Tuesday 28th March 2023 We anticipated that there could be some continued disruption following the strike so Robert went down to reception early to ensure he could sort out the issues with our extended hotel stay. Once again it seemed to take three members of staff to unravel what one person on reception had done. Eventually it transpired that the receptionist had cancelled our first booking for two days and then reinstated a booking for the wrong date. This went some way to explaining why the hotel thought we had checked out when we hadn’t. When all was under control and good relations restored we set off for Maastricht. Most of the trains were running but we would need to take a bus for part of the journey. Although staff on the railway were telling passengers that their tickets were valid on the bus, the bus driver did not seem to have been informed of this fact. Eventually he became tired of repeating himself and simply allowed passengers with train tickets to board unchallenged. The last time we were in Maastricht was in the autumn of 2018. For our first trip after Matilda retired we took our Lakeland Terrier, Ralf, away […]
Monthly Archives: March 2023
Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th March 2023 This trip has a complicated history. We originally planned a three day trip to Bruges in December 2021 with our friends Liz and Martin. However, just as we were about to depart, an incomprehensible rule was introduced which prevented people from staying for more than 48 hours in Belgium without taking a Covid test. We were never entirely sure how this was meant to restrict the spread of the virus but we did not want to break the rules and risk having to pay for our own accommodation to isolate. Our Eurostar tickets were non-transferable so we could change neither the names of the passengers nor the route travelled. We therefore decided to leave Belgium early, spend one night in Lille, in France, and book new tickets to travel home from there to circumvent the rule. This left us with two return tickets from Brussels. Robert has been repeatedly deferring these tickets ever since but our time has run out and it was a case of ‘use them or lose them’. So here we are, on a trip planned to take in Düsseldorf, Bonn and Maastricht, returning via Brussels. As will become apparent in […]
Monday 27th March 2023 Yesterday, just as the tram we were waiting for arrived, Robert spotted a message on the rolling digital notice board saying that there would be a national transport strike in Germany on 28th March. Robert mentioned this to Matilda. We were booked on a train to Bonn that day, so this obviously caused us some consternation. Having already boarded the tram, we discussed the ramifications and decided to get off at the next stop and walk back to the Hauptbahnhof to see how the situation could be resolved. As we walked, Robert called our hotel to ask if we could stay an extra night. Once this was agreed in principle we went to the ticket office to see what our options were. We were told that our tickets would be valid for several days after the designated strike day and we were given a printout of the train times for the following days. We returned to the hotel to confirm we would be staying for an extra day and find out whether we would need to change rooms. We would not. The woman on reception told us she had amended our booking and gave us new keycards […]