It started just like any other trip to the continent with the Eurostar. I opted for an early train (I was the first person on the platform for the first Victoria line train, hence the above picture) to be able to check out the course on Saturday. A friend of mine were to pick me up at Brussels Midi at 10 and we were supposed to go to the course for scouting.
It didn’t happen that way. As numerous news sources reported, four Eurostar trains got stuck in the Channel tunnel and they canceled all trains for today.
They also added that unless one’s trip is essential, one shouldn’t travel – or at least not with Eurostar trains. I didn’t really have that option, so I quickly fired up my notebook and figured out that there’s a BA flight to Brussels not much after 1pm. It sounded good and even though it was a bit pricey (£145), it seemed to be a sensible solution. I went home and did a final research before booking the flight. It turned out that United Airlines has a flight at the same time, but much cheaper (£71).
Long story short, after booking the flight, I managed to catch a couple hours more sleep and then headed to Heathrow to catch the UA flight. All went well, we flew in a beautifully sunny weather and touched down right on time in Brussels.
The weather is very cold, -8 Celsius, but it also preserved the snow so I expect tomorrow’s race quite spectacular. It will start with the juniors’ race at 10am, then the U23 will end the morning races. Women’s race will start at 1:30pm and the final event will be the elite men’s race at 3pm. Stay tuned for more tomorrow!
