Tuesday, January 21 – last day in London

I had big plans for my last day in London; enhanced by the fact that it was also my 60th birthday! I started out back at the V&A Museum, where I attended a tour/talk regarding the history of the museum. It was very interesting!

It was a beautiful day, so I decided to take a walk through the parks as I made my way to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square (planning on attending a show tonight). On the route to Kensington Gardens I stopped to get something to eat at a favorite sandwich shop. Well, let’s just say it was not as good as I remembered! Was it always marginal, and my faulty memory just made it seem better, or had it actually had a serious drop in quality over the years? Mmmm, I’ve got to go with the latter. But I am 60 after all, so you never know!

By the time I reached Leicester Square I was getting kind of tired. Still feeling the effects (or is it affects, I never get those two straight?!) from an over-strenuous weekend, or just old age? Probably both! So, sadly, I decided to head back to the hotel and get ready for my day of travel tomorrow.

Sidenote: I did put in 17k steps today, so maybe being tired was a little justified!

What a pathetic birthday, right? No arguments. I don’t even have any decent pictures to post. This is one I will try to blot out from my memory. And based on my sandwich shop issues, that shouldn’t be a problem!

But how appropriate is it that on my 60th birthday I was too tired to make a night of it!!

Wednesday, January 22 – transit from London to Luxembourg

I’ll be travelling in four different trains over a period of about 6 hours today.

Step 1: Take the tube from South Harrow to St Pancras. Duration: about 45 minutes. Class: none. Reserved Seat: yeah, right!

Step 2: St. Pancras to Brussels – Zuid through the Chunnel on Eurostar. Duration: 2 hours. Class: 2nd. Reserved Seat: Yes.

And here’s probably the only good thing about turning 60 – I now qualify for the senior discount on European train travel! Whoo Hoo!!

I had a 28 minute layover in Brussels, which turned out to be a good thing because we arrived 20 minutes late!

Step 3: Brussels to Arlon (a Belgian city near the border of Luxembourg). Duration: 2 hours 50 minutes. Class: 2nd. Reserved Seat: no.

I only had 5 minutes to catch the train to Luxembourg, but thankfully we arrived on time (as you’d expect for most of the European train systems). And my connecting train was just one track away.

Step 4: Arlon to Luxembourg City. Duration: 22 minutes. Class: 2nd. Reserved Seat: no.