after a really good night at the hotel eden früh and an likewise good breakfast, we check out and make our way to the main station again. the thalys to brussels leaves cologne at 10:14 and we arrive at the station with enough time to buy newspapers and mineral water.

the trip to brussels is fairly uneventfull and we arrive on time at brussels midi at 12:38 — the eurostar is scheduled to depart at 14:59, so over two hours to pass. brussels midi station is dark and dreary as ever, the usual warning against “thieves operating in that area”, lots and lots of people. belgium’s reputation of having a good cuisine is not really reflected by the assortment of fast-food places at the station… we settle for a café close to the eurostar departure lounge and read the papers.

at 14:20 we move over to the eurostar departure area, check in, check through belgium border control, through the x-ray-thingy, through UK border control and — wait for the bording to begin.

the eurostar leaves brussels almost on time and we are racing through belgium and france before we reach the channel tunnel, having late lunch at 300kph is not something we do every day the ride through the channel tunnel takes just 21min (that’s almost the same amount of time it takes from zurich through the zimmerberg tunnel to thalwil) and shortly after we get off the eurostar at ashford international — a rather typical small town railway station in kent. we wait away the time until the next train to eastbourne leaves an hour later in the lovely, well-stocked café-with-a-view on the platform — well, kind of…

the weather seems to be undecided on whether to start raining or hold back when we arrive in eastbourne — and we arrive on time! which is rather amazing after a journey by train across half of europe…

our b&b for the night is the beachy rise b&b in meads village, just east of eastbourne: it turns out to be a nice little b&b, nothing too fancy nor to frilly but instead a nice little room at the top. there are a couple of shops and two pubs around the corner (along with an ATM at the little supermarket) — we opt for the ship inn as the pilot inn seems to be a bit too “atmospheric” for our taste: food is good, beer is as well.