After spending the night in Cologne we got up early and headed to the train station to catch our train to Brussels.
We arrived at the station and began scanning the departure board but couldnt see our train listed.
After a few minutes it came up on the screen with some writing underneath in German. Straight away I thought that says our train is cancelled.
We headed to the information office and the lady there said yes, your train has been cancelled but dont worry there is a replacement train, same platform, same time so we headed for the platform and sat there to wait for the train.
After a short time I noticed a couple running towards the platform exit and I thought they were on the wrong platform, then more people began to leave the platform and then more and more people. So we jumped up and headed once again towards the information office.
By the time we got there, there was a huge queue we joined the end of the queue. Colin walked to the front of the queue to ask an employee if we were indeed in the right queue. A lady standing nearby told him that the replacement train had also been cancelled and the next two trains were full so the only solution was to catch a commuter train to the last town in Germany, Aachin, at the border where we could get off and then catch a bus to Brussels.
The lady then told us to follow her and she took us to the train and we sat near her and when we got to Aachin she told us where to go to catch the bus to Brussels Midi. She was lovely. Such a great help. We would have struggled to work it out without help from an English speaker.
The bus trip turned out to be quite a nice and roomy coach and the trip took 2 1/2 hours to reach Brussels Midi. By the time we got there our Eurostar that we were booked on was long gone. We had to join a queue and speak with a Eurostar employee who was very helpful and offered us a seat on a train departing at 5pm. Our wait in Brussels was 3 1/2 hours. We didnt mind, at least we were going to get to London the same day.
Eventually we were onboard a packed Eurostar and we were soon disembarking in London. We had booked a hotel in Victoria for 3 nights so we can spend some time exploring London.
We arrived at the station and began scanning the departure board but couldnt see our train listed.
After a few minutes it came up on the screen with some writing underneath in German. Straight away I thought that says our train is cancelled.
We headed to the information office and the lady there said yes, your train has been cancelled but dont worry there is a replacement train, same platform, same time so we headed for the platform and sat there to wait for the train.
After a short time I noticed a couple running towards the platform exit and I thought they were on the wrong platform, then more people began to leave the platform and then more and more people. So we jumped up and headed once again towards the information office.
By the time we got there, there was a huge queue we joined the end of the queue. Colin walked to the front of the queue to ask an employee if we were indeed in the right queue. A lady standing nearby told him that the replacement train had also been cancelled and the next two trains were full so the only solution was to catch a commuter train to the last town in Germany, Aachin, at the border where we could get off and then catch a bus to Brussels.
The lady then told us to follow her and she took us to the train and we sat near her and when we got to Aachin she told us where to go to catch the bus to Brussels Midi. She was lovely. Such a great help. We would have struggled to work it out without help from an English speaker.
The bus trip turned out to be quite a nice and roomy coach and the trip took 2 1/2 hours to reach Brussels Midi. By the time we got there our Eurostar that we were booked on was long gone. We had to join a queue and speak with a Eurostar employee who was very helpful and offered us a seat on a train departing at 5pm. Our wait in Brussels was 3 1/2 hours. We didnt mind, at least we were going to get to London the same day.
Eventually we were onboard a packed Eurostar and we were soon disembarking in London. We had booked a hotel in Victoria for 3 nights so we can spend some time exploring London.
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