Let me say, first of all, that despite everything I am about to tell you we had a really good weekend, just a few hiccups along the way shall we say?
Bad thing number 1: On Friday afternoon I get a phone call from Katy My train has been cancelled...luckily this was followed by an explanation of her plans for alternative trains via here there and everywhere it seemed, but she arrived with us, all be it about an hour and a half later than she should've done.
Satuday afternoon after lunch we headed off to London, we went in the car so that we could leave any bags from our retail therapy at Westfield Stratford in the car whilst we were at the 02 Arena seeing Olly Murs. Good idea you'd think? I bet you think you know what is coming next don't you? I bet it's not what you think, well...not immediately anyway! We headed back to the car before the show to drop off the one bag we had managed to acquire (disappointing shopping trip!) and [Bad thing number 2 coming up...]the boot wouldn't open. This wouldn't have been too much of a worry at that moment in time if we could've got into the rest of the car, but the remote was having no effect at all. After my genius suggestion of trying to get into the car the old fashioned way and actually using the key we were in, but now came the task of working out what was going on, was it just the remote? One quick glance at the dash and it's flashing lights told us that wasn't the case, it looked like the alarm had been going off. I hopped out of the car to take a look to see if there was any damage to the car, but there was nothing. Meanwhile Mum had attempted to start up the car and all that did set off the alarm again, and you could only stop it by keeping your foot on the brake...Brilliant! Time to call the AA out now then? Whilst Mum was on the phone to the AA the realisation hit her of what had happened, she'd left the headlights on for the last 3 hours and the battery had run flat...(On hearing this news my Dads first reaction was didn't you hear the beeping?...) We were very lucky though, after first being told that the AA were very busy in the area and it could take up to two hours the man arrived with us within 20 minutes, telling us that the roads were dead and there was nothing going on- interesting! So after sitting in the car running it for a while we headed back into the 02.
We had a great time, Olly even came right out into the audience and walked right past the row in front of where we were sitting (I have a video but it's really not worth posting it!). At about 10.30 we headed out of the arena into a good few inches of snow... fantastic. Bad thing number 3, not too helpful when you've come in the car I'm sure you'd agree. Thankfully when we got back to the car it unlocked and started up fine so there was no issue there. The thing is the M11, M25 and A12 didn't appear to have seen any grit, despite the overhead signs that were telling us other wise "Salt Spreading" they said, but bearing in mind the road was totally covered I really fail to see how we were meant to believe that one! There were cars slipping and sliding everywhere, and as usual the idiots who over take you thinking they can do better and then are inevitably the ones that cause you problems up ahead. The real issue comes when you want to get back to Maldon, given the choice between the back roads or going through Danbury you're not really left with a suitable option! In hindsight we'd have gone for the back roads though I think! After already having been stuck and pushed once near the start of the hill we had to slow down after the car in front got stuck, predictably leaving us stuck too. We struggled for quite some time, but we eventually saved by a lovely couple that live in one of the houses on the hill. They had been going out for the past 2 hours helping people and we were just one of the cars they'd helped on their way that night. With 4 of us pushing the car we eventually made it to the top and were on the way home once more. It wasn't until we were turning into our own road that we got stuck again, but we dug ourselves out with the shovel Dad had sent us off with earlier on and got Dad to come and give us a hand and we eventually made it home. From all the news reports we were the lucky ones, there were people stuck on the M25 for 6 or 7 hours that night, and people stuck in the 02 overnight because the underground had ground to a halt. The extra hats, gloves, scarves and socks I'd taken with us don't seem so silly now, we may have needed them!
On Sunday Katy headed to Witham with her brother, she was meant to be seeing all of her family, but the roads were just too bad for them to be able to head down from Norfolk. Once she'd gone we had a lovely walk down to the Prom in the snow and I think now our series of unfortunate events is over. They do say things come in threes don't they?
Scarily enough this time next week I'll be in Granada! Mum is coming with me for the first few days whilst I get settled in, but by Thursday I'll be on my own again and truly starting the second half of my year abroad. I'll be out there until the end of June, and unlike when I was in Brussels and could easily hop on the plane or the Eurostar I don't plan to come home, it would take too long for it to be worth it bearing in mind I'd have to leave on a Friday and be back for classes on Monday morning. I've already got plenty of weekend plans though so the time should fly, I've hopefully got a friend coming out to visit in March, and then I'm planning on going to Gibraltar, after that I've got a holiday booked in Majorca with some of the girls from Uni, following that 2 trips to Cordoba and Seville before my parents and my Nana come out for the week that covers my Mums birthday and my 21st! After that it's just something like 6 weeks to go and I know at least 1 or 2 more people that want to visit Granada as well as having exams to do. I've not even gone anywhere yet and I have planned out most of my time right up until the end!
Sorry for the long post and that some of it may have bored you to death! But to be honest...lets think about what sparked you to read this in the first place? Is it your boundless interest for what I'm up to or just mindless procrastination any way?!
Showing posts with label Trains. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Trains. Show all posts
Monday, 6 February 2012
Sunday, 13 November 2011
A weekend in Luxembourg- we did a lot of walking!
Walking. This seems to have been the theme of our weekend, and don't get me wrong, I enjoy wandering round and discovering places but I have a limit, and I think my legs have found it this weekend as they are no longer functioning at full capacity I must say....
The journey to Luxembourg city from here isn't too bad, just over 3 hours on the train. It all went swimmingly, until the little screen on the train started saying "Terminus Arlon" (a town in Belgium...) and we started worrying just a little! Luckily it must have meant that Arlon was the last stop in Belgium as the train soon continued onto Luxembourg. Phew! We arrived in a rather cold Luxembourg in the early afternoon and headed off to the hotel to dump our bags. After filling in a form that seemed to want to know everything but my inside leg measurement we got into our room. We decided that the best thing for us to do first would be to go to the tourist information centre to get ourselves a map (as you will later learn it obviously wasn't good enough...). Seeing as it was still mid-afternoon we wanted to wander over to the European area and see everything over there and it made sense to get it over and done with first as it was on the other side of the city. So off we went, in the direction that according to our map and the signposts would lead us to the area with all the EU institutions in it. After a while we were faced with a long path, leading uphill, through the trees. For some reason this didn't strike us as odd, I just remarked that they must send the tourists the scenic route as presumably all the people that work in the EU institutions don't walk this way! So up we went...it didn't take too much longer for us to realise that we clearly weren't going to get there that night. The problem was this being abound 4.30-5pm in November it was starting to get dark and we were on a rough path, through the woods and round an old fort, with no lights. Brilliant. The choice being either to turn back where we'd come- hardly a short distance, or continue we decided to march onwards. Eventually we ended up at what you could loosely term as civilization. I hesitate in calling it this as there seemed to be no people, shops or anything of the sort. By now it was too late to be heading for the EU stuff and about time to be searching for food. Problem. Luxembourg is basically on 2 levels, the high town and the low town. They aren't very well linked-other than by a great many stairs and you'll have a job locating them. So this is how we spent a large part of our first evening in Luxembourg, trying to "escape" the Ville Basse and get back where human life could be found. We managed this - via an epic flight of stairs and a series of rather steep hills. Nice relaxing welcome to Luxembourg.... Food was soon located, and you know you're in a posh expensive restaurant when they take your coats and give you some pea-mousse thing whilst you look at the menu. It was a fish restaurant and all the food looked (and tasted) very nice. We did feel a bit like (bad pun coming....) fish out of water though as we were most certainly the youngest people in there.
Saturday-
On Saturday we had to head to the European area, after all the mess of the night before we had worked out where we'd gone wrong and how we'd ended up underneath the bridge we'd actually wanted to be crossing. As it turns out it is probably for the best that we'd not made it there the previous night as there was a lot to see, it took us a good hour or so to walk round and wouldn't have been so good in the dark. The geek in me wants to go and see the rest of it in Strasbourg now seeing as I've seen the European Commission and all the other bits here and now (here comes the list...) the European Investment Bank, European Court of Justice, European Court of Auditors and the European Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg. I'm pretty sure we also saw where the main translation centre is too. I've been looking into all the types of translation jobs they need in the EU, I'd love to translate for the Court of Justice but that would involve some form of Legal qualification which I don't have, well I can dream can't I?
After this we did a hell of a lot more walking! I've put some photos on Facebook but for those of you not on there I'm about to stick them on Flickr too so I'll give you the link, just give me a chance to get them up there.
2 observations about transport in Luxembourg- there are loads and loads of Audis, especially in the European area where at least I'd say 1 in 3 cars were Audis. Also Luxembourg, despite being tiny seems to be the European Capital of busses or something, there were hundreds of them, often with the very useful destination on the front of "Luxembourg".
After exhausting all the views and monuments of the city, writing postcards and drinking expensive (but very nice) coffee we went to the restaurant next to the one we'd been to the night before. Whilst we were looking at the menu outside the waiter from the other restaurant came past and said hi, 2 young female students were probably a rare occurrence for that place, must've been easily recognisable or something! When we were inside we were offered the English menu and caused some confusion when we asked for the French, and one of the waiters clearly wasn't sure as he insisted on speaking to us in English each time, although the others did at least stick to the French. When we ordered the waiter asked me if I was sure that was what I wanted, did I know what it was? I thought I did having read the English version of the menu outside but evidentially it was a different thing entirely. What I was ordering, the internet now tells me, was part of a pigs large intestine.... yuuummmmm :S I'm glad I didn't go for that in the end then... As the exciting, party-animal, Erasmus students we are, we then returned to the hotel, got into our PJs and watched Danse avec les Stars.....
Sunday- To round off our trip we headed to the Museum of the History of Luxembourg City, presuming that the museum would be some what relative to the size of the city itself, it was surprisingly big though but a nice way to spend our last morning before heading back to the station and returning to Brussels.
I know I've already told you how much we walked, but seriously, my legs really really ache now. I've had my exercise for the week. Maybe I don't need to climb the stairs every day?!
My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bexnobes/
The journey to Luxembourg city from here isn't too bad, just over 3 hours on the train. It all went swimmingly, until the little screen on the train started saying "Terminus Arlon" (a town in Belgium...) and we started worrying just a little! Luckily it must have meant that Arlon was the last stop in Belgium as the train soon continued onto Luxembourg. Phew! We arrived in a rather cold Luxembourg in the early afternoon and headed off to the hotel to dump our bags. After filling in a form that seemed to want to know everything but my inside leg measurement we got into our room. We decided that the best thing for us to do first would be to go to the tourist information centre to get ourselves a map (as you will later learn it obviously wasn't good enough...). Seeing as it was still mid-afternoon we wanted to wander over to the European area and see everything over there and it made sense to get it over and done with first as it was on the other side of the city. So off we went, in the direction that according to our map and the signposts would lead us to the area with all the EU institutions in it. After a while we were faced with a long path, leading uphill, through the trees. For some reason this didn't strike us as odd, I just remarked that they must send the tourists the scenic route as presumably all the people that work in the EU institutions don't walk this way! So up we went...it didn't take too much longer for us to realise that we clearly weren't going to get there that night. The problem was this being abound 4.30-5pm in November it was starting to get dark and we were on a rough path, through the woods and round an old fort, with no lights. Brilliant. The choice being either to turn back where we'd come- hardly a short distance, or continue we decided to march onwards. Eventually we ended up at what you could loosely term as civilization. I hesitate in calling it this as there seemed to be no people, shops or anything of the sort. By now it was too late to be heading for the EU stuff and about time to be searching for food. Problem. Luxembourg is basically on 2 levels, the high town and the low town. They aren't very well linked-other than by a great many stairs and you'll have a job locating them. So this is how we spent a large part of our first evening in Luxembourg, trying to "escape" the Ville Basse and get back where human life could be found. We managed this - via an epic flight of stairs and a series of rather steep hills. Nice relaxing welcome to Luxembourg.... Food was soon located, and you know you're in a posh expensive restaurant when they take your coats and give you some pea-mousse thing whilst you look at the menu. It was a fish restaurant and all the food looked (and tasted) very nice. We did feel a bit like (bad pun coming....) fish out of water though as we were most certainly the youngest people in there.
Saturday-
On Saturday we had to head to the European area, after all the mess of the night before we had worked out where we'd gone wrong and how we'd ended up underneath the bridge we'd actually wanted to be crossing. As it turns out it is probably for the best that we'd not made it there the previous night as there was a lot to see, it took us a good hour or so to walk round and wouldn't have been so good in the dark. The geek in me wants to go and see the rest of it in Strasbourg now seeing as I've seen the European Commission and all the other bits here and now (here comes the list...) the European Investment Bank, European Court of Justice, European Court of Auditors and the European Chamber of Commerce in Luxembourg. I'm pretty sure we also saw where the main translation centre is too. I've been looking into all the types of translation jobs they need in the EU, I'd love to translate for the Court of Justice but that would involve some form of Legal qualification which I don't have, well I can dream can't I?
After this we did a hell of a lot more walking! I've put some photos on Facebook but for those of you not on there I'm about to stick them on Flickr too so I'll give you the link, just give me a chance to get them up there.
2 observations about transport in Luxembourg- there are loads and loads of Audis, especially in the European area where at least I'd say 1 in 3 cars were Audis. Also Luxembourg, despite being tiny seems to be the European Capital of busses or something, there were hundreds of them, often with the very useful destination on the front of "Luxembourg".
After exhausting all the views and monuments of the city, writing postcards and drinking expensive (but very nice) coffee we went to the restaurant next to the one we'd been to the night before. Whilst we were looking at the menu outside the waiter from the other restaurant came past and said hi, 2 young female students were probably a rare occurrence for that place, must've been easily recognisable or something! When we were inside we were offered the English menu and caused some confusion when we asked for the French, and one of the waiters clearly wasn't sure as he insisted on speaking to us in English each time, although the others did at least stick to the French. When we ordered the waiter asked me if I was sure that was what I wanted, did I know what it was? I thought I did having read the English version of the menu outside but evidentially it was a different thing entirely. What I was ordering, the internet now tells me, was part of a pigs large intestine.... yuuummmmm :S I'm glad I didn't go for that in the end then... As the exciting, party-animal, Erasmus students we are, we then returned to the hotel, got into our PJs and watched Danse avec les Stars.....
Sunday- To round off our trip we headed to the Museum of the History of Luxembourg City, presuming that the museum would be some what relative to the size of the city itself, it was surprisingly big though but a nice way to spend our last morning before heading back to the station and returning to Brussels.
I know I've already told you how much we walked, but seriously, my legs really really ache now. I've had my exercise for the week. Maybe I don't need to climb the stairs every day?!
My Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bexnobes/
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