London to Brussels

Got my ticket from the machine and met James at St Pancras station with no problems. We went through security (which was pretty lax – they let me get through with a pair of scissors) and passport control (including French border guards on the other side of the barrier!), and then sat on the comfy seats for a while until boarding was called. I told James about my redundancy and started texting people. And ate my scotch egg. At the precise minute that James decreed, we stood up and went up the escalator to the platform and found the right carriage. Getting on, we stowed our luggage at the end of the carriage and found our seats – I had booked the window seat. We had a little wait before the train left, and the carriage was very quiet. That didn’t stop James and me from chattering away, and singing.

The train eventually pulled away, but it was too dark to see what we were passing. A lot of it seemed like tunnels. The trip was fairly smooth, and we were out on the French side of the tunnel before I knew it. Dan sent me a text to say that Flemish is a stupid language. On the train, the three languages of their announcements varied in order depending on where in the journey we were.

We arrived at Gare du Midi at about 9.30 p.m. European time, and walked down into the station. We had a little trouble finding the right platform, but bought 10 tickets and eventually found the number 3 tram. We caught it to Rogier, where we changed to the 25, and took that to Bienfaiteurs. With our maps, we found the B&B with no problems, in the rain, and discovered that the neighbourhood wasn’t anywhere near as bad as we thought it would be. Cathy and Richard let us in, and made me a cup of tea and chatted to us for a while about what we’d do while there. I asked them about the tortoises, and they said that they hadn’t come up from hibernating in the ground yet. This was a little disappointing. The house was fantastic: absolutely massive and beautiful. We walked up four floors to get to our room at the very top. The room was great, with a massive bathroom and a separate room with a toilet and computer. I had a shower and we went to bed at midnight. The room was very hot and I didn’t sleep well.