Dad came to wake me up at 6am today! Soo horribly early! I had a quick breakfast and then we packed our bags into the car. We were at the train station by 7:20am. Our first train of the day was at 7:57am, so we got settled on the train (it was already there) and then chatted with Dad. Ultimately, we had to say our goodbyes. As the train pulled away, we waved to Dad, and he waved to us, until we could no longer see each other.
The first train ride was only an hour so we just rode in a silent tired stupor. In Nuernberg we had a 30 minute wait for our next train. We rode on an IC, instead of an ICE, next because it was cheaper and only added an hour to our total travel time. Our assigned seats weren’t near an electrical outlet, so we sat in different seats and watched Star Trek: Voyager for the five hour ride. Apparently no one had reservations for the seats we chose because noone bothered us.
We arrived in Koeln around 2:00pm. Then we had to wait forty minutes for our next train. This one was an ICE. It took us an hour and a half to reach Brussels. I was so sleepy by this point that I just napped.
Our train was 10 minutes late to Brussels. In addition, when we got off the train from Koeln a wheel fell off Davin’s ‘new’ suitcase! So we just had to drag it with only one wheel. Unfortunately, that 10 minutes made us miss our next train because the Eurostar trains require you to go through passport control, xray machines, and a UK immigration check. They were very accommodating however, and put us on the next train at 5:45pm. So we just had the annoyance of waiting one additional hour.
Two and a half episodes of Star Trek: Voyager later, we arrived in London. There we bought national rail cards for one week of travel in London. This enables us to use any route or method of public transportation we want, as long as it is withing Zone 1 or 2 of the city. Since our apartment is in Zone 2, and everything worth seeing in the city is in Zone 1, it works perfectly for us. Also, the card enables us to get 2 for 1 entry to a lot of attractions in the city.
We then took the metro to Shepherd’s Bush Market, then we waited for a bus to take us to our apartment. We waited, and waited, and finally decided to walk, then of course the bus finally came and we missed it! Our poor suitcase had most of the bottom worn off from being dragged around. Finally we got the bus at a stop further down the street, and a nice woman pointed us in the right direction once we got off the bus. Then it was just a few more minutes before we arrived. We were so happy to have made it!!
We checked in, and got settled in for the evening. Then we went out and got dinner at a nearby take out Chinese food restaurant. Davin said the food was decent. I didn’t have any because I was too tired to be hungry. I just finished the last tuna fish sandwich that was left from our lunch. Our Dad packed us a really nice lunch today. Tuna sandwiches for me, and ham and cheese for Davin, several chocolate bars, potato chips, two cokes, and a couple apples. Thank you Dad!!
After dinner, we watched a little TV and I chatted with Mom and Scott on the computer. We saw an interesting reality TV show called Hell’s Kitchen. Then we went to bed around midnight (which was actually 1am German time).
They show Hell's Kitchen here too. Gordon Ramsay is another British asshole that Americans love to see be mean.
ReplyDeleteHe is pretty mean. We didn't like Hell's Kitchen that much. It was amusing to see once, but I wouldn't watch it again. We like better Gordon Ramsay's show where he has two restaurants compete against each other. We saw that on Tuesday night. In that show he isn't a total asshole cause he really respects the abilities of these already successful chefs. And it's kind of interesting to see the inner workings of restaurants. All the stuff the customer doesn't know about. Probably wouldn't be interested in watching that show for long either though. :)
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