Some pictures from yesterday and this morning, 17.6.2025. Saving precious inbound/outbound days on my 3 month continuous global pass, which I am splitting into 4 x 2 week trips, I used Eurostar snap to take the train to Brussels yesterday. It cost me £45, booked about a week ahead for any train between 13:00 and the last train at 19:34 which it inevitably was when train and seating were notified to me 48.5 hours before departure. I arrived at St Pancras very early - I wanted to do some research first hand from Paddington watching flows of passengers, especially those on journeys with limited mobility (not only 'disabled' but fearful and luggage-encumbered too) and also to allow for any disruption on my 100 mile journey in to London.
St Pancras, and it's neighbour next door at King's Cross - and Paddington too - are lovely stations but overrun by the popularity of services. But if you arrive early, you can find a quite spot just a flight of stairs up from the main concourse. In preparation for the Zoo of departure on Eurostar with crazy zigzag lines for security and passport control followed by waiting in an overcrowded lounge where an element of people feel that it's OK to put there baggage on the seat next to them, even if others are left standing. There *is* a polite and thoughtful element / side to people and I found a seat ...
Paris trains were running an hour late with the last of the day cancelled, the 19:00 being held back to 20:00 so it was really the next-to-last schedule that failed to run. There was a warning that our Brussels train would be delayed as crew were coming in on another train, but in the end it ran on time. And so to Brussels, and on to a late check-in at the Ibis Budget in Leuven - but that's a follow up story.
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