Berlin to Brighton

We got up at 6 am. I took my shower, Donna took hers last night. I am still coughing up green stuff. We made it to the train platform and got some pastries. The train was late getting in, it left 15 minutes late. It’s supposed to rain in Berlin today, we’ve had four nice days. It rained while we were on the train.

We arrived 55 minutes late to Cologne. We missed our original train to Brussels. We had time to leave the train station and go visit the cathedral right outside the train station, before catching the next train.

There is also a section of original Roman road right near the cathedral.

Artists use the square by the train station and cathedral.

There was another train leaving at 15:40 that we got on. It’s really full, 20+ people standing in the first class car. We stood.

Donna snagged seats about 30-35 minutes in when a couple got off at the first stop.

One of the regulars on the train said that the German trains have been neglected for 20 years and a separate company was formed to take it private. But the dividends to the government shareholder are too much, causing neglect. There is now public support for investment, so maybe it will get better.

Once in Brussels we took 3-4 minutes to find the Eurostar, but only about 15 minutes to jump through the security hoops. Then we waited. They called for boarding, then held boarding for 20 minutes, and gave us just a few minutes to get on.

We had a nice light supper on the train in first class.

We turned the wrong way in St Pancreas and lost a few minutes and missed an opportunity for an earlier train. We caught the 20:20 train to Preston Park.