Brussels: Day 1 - the train rides

we went to Brussels for 5 days during the summer half term school holidays. the journey started at 5.15am on Friday 23/5/2014 and ended just before midnight on Tuesday 27/5/2014.

I bought the Eurostar tickets way back in February and booked the accommodation via airbnb website just a week before we left. we are more of "free & easy, go out as and when we are ready"  kind of holidaymakers and prefer renting self catering apartment/cottage when we go on holiday so that we can have home cooked breakfast and dinner before and after the day out

Friday 23/5/2014

5.15am : drove to Nottingham train station, parked at the Station Carpark  (parking fees came up to a total of £24 for 5 days)

5.50am-8am : train from Notts to Grantham, 10 minutes transit and from Grantham-King's Cross & walked to St Pancras. (total return fare £132.00, return trip from St Pancras direct to Notts).  direct train from Notts to St Pancras (& return) would have cost us more than £200.

11am : Eurostar from St Pancras to Brussels;  arrived at Brussels Midi/Zuid at 2.00pm. (they are 1 hour ahead).  its been 7 years since we last took Eurostar crossing the English Channel to Paris in summer 2007; at that time our lil missy was only 5 months old.

took the Metro from Midi to Louise & tram to Baillie, not knowing that we could have taken the tram direct from Midi to Trinity which is just 5 minutes walk to our apartment at Rue Chatelain in Ixelles. we were met by Evelyn's (the owner) friend, Laurent who is a very nice guy and speaks really good English.  Most spoken languages in Belgium are French and Flemish (Dutch) and most of the people know how to speak English.

 

the one bedroom duplex flat is clean, comfortable and well equipped with cooking utensils, washing machine & dryer, dishwasher, microwave etc. kids sleep on the sofa bed in the living room on the ground floor and we took up the big double bedroom in the basement.

we decided to stay in for the rest of the day. my other half went out grocery shopping at the nearby Carrefour express and he found a store selling halal stuff as well.