I have been following the Man in Seat 61 for quite some time now. He travels throughout Europe by train (always trying to sit in seat 61) and blogs about his experiences. He has very detailed explanations on how various train connections work.
So when I was invited to give the keynote presentation at a conference in Nottingham, I thought: Okay, why not? The Eurostar goes from Brussels to London St. Pancras, and the Nottingham trains go from exactly this station. No fussing around with getting across London! It's a bit more expensive than flying, but it is more climate conscious, so let's give it a go.
I was a bit chicken about doing the entire trip in one day, German (and Swedish!) trains are notoriously delayed. So I took a train to Cologne in the late afternoon on Monday and spent the night in the Ibis right at the train station! I had a gorgeous view of the Cologne cathedral, the room was small but quiet and comfy, what more do I need?
I then got the 9:41 from Cologne to Brussels, no rushing necessary. The train was a bit crowded, but I had reserved a seat. However, in my chilled out state I got off the train at Brussels-North, not Brussels-Midi. No problem, the kind information guys told me what track to stand on and take the next train in 8 minutes. Good thing I had an extra 30 minutes in the schedule!
At Brussels-Midi there is a loooooong line to go through a metal detector. I was already saying goodbye to my pocket knife and my water... I was permitted to go through the priority line as I was walking with my stick. Turned out I was allowed to keep the knife, there is apparently one that looks like a Swiss Army Knife, but is in reality a switchblade. What a relief! Then we had to go through immigration, once with a human guard and once with a machine that took my picture and compared it to my passport (and probably is using the data to train some AI system).
Behind all this was a glittering "Duty-Free" shop, and then you landed in a large hall with airport seats, full of people! Construction was apparently going on, at least there were toilets. I convinced a German gentleman taking up 3 seats with his stuff to let me sit on one, so it was not too bad, just crowded and ugly. About 20 minutes before the train was to leave at 12:51 we were able to board the train. It had something like 20 cars! I currently don't have a seatmate, but we are stopping in Lille to pick up more passengers.
As I went to plug in my computer I realized what I have forgotten: converters for the electrical outlets! I had thought of these one night, but my husband was sleeping in the room where we have them, so I told myself: I'll get them in the morning. Oh well, at least I know now what I forgot, I'm sure I can get one for a good chunk of cash in London.
The Chunnel itself was very boring. I'm glad the Man in Seat 61 advised me that it would be about 20 minutes, there was no announcement made on the train. It just got dark outside shortly after we breezed through the station at Calais. Nothing exciting happened, we were exactly on time in London St. Pancras!
I spent some time looking around for buying a ticket for London-Nottingham. It took three tries before I was in the right place. Since I am coming back on a Friday before 10am I need a sort of flex ticket, more expensive than many of the other legs of the trip and no senior citizen discount!
Now, on to the Conference tomorrow!
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