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Jan. 5th, 2009 12:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tvordljFirst day back to work after 2 weeks off. Oh *god* it was hard getting up at 6 and staying up!
To add insult to injury i couldn't remember my network password, that's a first. I tried several and ended up locking my account. Got that sorted by the help desk without too much bother.
Installed my new calendar and desk calendar. I brought my Judoon mug to work. I'm getting quite a collection of mugs here! This one has a little battery compartment underneath it to power the talking stuff. I would guess i should not put the mug in the microwave to reheat it if i want the batteries to survive and there is probably metal bits in the battery compartment too.
So now a new year, and start planning for my trip to see Graham in May. Am now thinking of adding on a couple of nights in Brussels as well as Amsterdam. Hotel prices seem a bit cheaper there and if we go there, we can hop on Eurostar to London for an overnight or so there. I got thinking this morning, One idea might be to go to Amsterdam early on the first day and stay there two nights. The third day, we can still do more of Amsterdam or do a day trip since most things are not very far away anyway. Haarlem or Delft perhaps. We can then take the train around 4 or 5 to Brussels and stay two nights there. We'd have that night, all the next day and most of the day after that, taking the Eurostar to London around the same time of day. We'd then have the evening and another full day in London, going back to Manchester the morning of the last day.
I think that might work quite well, taking a late afternoon/early evening train to the next place on. By May it will still be light well into the evening and we can walk around, find a nice place to have our meal, see the city lit up. So, does anyone have any previous experience with hotels in central Brussels? I shall have to check the travel agents for brochures as well. I already checked the Eurostar site and one way tickets are only about 50 pounds for regular class tickets. It takes less time to get to London from Brussels than it does to get from London to Manchester! I"ve also ordered a Rick Steves book covering Amsterdam, Brussels and the area. I have some Amsterdam books but this one will have Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp too. I really want to go to Bruges which i'm sure we can do for part of the second day as it's not far.
The way things look now, we'll be in London on a Friday and Saturday night so a pub meet will definitely be in order, yes? Looking at the first weekend in May. I think since we will be arriving at St. Pancras and leaving from Euston, i'll get a hotel in that area. It'll be the most useful. Hopefully, the exchange rate will stay really low like it is now and i can get a nicer hotel for the same or cheaper than usual. A £60 hotel used to cost me over $150 CAD and now a £75 one will be in the vicinity of $130 at today's rates. Can't beat that with a stick! The Euro is about $1.65 CAD at the moment which is a little bit better than when we went to Paris. Onward and upward!
To add insult to injury i couldn't remember my network password, that's a first. I tried several and ended up locking my account. Got that sorted by the help desk without too much bother.
Installed my new calendar and desk calendar. I brought my Judoon mug to work. I'm getting quite a collection of mugs here! This one has a little battery compartment underneath it to power the talking stuff. I would guess i should not put the mug in the microwave to reheat it if i want the batteries to survive and there is probably metal bits in the battery compartment too.
So now a new year, and start planning for my trip to see Graham in May. Am now thinking of adding on a couple of nights in Brussels as well as Amsterdam. Hotel prices seem a bit cheaper there and if we go there, we can hop on Eurostar to London for an overnight or so there. I got thinking this morning, One idea might be to go to Amsterdam early on the first day and stay there two nights. The third day, we can still do more of Amsterdam or do a day trip since most things are not very far away anyway. Haarlem or Delft perhaps. We can then take the train around 4 or 5 to Brussels and stay two nights there. We'd have that night, all the next day and most of the day after that, taking the Eurostar to London around the same time of day. We'd then have the evening and another full day in London, going back to Manchester the morning of the last day.
I think that might work quite well, taking a late afternoon/early evening train to the next place on. By May it will still be light well into the evening and we can walk around, find a nice place to have our meal, see the city lit up. So, does anyone have any previous experience with hotels in central Brussels? I shall have to check the travel agents for brochures as well. I already checked the Eurostar site and one way tickets are only about 50 pounds for regular class tickets. It takes less time to get to London from Brussels than it does to get from London to Manchester! I"ve also ordered a Rick Steves book covering Amsterdam, Brussels and the area. I have some Amsterdam books but this one will have Brussels, Bruges and Antwerp too. I really want to go to Bruges which i'm sure we can do for part of the second day as it's not far.
The way things look now, we'll be in London on a Friday and Saturday night so a pub meet will definitely be in order, yes? Looking at the first weekend in May. I think since we will be arriving at St. Pancras and leaving from Euston, i'll get a hotel in that area. It'll be the most useful. Hopefully, the exchange rate will stay really low like it is now and i can get a nicer hotel for the same or cheaper than usual. A £60 hotel used to cost me over $150 CAD and now a £75 one will be in the vicinity of $130 at today's rates. Can't beat that with a stick! The Euro is about $1.65 CAD at the moment which is a little bit better than when we went to Paris. Onward and upward!
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Date: 2009-01-05 07:01 pm (UTC)I've checked Air canada and can get a pretty good price so i may book that very soon.