Starting at 5am, we were well prepared for a long trip, with first class tickets (assigned seats, food, etc) to go from London to Ingolstadt, where my family lives. Little did we know…

London – Brussels

We had waited 3 days to get on this train and we were very excited for different reasons: 1. Visiting my family of course, 2. A train ride underneath the Channel, that connects England with France and 3. Being on the continent and off the island, whiteout borders, pass controls, mile long security lines and with one currency for the next few months!

So off we went through the Eurotunnel!

A: It opened in 1994 to connect England with France

B: It is 50,45 km long

C: it is 75 meters below sea level

D: The train goes up to 334.7 km/h

So this all sounds very spectacular, but in reality we didn’t even realize that we were in the tunnel until we were halfway through (there are quite a few tunnels during this train ride). It takes ~25 min.

2 hours after leaving London, we arrived in Brussels, Belgium. Our wait was scheduled to be 2.5 hours, so what do you do with 2.5 hours in Belgium?

Our flexibility and open-mindedness came in very handy, because after the waffles and almost at the end of our 2.5 hour wait we got some surprise!

Brussels – Welkenraedt

What should read like Brussels – Frankfurt didn’t work out: train cancelled and we had to choose between 1. Waiting another 2 hours for the next train to Frankfurt and miss all the other connections or 2. Go to Welkenraedt. And Welkenraedt is a city, actually more like a town, a very small town. It is a village with a train station to be precise. And that village is just the last one near the Belgium – German border. So they sent us there to just get rid of us I guess.Out of sight, out of mind! The instructions were easy: Go to Welkenraedt, take a train across the border and any train you like to your final destination. Since you already have paid, you can take any train of your choice. You just have to figure it out yourself. Great!

Welkenraedt is a village in the Ardennes, with beautiful green hills around. The Ardennes were a highly fought after place during WWI, according to a history professor, one of many interesting people you get to meet when traveling!

To make this long train travel day a little shorter:

Welkenraedt – Aachen

Aachen – Cologne

Cologne – Ingolstadt

So it was midnight when we had finally arrived in Ingolstadt after switching trains a few more times, after knitting, reading, playing cards and talking to people. My mom was thrilled! Usually she goes to bed when the sun sets, but she danced around the table until we showed up, she put food in front of us, a good night drink, and finally we ended up in bed. Exhausted and happy!