We started out in Remich in Luxembourg and with a clear morning started out on our final 35 k of the ride along the Moselle. This was probably the most beautiful day of the ride through vinyards and mountains on either side of the wide, smooth river - just beautiful.
We had to be into Wasserbillig in time to catch our connecting train to Luxembourg and on to Brussels. There had been a bit of a problem with these arrangements - I had been advised by the cycle travel company that the barge would be docked by midday so I made all the train arrangements accordingly finishing with catching the Eurostar in Brussels at 6.55 pm. Unfortunately they advised us at the beginning of the cycle that finishing time was about 2.00pm which made my first planned train link from Wasserbillig to Luxembourg leaving at 12.45 a bit Difficult! We did a bit of negotiating with the captain and tour guide that we should be able to go for the 1.09 train and he would be OK to berth by about 12.30 so all should be good.
Absolutely beautiful ride and finished in Wasserbillig about 12.15 but no sign of the barge - captain called to say he was held up by a large barge through the locks and was trying to get there by 12.45! We went and bought the rail tickets and then looked out for the barge which eventually berthed at 12.50 so a very quick collection ton of our gear, fond farewells to our cycling colleagues and a run to the station where the train was actually in but we managed to get on board - a close Call!
Changed trains in Luxembourg and arrived in Brussels just in time to line up for the security and immigration checks that go with the Eurostar eXperia centre. Time to go and get some tea before boarding - Perfect!
After that things got interesting. Everyone was standing up ready for the boarding call when an announcement was made - in French Only! It caused a bit of fuss amongst some of the crowd (obviously those who could speak French) and those of us who had to rely on talking with others gradually worked out that the train was cancelled. No other messages, no nothing. Eventually those of us who crowded around the information desk found that we could get yellow tickets to rebook for some other time and we should go "to the front desk" for further announcements.
Absolute mayhem. No announcements, the crowd for the next train starting to arrive and lots of angry people trying to rebook online or by phone and no idea of what was happening. Eurostar was pretty well a disgrace really - they had no idea of what to do. I decided to just stand in the crowd and not leave until something was sorted and gradually as people got frustrated and moved away I got closer to the front. After literally about two hours I was close enough to push my ticket in front of the girl at the desk and asked her to rebook us for the first train in the morning and get us a hotel room for the night and she Did! Thankfully by about 9.30 we were in the Ibis hotel across the road with a ticket for the 7.00 train in the morning.
Now that is an interesting day Travelling!
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