So up yesterday and off to the station. Had breakfast at the station, found our platform, and settled in to wait for the train. Which didn’t come. Due to a ‘technical fault’ it was running half an hour late. So panic, because that meant we’d miss our connection at K\u00f6ln, which meant we’d miss our Eurostar train and be stuck. So not so much panic, cause stuck in Europe could be fun.<\/p>\n
DB assured us that the conductor would call ahead and hold our train to Brussels – oh the joys of a joined up transport system run by the state! So we had a pleasant journey through Germany looking at church steeples and domes and sometimes church steeple domes. Then a frantic dash for the train door at K\u00f6ln – and found out they’d brought our train in to the same platform the Brussels train was on so it was just a mad dash up the platform and onto the train. Of course our seats were all the way at the other end of the train!<\/p>\n
So find our seats, sit down, and wait. And an announcement – due to a technical fault the train would be delayed. ARG!!! But it turns out we only left 10 minutes late and by the time we’d got to Brussels we were on time. So a stroll to the Eurostar terminal, through immigration , and into the waiting area. They are doing work on the Eurostar terminal in Brussels, so it was a bit of a warren – we were wondering if there would be an area to eat or if everything was closed. But nope, once you wind your way through everything is there and the first thing I saw was the Pierre Marcolini shop. So I have proper chocolate. (Joe says he started to say ‘I’ll get a seat and watch the bags’ but I was gone, had scooted into the chocolate shop.) We also got something to eat – actually I had to get into that queue and get us food cause Joe said the chocolate wasn’t enough and he wanted a beer. Then onto the train and on our way home. Through the dark clouds and rain. Ugh. Got out in London and it was cold and dark and damp. So back home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So up yesterday and off to the station. Had breakfast at the station, found our platform, and settled in to wait for the train. Which didn’t come. Due to a ‘technical fault’ it was running half an hour late. So panic, because that meant we’d miss our connection at K\u00f6ln, which meant we’d miss our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4T97-Jz","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":468,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2012\/06\/30\/meeting-up\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":0},"title":"Meeting Up","date":"Saturday, 30 June 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"K - So Friday went slowly, slower than a normal Friday. Once I finally finished work I grabbed my bag and headed off for Liverpool Street Station to get to Harwich and the ferry. Got to Harwich too early to board, so had a biscuit and a coffee while I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2014\/06\/15\/5am-thunderstorm\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":1},"title":"5am Thunderstorm","date":"Sunday, 15 June 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So to bed. Only to wake up at 5am to thunder. Our hotel was really nifty, all space themed, and the blinds were operated from a switch by the bed (but just not quite close enough to open and close from bed). So I had to sit up and open\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1985,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2014\/08\/23\/meet-you-on-the-train\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":2},"title":"Meet you on the train","date":"Saturday, 23 August 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So Joe has been working in Amsterdam all week, leaving me all on my own. Except last night I got on the ferry and came over. Got to Rotterdam and got on the 09.58 train to Antwerp. Joe got on the 09.18 from Amsterdam to Antwerp. I booked the tickets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":84,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2003\/05\/05\/dead-people\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":3},"title":"Dead People","date":"Monday, 5 May 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"So we are in Moscow in the Greenpeace office after two good days. Highlights: being met at the train station by a woman waving a Greenpeace calendar; getting a tour of Moscow by car and seeing the view of the city from the highest point; walking through Red Square; seeing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2008\/04\/10\/a-room-with-a-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":4},"title":"A Room with a View","date":"Thursday, 10 April 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Well we made it and for some photos check out Joe's Panoramio section. Or his Google web album. First stop St Pancreas which is lovely. I had my first real walk and gawp around the station since it's been redone and it is quite nice. We also got to see\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Frog Blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":81,"url":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/12\/81\/","url_meta":{"origin":2825,"position":5},"title":"What we’re actually doing ?","date":"Saturday, 12 April 2003","format":false,"excerpt":"I just realised that although I've been posting test messages I haven't actually given any idea of what we're actually doing! So here it is: (by the way, the trip is still quite flexible) We leave on 1 May early in the morning as our train leaves Waterloo at 8.30am.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Travel"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2865,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2825\/revisions\/2865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purple-penguin.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}