Day 1 – Saying Goodbye

So after nearly a year of planning and preparation, the day finally came round to the start of our adventure. We are all very excited. Our packs are not too heavy and we have all we need for two weeks inter-railing round Europe.
We met at “The Meeting Place” at St Pancras station at 5pm under the enormous clock and then said our “Goodbyes” to families and took some photos. From there we headed to check in and security and then settled down in the lounge area.
It wasn’t long before we were boarding our train and settling in for our two hour journey to Brussels.
Onboard we got out our mp3 players, magazines and snacks and let the train take the strain as we sped through the Kent countryside.
It wasn’t long before we were into France and watching the sun set as we sped through Belgium to Brussels.
Once at Brussels we found a base to stack up our packs (which happened to be at Hagen Daaz) and then wandered around exploring and finding loos and places to get water, etc. We did find an automated 24/7 supermarket which was quite cool.
We had a scheduled wait for the next train so just chilled out. It was still quite warm. The train eventually came in and we happened to be standing in exactly the right space so we got on board and found our couchette cabins. Everyone was very excited about sleeping on a train and with it being 23:30 (local time) they washed their teeth and got ready for bed.
Soon everyone was in their bunks and waited to be rocked gently to sleep by the motion of the train speeding through Belgium, Holland and Germany to Berlin.