Momma said there'd be days like this

When life is easy and responsibility-free, these are the days that try men's souls.

It didn't start that way... It shouldn't have been that way, but something had to make up for the beautiful weather: this was the first perfect weather day in the Netherlands. We woke up in our lovely business hotel in Utrecht, early: 9 am. For those that don't know, that's really early. We had the hotel's "healthy" breakfast -- this is where they substitute meusli and delicious fat-filled yoghurt for bread and cheese and cold cuts. Note: the American breakfast is more than twice the cost of the european or healthy breakfast. Think on that.

We checked out, and left our luggage with the front desk staff. We had three hours til our train left at 14:02. We wandered the beautiful streets of Utrecht, between university offices, gothic churches, canals, wharves and statues of rabbits. We grabbed lunch from a greek take-away that was delicious. We got back to the hotel, got our luggage and made it to the station.

Our initial train schedule:

Utrecht->Rotterdam

Rotterdam->Antwerp

Antwerp->Lille

All in all a 3 and a half hour journey.

We got there early (imagine that!) and got on the train to Rotterdam that was 15 minutes ahead of our initial train. The ride was smooth and uneventful. Once at Rotterdam we note that on the overhead schedule our train to Antwerp is blue and figure that we should find out what that means. When asked, "How are you?", the information lady responds: "Not so good. My company is doing bad things today." We were polite: "Oh, I'm sorry". Then we got on to what we were concerned with: "Why is our train listed in blue?" "That's why I'm not good today; that train is canceled." "Oh, when is the next train?" "1 hour" "Ok, thanks".

20 minutes into our wait, which felt long... sitting in those hard temporary train station (Rotterdam station, like every other big station in holland is getting seriously renovated), watching people, waiting... an announcement is made indicating that people waiting for Antwerp should get on the train to Roosendaal and then switch there for Antwerp. Being excellent rule-followers, we comply.

Roosendaal is on the border with Belgium and is very small. At 34 minutes past the hour the hi-speed train comes through to Antwerp, at 37 minutes past the hour the slow, station by station, sneltrain, comes through to Antwerp. We consulted with the staff and determined our ticket was good for the high speed. An announcement then came saying that the hi-speed train was over crowded and that we should take the slow train. We took this in stride. While waiting for the slow train on a different platform, we noticed that the high-speed train was not all that full. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to run to it.

These last two decisions would haunt the rest of the day.

We got to Antwerp at about 5:30. We checked the schedule, got a beer, and waited for the 6:05 train to Lille. At 6:00 when the train had yet to arrive, I ran to the info desk, only to find out that it was canceled. The next train is at 8:05. Undaunted, and worry-free, we decide to put our luggage in storage and check out Antwerp. While trying to get our luggage in the locker, we accidentally lock it in without getting a means to get it out. Luckily the dude behind the ticket counter is very patient and helps us retrieve the luggage.

We get out into Antwerp, deciding to get a phone card so that we can let our Lille hotel know that we will be late. We get the phone card, get to the phone, and then realize that the number is in the locker. Luckily, my dad is never far from the internet, and it is now late enough in the evening that he is up. I get the number, and have a nice conversation. We notify the hotel, they are unconcerned, and we need Belgian beer.

Luckily, Antwerp has Belgian beer. We drink it. It is lovely. Antwerp seems like a very nice place. We should go sometime.

The following stereotypes about Belgium were confirmed in our 1.5 hours there:

-lots of eating of muscles outside in cafes

-children wandering around eating waffles (think Belgian kind, not the Norwegian kind)

-lots of places to buy diamonds

-beautiful buildings

- good beer

At 8:05 we are waiting on the platform, waiting for the train. Which does not come.

At 8:06, the overhead sign that had read "Gent - Lille (Fladres)" goes blank. We go to the ticket office. The nice lady says that something is wrong with the track, the train has called and is delayed, we should check back in 30 minutes. We stand and watch the clock tick for 30 minutes. Every now and then we twiddle our thumbs. Then we watch the clock some more.

At 8:35 we go back to the ticket office, just in time for the schedule to now include a line of "Gent - Lille (Flandres) +0h50". Excellent, we think, it's late, but it's coming.

It comes. We get on. It moves.

First sign of problems: The train display reads "Welkom to this train for Kotrijk". But the conductor keeps mentioning Lille over the PA, so we are fine.

After Gent, a conductor comes through and lets us know that the Lille part of the train is going to separate from the rest of the train, and that we need to move forward two cars. We do. The train stops. Everyone for Lille is told to get out. Something is wrong with the tracks. There will be a bus in Mouskone. The train from platform 5, which arrives at 10:40 will take us to Mouskone. We are in Kotrijk. It is small.

20 of us move to platform 5. Folk are in decent spirits, considering. The train shows up at 10:50, we get on, it takes us to Mouskone. A much smaller station than Kotrijk. Everyone masses around the stationmaster. He knows nothing. Kate checks to see if there is a bus. There is no bus; instead, there is a hotel and a single taxi cab.

A hubbub starts. One lady starts screaming, and I mean, screaming at the stationmaster when he says the bus will be there by 11:30. The crowd is watching. At this point, we meet Phil.

Phil is Scottish and he asks us what's going on. We mention the cab. He lights up. We decide to split it with him. Phil has a 2 hour presentation to give tomorrow morning. He needs his bed. We would wait for the bus, but, this is a sure thing.

The cab gets us to Lille-Flandres by 11:30 (5 hours after we would have otherwise arrived). We paw our way through the night and find our hotel. Luckily this is a super-civilized, huge, french city, and there are restaurants open til the cows come home. We eat, we drink, we are happy to be in Lille.

The kicker? You know what was wrong with the track? This is something that Phil had found out: someone stole 4 km of the overhead cabling that carries the electricity for the trains. You know, 4 km of metal cable with high voltage current running through it. Happens in Belgium every day.

Bottom Line:

Expected arrival time in Lille: 6pm

Actual arrival time in Lille: Midnight

The first picture is of Andrew pretending to be calm in Antwerp. Really he is worrying our train will never come. The second picture is of us pretending to have fun and not be annoyed that we are going to be at least 4 hours later. The last picture is of me in the 5th train station of the day just hoping at some point we make it to a bed. This was an excellent opportunity to work on the skill of throwing my luggage into over head compartments. In the end, Andrew did it most of the time.