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 […]
Daily Archives: 26/03/2023
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 […]