Travel!

Subtitle: Toto, we aren’t in Japan anymore.

Mechelen, a charming little town just north of Brussels. “Punches above its weight” Claude says. Today we decided to head that way. Tram to train station, train to Mechelen. No biggie.

So, the tram was good. First tram ride. No fussing with tickets. Tap our phone to pay with Apple Pay as we board. We alight at the right stop. I say, “oh it’s simple, we just follow this street around and down and then voila, the station is on our left. Probably big signs”. 

Around the corner we hit a 5-way intersection under construction. No train station in sight. We plow forward around and past blockades. Ah Google Maps says we are now at Brussels Centraal. Nope. We poke around, turn through a driveway and Grubb spots the smallest train station sign ever over a non descript entrance. Here we are. The beginning of a bizarre game of chase the platform.

Mechelen is simply a stop on the way to bigger places. The train to Rotterdam says its stops at Mechelen. We find the platform. A train is there but it’s not ours. We watch as a young woman boards asking people if it’s the train to Rotterdam. The doors close, train starts moving. There she is knocking on the door desperately wanting out. No dice. She’s on the wrong train on her way to well, I don’t know. Turns out, she was the lucky one.

Our train finally shows up, 20 minutes late. We join the surging crowd and manage to get in and find seats. Off we go only to come to a dead stop 10 minutes later. We’re in a dark tunnel. You know, where when you look out you can only see your own reflection.

After 15 minutes an overhead announcement. We have to wait through the French and Dutch but we’ve picked up a few words and know there is a problem…” ladies and gentlemen, attention please. We have a technical problem and are searching for a solution”. Huh? Meanwhile other trains pass by on parallel tracks.

Tick tock tick tock. Another 15 minutes and we are informed we will only get as far as the next station and then it’s finished. Groan. 

Another 10 minutes and we move, slowly. We are the tortoise. All the way into Brussels Nord station.

We get off and wait on the same platform as indicated by the conductor. Thinking they’ll move this train out of the way and another train will fetch us. Suddenly, mass exodus from the platform. We look up at the train listings and sure enough, we’ve been changed to platform 1. By the time we’ve arrived at 1 the platform has changed to 7. We arrive at 7 only to be sent to 5. After 10 minutes waiting on platform 5 we are sent to 3. Let me alert you to the fact that there are no escalators. Each platform change requires 2 flights of stairs down and then 2 flights of stairs up. Running. Did we enter Harry Potter world? I. Am. Not. Kidding.

We did in fact get on the train at platform 3 and debarked at Mechelen. Was it charming? To get to the picturesque part of town we were shunted along a loooooong shopping street with all the major upscale retail brands present. Oy. 

I think a separate post about the town. Because…getting home wasn’t easy either. The Mechelen train station is under construction. We look at the listings as we enter. Any train southbound stopping at Brussels Centraal will do. We spy one. Platform 12. We look around and see only signs for Platforms 1 and 2. Do we need to walk through walls to the magical platform? Ah, a little farther on, signage. Platforms 3-12 this way.  Then another fork through a construction tunnel to Platforms 11 and 12.  Only to come to another tunnel marked 1-8. We’ve caught wind of this evil game so we forge ahead anyway. And emerge under a sign for 11. No 12. Oh wait, there behind some beams is the sign for 12. Up we go. Train delayed 5 min, 10, 15…yay here it comes. Homeward bound.

Take me back to Japan!