, which wouldn't have the sun streaming in on it - but the window had one of those graphic lattices on it so my view was somewhat obscured. The bus had started in Cologne, so the very front seats on the upper deck were already taken - such a shame! The journey from Brussels to Calais was fairly unremarkable, we stopped at Gent to pick up more people but that was it, and the countryside was flat and unremarkable; but it got cloudier and colder and then suddenly we were at the border controls for Le Shuttle. This proved a bit of a performance; first we proceeded through one set of gates, then to a pull-off area beside a 2nd set of gates where we had to hop off the bus with our passports which were then checked by French authorities. Back on the bus, up to another set of gates and pull off area where we were told to get off and take all our luggage into another building - this one the UK border authorities, where passports were checked again and some people had bags screened (mine wasn't). Back on the bus, drive to a ramp and we waited on a queue to drive onto the train, which we did. We drove quite a length through the big wagons, until glass doors unfolded before us and a shutter came down in between - and the bus stopped, now isolated in its own wagon although there are passenger doors in the glass doors. Not that that matters much for us - it's a big bus, clearances are very tight and the normal doors can't open inside the wagon! So I had the odd experience of sitting on a bus, giggling up and down as it sat parked on the inside of a train, doing 160km/h through a tunnel under the ocean. I could see a small window in the side of the wagon from my window - when it went dark, you could tell we were in the tunnel. It was a very smooth 160km/h when you think about it - apart from the occasional giggle and infrequent clickety-clack sounds against a low hum, there was not much to give any clues that we were moving. Quite remarkable too is the condition of the train - for having seen nearly daily use for 21 years the train doesn't look it or feel it, although the stainless steel exterior is not as shiny as it once would have been.
Once the train arrived at Follestone, it was time to adjust watches to UK time (an hour behind the continent) and ride the last stretch to London. We arrived at Folkestone at 6.00pm and the bus was timed to arrive at 8.00pm but we arrived at Victoria coach station earlier at 7.40pm - I guess the variance is there so they can just hop on the next Le Shuttle if they miss one. A tube ride home, and my adventure was over.
Summing Up
So with the trip to Brussels, I have pretty much conceded by comprehensive Germany trip is not possible because it simply costs too much - maybe next year or another time? I do have at least 1 overseas trip locked in and booked, I'm quite looking forward to but there are at least two long weekends before then, and it would be a waste not to do something during that time, domestic or otherwise...