Well, it's been a while...

[hrrunka]

Over a week ago, early on a Friday morning, I headed off down to the Eurotunnel terminal at Folkestone. The first hints of the day's likely progress were the "Delayed" messages on the departure board. It was only ten minutes or so, so I wasn't bothered. The crossing went smoothly enough. To begin with the drive through France and into Belgium went

Comments

[allaboutweather]

Have you ever been on the Eurostar, which I guess is the European equivalent of Amtrak? I wonder what that's like compared to Amtrak.

[hrrunka]

Yep, done Eurostar to Brussels and to Paris. Never done Amtrak though. Main thing with Eurostar (and its other European equivalents) is the speed at which it travels. There are places the track runs side by side with the motorway, and the train is going twice as fast as the cars...

[allaboutweather]

Oh wow! The Amtrak usually goes a bit slower than highway speed here (seeing the trains go by from the highway).

[demoneyes]

It's a bit pay your money and take your chances! Antwerp can be bad, but a lot of the time it isn't. And avoiding Antwerp not only takes you around Brussels (where there is usually minor congestion) but adds about 25-35 miles and half an hour or so to the journey (so you need a likely/bad jam at Antwerp to make it worthwhile). On the other hand, the route from Genk past Düsseldorf/Wuppertal (rather than cutting up to Venlo) though 10 miles longer still can avoid going through Duisburg where the traffic is always bad!

For what it's worth, I think last 4 times I've gone via Antwerp and had no significant problems there.

(And as Rika will testify after her recent trip, going via the Eurostar isn't necessarily any better since if it has delays and you miss a connection that can leave you stranded!)

[hrrunka]

Yeah, I've taken the Antwerp route more than once and had no trouble. Friday was just a bad day to be skirting it early in the afternoon. Going past Brussels is usually slow, too. The route I used on the way home skirted Köln, so I suspect it would have been even worse on that Friday evening. Next time I'll try to travel on a not-Friday. ;)