Day 6 - A Tale of Two Trains
- Kara Monroe
- Apr 11
- 10 min read
It’s Kara starting off today. We needed to be downstairs at the train station by 7:30am this morning so we were awake quite early. Sadly, we each slept very badly last night so, it was an especially rough start to the day to have to be up and moving so quickly.
We went down to the lobby around 7:20am. While Gayle filled up our water bottles from the Club, I got us checked out. We then headed to the Eurostar gate area. We got notification while I was in the lobby that our coach - and therefore seats - had been changed on our first train from London to Brussels.
Before I go into all of the day’s events, let me backtrack and say that our preference would always be a direct train … and usually there is a direct train between London and Amsterdam. In fact, we had tickets on said direct train several months back. Until we got an email informing us that our tickets had been changed and we were now going to connect through Brussels-Midi. Ugh. Track construction for about a week caused the change to the availability of the direct train.
Eurostar Security
Back to present day. There was no line as we went through the ticket gate. This was both good and bad. Nice that we didn’t have to stand in line but not nice that we then felt like we needed to rush so that if anyone came behind us, we weren’t the dumb Americans making them wait.
After scanning our tickets, we immediately needed to put all - yes ALL, including our heavy checked bags - in bins on the X-ray machines. This definitely called for teamwork. Then we walked through scanners and met our bags on the other side. After retrieving our bags, we immediately came to a woman sitting at a desk who took our passports and looked at them. She was with British customs, but she had no computer or scanner or anything and our passports were e-scanned with no stamps so…no idea what she was looking for.
Immediately after getting past her we came upon the French border security. These were your traditional customs folks working at high desks inside a little glass box. And, we got French passport stamps…and we never stepped foot in France (the train stopped there, but we kept right on going).
All of that seemed ridiculously fast in real life, but it actually took about 15 minutes. The train at 8:01 a.m. was leaving just as we got through security so we easily found two seats in the departures area and sat down to wait. I did decide to grab a coffee from the cafe. It was okay and at least took the edge off of the early morning exhaustion.
Train 1
The departure area filled up quickly and became quite loud. (Gayle: I’m glad we got there when we did, otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten seats.) We ended up sitting right by a group proudly decked out in Team GB gear. I think they were runners competing in the European running championships in Brussels (half marathons and up essentially).
Gayle: We carefully watched the digital board, as your platform (think gate in airline speak) is only announced 20 minutes before your scheduled departure.
Kara: As it was time for our boarding platform to be announced, I heard something on the overhead speaker…but couldn’t understand what was said, as it was too noisy. Moments later, the computer monitor displayed that our departure would be delayed from 9:01am to 9:40am. That still gave us at least 30 minutes in Brussels to make our connection, but it certainly wasn’t a calming start to the day.
Gayle: Once boarding is announced, everyone is in one big mass headed for the “escalators”. I put that in quotes as it isn’t your traditional steps, but rather one continuous belt, which makes handling large/multiple bags more realistic. I later realized we had additional luck in that we were in an accessible coach. This meant there was a temporary ramp onto the coach for the wheelchair users. We benefited by being able to seamlessly roll our bags onto and later off of the coach!
Kara: Thankfully, our train did finally arrive and we boarded and took off right around 9:50. The platforms in St. Pancras are incredibly easy to access from the departure lounge. Three clearly marked moving ramps take you to sets of platforms. When your train is announced, you follow the crowd and get on your train.
We booked “Plus” class - which is the mid-tier service for this journey. It comes with a little roomier seat and, to/from London, a light meal. When we took the Eurostar on my first trip to London, we booked Premier. I think that was because there were only two classes the time. I have no idea if the current Premier is what I remembered it being, but this was almost nothing like I remember. The seats were not nearly as plush and the meal was meh. It was fine and not a bad value for what we paid, but certainly wasn't the experience we had last time.
Train 2 = Adventure!
We arrived at Brussels-Midi and had to change trains. Oh my!!!
Gayle: Sounds easy, right?
Kara: As we arrived into the station, our train manager announced that our next train would be leaving from Platform 3 - which is what we headed towards. Unfortunately no moving ramps here, only traditional escalators, so we opted to find Lifts (aka elevators). When we got to Platform 3 no one seemed to know what train was going to be arriving there. I found an arrivals/departures style board and it looked like our train was now leaving on platform 6A. Gayle confirmed what I was seeing, so back down the lift, over to the lift for Platform 6, and back up to the platform. By the time we arrived there, the board had changed again and an announcement overhead said to go to Platform 4A - which was right back where we’d started on the other side of Platform 3. PHEW!!!
When our train pulled in, we headed down to our car - #33. This train had come in from another location and already had passengers with luggage on it in addition to passengers getting off at this station. Getting our luggage onto the train and wedged in with everyone else’s luggage was not fun.
Gayle: Not fun is a gross understatement. You know the British saying, “Mind the Gap”? Well this one was pretty significant, I’d say… 8”. So we each physically tossed our carry ons onto the train and then with one foot on the platform and one foot on the first step of the coach, tried to hoist/heave our checked bags onto the train through a small doorway, of which each of our bodies was taking up space.
The whole thing reminded me of the scene from “Holiday Inn”, where the guys are running to get on the train.
Kara: As Gayle lifted our smaller bags up over the seat, she hurt her arm. We plopped in our seats and just rode for a few minutes to let that drama wash away a bit.
Gayle: At this point I was huffing & puffing in frustration and pain. Luckily, my ibuprofen and water were at hand in my backpack.
Kara: This train, because it was going through more urban areas and almost all above ground moved a bit slower so you could get a bit better sense of the countryside in Belgium and then the Netherlands.
Gayle: These trains were definitely older and not the crisp Eurostar trains you see in ads. This is because one of the greater European rail services, Thalys, merged with Eurostar. The trains are red outside and in; inside felt like a throwback to the… 70s?! Next time I will only ever be on direct train or with one piece of luggage. (The only reason we brought this much luggage was in knowing all we would likely buy to bring home. Trust me, we packed lighter for Europe than ever before.)
Kara: If you’re keeping count with us, that was four countries in under four hours!!!
I enjoyed watching the highways and industrial areas give way to fields filled with grazing cows and irrigation ditches. We saw some very old windmills juxtaposed against new wind turbines. We also saw very old houses with solar panels on top. The Belgian and Dutch people definitely try to find ways to work with nature.
This train made stops at Antwerp and Rotterdam Centraal Train Stations, and the Schipol Airport in Amsterdam before finally arriving into Amsterdam Centraal Station.
Welcome to Amsterdam
This was the strangest thing! We had no sort of customs check whatsoever when we exited the train.
Gayle: The passengers in front of us recognized my Butler sweater shirt, so we had a quick exchange about Purdue, IU, & the Mets. At this point we strategically decided to be the last ones off the coach in order to wrestle the luggage. This was much easier with handing off to each other.
But we aren’t done yet! Like a few others, we discovered the only way from the platform to the station proper was traditional escalators. Sigh. Kara waited for a couple to get plenty ahead of her. She tried to get her checked bag on ahead of her, but it slipped off a step; she screamed; and it landed diagonally at the bottom. At this point I waited for Kara to be completely clear. I semi-attempted the same, as I didn’t want it to fall on me from behind. Mine also fell off the stair, but did so perfectly parallel, and like a child on a slide, went for a quick ride to the bottom.
That was the icing on the cake for my day, so I simply erupted in hysterical laughter.
Kara: We scanned our Eurostar ticket to exit the station and that was it. It felt bizarre.
The Amsterdam Centraal Station is chaotic on the inside and gorgeous on the outside. We walked from the station to our hotel which took about 10 minutes.
We arrived at the Renaissance Amsterdam which is in the midst of a multi-year renovation. Thankfully, since we’re here for the weekend no work is actually being done right now and the lobby and our room clearly have been upgraded (although more on the room in a bit).
When we checked in, they told us we’d be in a room with a King Bed. We had verified multiple times this would be a 2 twin bed room. The young woman went back, conferred with the manager, and we finally got in a room with twin beds. She also took pity on us, offering water and tips about the neighborhood.
The room overlooks the lobby which is fine since we’re only here for a couple of nights. However, the room lacks some useful features like any flat space to put a suitcase (other than the bed/floor) or any real hanging space other than the very small coat rack by the door. This may be because this room adjoins another and so it may be a part of some sort of suite that they stuck us in to deal with the beds issue. The floor itself is clearly still very much under renovation. (Gayle: Note the last hotel looked onto the train station, so no true natural light. It’s the same here with the view of a facade above the lobby, no natural light. If we were spending any significant time in these rooms, I’d find them intolerable.)
Time for Pancakes
After freshening up a bit, it was time to seek out a meal - and enjoy some of this beautiful city.
My first impressions of Amsterdam is that it is an incredibly beautiful city filled with history and culture. We happened to come on one of the nicest days - and apparently one of the first truly nice days they’ve had this spring. To say that EVERYONE was outside is not that much of an overstatement. People had their doors and windows open and they were sitting on their stoops with their wine glass and a charcuterie. (Gayle: If we had been in a small village, it reminded me of the opening scene of “Beauty and the Beast”. Except they speak Dutch.) Every outdoor restaurant table was filled. And, it's supposed to be even more beautiful tomorrow!!
We found our way to The Pancake Bakery. This is a very touristy, but still tasty, stop for pancakes. We opted for the crepe style and both ordered the “Dutch” which came with mini stroopwafels cooked into it and then topped with cinnamon and chocolate shavings along with powdered sugar. Two big scoops of cinnamon ice cream topped it off. Gayle was in meal heaven, especially with the extra bowl of fresh whipped cream. It would have been too much for me if it wasn’t for the cinnamon. That grounded it and gave it just enough savory that I could handle it. It was very, very good. Thankfully, I have some protein back at the hotel I can partake in to even out all the carbs.
Gayle: It was very good and very large. I’m not usually a fan of crepes, but since it was nearly 12” wide, a normal pancake would have been too much. Maybe.
Kara: We took a much more leisurely stroll back to the hotel - enjoying the canals and historic architecture a bit as we made our way back. Gayle has to work for a bit tonight Amsterdam Time which is midday back home, so I’ve typed this while she’s done the first part of her work. I’ll likely call home and chat with my dad and sister as she finishes up the rest of her work. Tomorrow, we’ve got a fun little adventure planned to see the city and taste some more of The Netherlands.
Kara's Videos
Each day, Kara made a little video summary of the day. We're adding those at the end of the post for each day.
Next up… Tasting our way into the culture
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