Strictly Forbidden

Who would see this sign in the Eurostar departure suite and think, Oops! Better remove my deadly weapon!? So I've added a poster that our giggling grand-daughter produced after our visit to Sealife in Blankenberge. It seemed fitting that travellers should remove sharks from their packing, too.

My Extra shows a 3D representation of Bruges wall-mounted above our bed in the Radisson Blu hotel. It rather appealed to me.

These are back-blipped from yesterday as I was too tired to blip by the time we got home, seven hours later than we expected. The train from Bruges to Brussels was no problem. We'd left in good time (ha!) for our Eurostar train, which should have left just after midday.

Then trains started being cancelled, though at this stage we didn't know.. We must have stood in a l-o-n-g queue to check in for over an hour. Through the passport and tickets check eventually! 

The delay we discovered several hours later was owing to an 'incident' on the line. The handling of the huge number of passengers waiting for hours on end with far too few seats was not good. First we were told, there would be a delay of "about half an hour". After this it was "delays of one hour" ... then ..."boarding should begin in about an hour" ... and so it went on. Our poor feet!

Eventually, we did at last board the Eurostar. We were given new seat reservations, which luckily worked. Other travellers wandered aimlessy up and down the train as their 'new ticket' seats were occupied. Terrible. 

The staff on the Eurostar itself were very good and the refreshments excellent, but we arrived in London having just missed a train to Grantham, and saying, "Never again!". 

An hour later, we headed home. Our kind neighbours picked us up. (They also enjoyed plums from our tree in our absence and we brought them some Belgian chocs! But how kind they are!)

All-in-all, we had a lovely ten days away, despite delays and accidents. Now need to pop round to our daughter's and collect our big case that travelled seamlessly in their car. At least we only had hand-luggage to manage.