Mission Impossible

The Task: Get from Rotterdam Central train station to St Pancras, London. 

The normal way: Take one train from Rotterdam Central to Brussels South Station. Change here and catch a Eurostar to St Pancras. Easy right? 

I arrived at Rotterdam Central station at 8:50 on Tuesday morning only to find that my 8:55 train, and actually all trains from Rotterdam to Brussels, was cancelled. On the way to Amsterdam we noticed that this was the case over the Easter weekend but thought that maybe it was just because it was Easter weekend and surely it will be fine when Bron needs to catch a train to London on Tuesday morning, right? Wrong! 

New Task: Get from Rotterdam Central station to Brussels South Station by 12:30 pm in order to catch the Eurostar to St Pancras. Mission impossible? 

After a brief moment of panic, I asked the guy at the info kiosk how am I supposed to get to Brussels today? The answer was catch a train the 9:08 train to Breda and then catch a connecting train to Brussels. Sounded way to easy and I had a feeling that he wasn't giving me the whole truth. I was right. I smsd my amazing husband who sent back a list of connecting trains complete with station name, platform number and time of departure. Thanks love! 

The list went like this: Catch the 9:08 from Rotterdam arriving in Breda at 9:33. Then catch the 9:52 to Roosendal arriving at 10:11. Catch the 10:34 from Roosendal arriving in Brussels at 11:42 with enough time to catch the 12:29 to London. Sorted!

Except there were no trains running from Roosendal to Brussels either which they only announced 5min before the train was supposed to arrive. So I caught the 10:37 stop train (read: the train stops at EVERY station!) to Antwerp which took about an hour. At Antwerp I finally caught a train to Brussels. Another stop train of an hour though which meant I missed the 12:29 train to London.

Mission failed!

Travelling is not for sissies! Fortunately Eurostar changed my ticket to the next available train which was at 14:29 arriving in London at 15:29 (16:29 European time). So I finally got to London at 15:30 and home after 4pm but at least I made it. What a long and stressful day! And I have getting back laden with luggage to look forward to! Oh yay. Really hope the trains from Brussels to Rotterdam are running by then!! Chances? The website isn't helpful either because it has all the train times but doesn't say whether the trains are running or not.

After a traumatic day I took it a bit easy yesterday. I did pop into the SA shop though and was assaulted by the smell of biltong in the air. What a good smell!! I resisted the temptation to buy any though. Next time I might not be as strong.

Today I am going into the city to check out a few things. After some warm sunny weather the temperature has dropped again and it is cloudy and cool with rain predicted for the Royal Wedding tomorrow. Apparently the rehearsal at Westminster Abbey last night was 'breaking news' on BBC yesterday. How sad. It is a long weekend here (Fri and Mon off) so looking forward to hanging out with Michelle and Graham.

News on Justin's side is he had his first bike ride to work on Tuesday which went well. And cricket practice went well on Tuesday with no hassles after hurting his shoulder at practice two weeks ago so that is good news. It is Queen's Day on Saturday celebrating the Queen's birthday (actually the previous or even previous Queen's birthday) which is a big day. Everyone takes to the streets and wears lots of orange. Bleak I am missing it. Sunday is also a holiday (1 May) but in the Netherlands the Monday is not a holiday if the Sunday is a public holiday. But next year we will have Mon and Tues off due to the leap year =) 

Hope you all had a good Easter and that the Two Oceans marathon was a goodie if you ran it. I will still post a blog about our Easter weekend activities. Hopefully soon, but might only be when I get back from London.


Have a good week and enjoy another long weekend!!

x