Train train Brussels train train (14–15 July 2023)

Immediately after disembarking from the Queen Mary 2, we voted ourselves off the island (of Britain). It’s not that we don’t have lots of lovely friends and relatives in the UK — we do! — but we had a juggling convention in Göttingen, Germany we needed to get to and the clock was ticking!

Greg had done a route plan and discovered that it would actually be possible to make it all the way from Southampton to Göttingen in one travel day. But it would have been an extremely long day, with about seventeen hours on trains, arriving well after midnight. And of course that was only if everything went well, which is always a terrible travel assumption.

So, cooler heads (Karen’s) prevailed and we split the trip in two: Southampton to Brussels, then Brussels to Göttingen.

With fast-track disembarkation from the ship we were on a train from Southampton station at 8:00 am, at London Waterloo about 9:30, and, after a quick tube ride, in London St. Pancras shortly after 10. This was way, way earlier than expected: our Eurostar booking to Brussels wasn’t leaving until just after 2 pm. We tried switching to an earlier train but they were completely sold out for the day.

Karen in St Pancras — Karen strides purposefully through the St Pancras Eurostar waiting area, a bright flash of pink in a sea of drab.

Eventually our train was called and we made it through the security screening and passport control to an incredibly crowded inner waiting area. The last time Greg took a Eurostar from London was the summer of 2009 and the station experience was almost genteel — the place sure has changed in the intervening years.

Our trip to Brussels was uneventful and we had a short walk to our hotel. After dropping our bags and freshening up, we walked in to the centre of Brussels to meet up with Kevin Jaansalu and Mary-Lou in the Grand Place.

Kevin is a professor in the Chemistry and Chemical Engineering Department at the Royal Military College of Canada, which makes him a colleague of Greg’s. However, for the last five years he’s been seconded to an international organization in Brussels doing what amounts to technology outlook and engineering consulting. When Greg let him know that we’d be in Brussels for the evening, Kevin suggested we connect for dinner and offered to show us a little of the city centre.

Brussels Bourse — They sure don’t build stock exchanges like they used to. We’re not sure why Santa was coming to the Bourse, but we have to assume it’s good news.

We had a lovely time wandering through the city on our way to The Beer’s Garden, which Kevin claims has the best Spicy Thai Mussels in Brussels. Greg hasn’t tried all the others on offer, but he can definitely confirm they were very good. Karen had the Garlic Cream Mussels, which she also reported as excellent. And of course beer, because Belgium.

After dinner we continued our walk, seeing a few other Brussels landmarks, before bidding Kevin and Mary-Lou goodnight and returning to our hotel.

Brussels Fontaine Anspach — The Fontaine Anspach, commemorating the covering of the Senne river.

Pigeon handler memorial — The memorial to Belgian pigeon handlers (colombophiles) and pigeon soldiers of World War I. As a former Signal Officer, Greg can relate, ’though they’d phased out the pigeons shortly before he joined the Canadian Army. (OK, sixty years before. Whatever.)

Brussels street scene — A view of “The View” ferris wheel, as seen on our way back to our hotel.

The next morning we were up early and on our first train, from Brussels to Frankfurt. Unfortunately we hadn’t made seat reservations and the train was extremely crowded, so we ended up standing and sitting on the floor for two thirds of the ride.

People sitting on a train floor — Our “seat mates” for the first two and a half hours of the ride from Brussels to Frankfurt.

Side note: we’re currently travelling on Eurail passes. In most of Germany you don’t need a seat reservation to travel, even on the high-speed trains — you just need to have bought a ticket or activated your pass for that day. You can make seat reservations separately, for a small additional fee. That would have been a good idea on a heavily-travelled route on a summer Saturday morning, and now we know!

Eventually some seats freed up, and our train from Frankfurt to Göttingen wasn’t anywhere near as crowded.

Karen and Greg in train seats — The smiles are because we finally got seats!

On arrival in Göttingen we took a cab to our AirBnB, dropped off our stuff, and headed to CoastlessCon to see (and juggle with) our friends.