RTW - week 19 (those "easy peasy" travel days)

Belgium came and went before we knew it! How is that even possible? We had an entire month in one location? Yet, gone it is. We said goodbye to the country, the cows and the meditation and booked a one way train ticket to London where our plane was set to take off to Singapore.

We had a car exchange with our fine family from Belgium, so this means that we have to leave our car at the house and hitch a ride to the closest bus/train station to make our way to Brussels Midi.

Remember, we are in the country, and after reaching out to 5 of the only taxis in the area (all denying to drive us – which apparently is something they can do) we decided that we were going to do this on our own.

Remember when I said I could make my blog posts consist of only travel days??

Okay here is the plan; Bryan drives the four of us and our luggage to Braine Le Comte (a mere 15 minute drive from our home) before returning the car to the home and running to the closest bus stop (you know, only a 20 minute run away). Easy Peasy right?!

Bryan successfully drops us off at 7am (Hunter directing our way of course – move over Google Maps – Hunter is in the house!) and we say our goodbyes including a quick “what if we get separated drill”. I have the passports and tickets for the next leg (we did figure it would be easier for 1 person to get a last minute train ride than 5) and he was on his way.

Our train was set to arrive at 9am, giving Bryan just enough time to make the drop off before catching the bus. The sky increasingly gets dark and I am chanting a “stay away rain” prayer under my breathe as the 3 kids run around the platform without a care in the world.

Here I was worried that I was about to be stranded in London with 3 kids and no idea where my hotel was and they are just concerned about where they can go pee. Which, as it turns out, is in a stair corridor under the train platform. (Somebody save me)

8:45 am rolls around and the rain is coming down hard. I instruct Hunter to wait at the train station front door so that as soon as Bryan arrives, they can both run to platform 5 and we can all drive off into the sunset together.

8:58 am pops up on the train station clock and low and behold two figures emerge just in time. We hug our soaking wet Bryan and pop on our train, a 2 level train which makes our transportation -obsessed boy’s day.

“Can we go all the way up to the second floor?!”

Sigh. We begrudgingly haul up all 6 suitcases to the next level.

A quick 30 minute ride and we are running to catch our next train (a high speed train that travels at 330 km/h, according to Hunter)

Apparently when you are moving between countries you have to go through customs (duh!) and we barely catch our next train to London, a very enjoyable 2 hour train ride.

As soon as we arrive we were hit with ENGLISH. I think both Bryan and I died a little and went to heaven. The things that you take for granted right? People understanding us!!

We had a cute little room located in a hostel just a few steps from Victoria station, which is where we were to catch our Gatwick Express a day later.

We spent most of our time soaking up the museums, which were incredible and walking the streets.

In true Bethany fashion, we only did the things that were free. Either way, we had an amazing time and are looking forward to the next chapter.

It’s SO hard to believe that our Europe chapter is coming to an end, and next up is the Southern Hemisphere.

Wow. When we first planned this trip, we only intended on Europe, we would have been on our way home by now!

We all agree how thankful we are to extend just a tiny bit more to see a whole lot more of the world.

But first…….. a 14 hour long haul flight, followed by an 8 hour layover (and self guided excursion through Singapore) followed by a 3 hour flight to Bali..

But in the words of my 6 year old daughter…. “easy peasy!”.