Bikes now fully serviced from the Hub bike shop Ladbroke Grove who completely stripped them down so purring along nicely. Luggage seems to have got out of control I confess to not weighing each item this year, my excuse being all my favourite lightweight clothing stores seem to have closed down. Tims luggage seemed to be so heavy he ended up putting 2 front panniers on.Not a good sign.

We set off early from our base in Putney cycling across London to eurostar at St Pancras.it was a public holiday so it made cycling through London a real pleasure, no traffic. The eurodespatch office didnt take us  too long to find and our bikes were taken from us. Only a little tied ticket onto the handle bars told staff where they were going, not like all the sticky labels on the ferry.Going through baggage checks and passport control carrying all our panniers was not fun. Particularly tricky for Tim who now had 4 panniers plus his handlebarbag and a backpack to carry!!We decided then this could be our last eurostar journey, back to ferrys where you cycle your luggage on board and then dump your panniers in your cabin. It was also a little concerning when the eurodespatch luggage guys told us to take photos of our bikes in case they got damaged…..

.The train journay was fast although an unscheduled stop in the channel tunnel was a bit of a worry just a signals problem though.After wandering around Brussels-midi station we finally tracked down the luggage office below platform 7 if you ever go this way. Looking through the window i could see my bike. We went to the window and the luggage manager said come back in 10 minutes as only 1 bike had come off the train so far. 10 minutes later back we went still no sign of Tims bike!The luggage manager checked and said only 1 bike came on the train! Tim was pretty upset. We were told to go to the eurostasr duty manager. It was now an hour after we’d arrived.!,

Luckily having read various reports of peoples bikes not getting on the booked train and turning up hours later I had booked us into the Pullman hotel at the station a wise move.So we checked in and dumped my bike and our luggage and went back to find the duty manager.

The eurostar duty manager managed to find out Tims bike was not in London and hadnt got on the train.Where the heck (or words to that effect) was it? I suddenly remembered an American was checking his bike in to Paris at the same time as us.

So further checks  revealed Tims bike had gone off to Paris….all by itself….

So Tims bike has to drag itself back from Paris to London and then find a train to Brussels that doesn’t already have 2 bikes booked on it…how many days could this take…

We left the station and only had time for short wander around Brussels, magnificent town square ,plenty of signs for tasting of the over 250.belgium beers and chocolates galore. A good vietnamese feast lifted our spirits.

Back to relax at the hotel……tomorrow unknown will Tims bike turn up. ???We were meant to be cycling through Belgium towards Aachen…..who knows if we’ll be cycling anywhere tomorrow!!!

Trafalgar square deserted! View of Brussels from our window.