After I retire in April, as well as being able to catch up on everything I’m involved in, I’m taking up an invitation I received from my MEP, Bill Newton Dunn, to visit the European Parliament in Brussels. Because my wife, Karen, has no interest in politics, I decided to do the visit all in one day. After several exchanges of emails with Bill, and looking on the European Parliament website, we settled for Tuesday, the 15th May as being the optimum day to visit, as Bill’s guest.

So, it was to reserve my tickets with Eurostar, from St. Pancras to Brussels Midi – cost? £66 return, which I paid for and printed off; then on to The Train Line.com to organise my inland tickets – however, I wasn’t able to book then, I had to wait until not sooner than thirteen weeks prior to my planned journey. The return journey’s cost from Nottingham Railway Station to St. Pancras was £130 (which included a £1 “administration” fee, as I was paying on-line). I was advised to use Megabus.com as it is much cheaper; conversely, their website is not user friendly – so it was back to The Train Line.com.

The journey from St. Pancras to Brussels takes thirteen minutes longer than Nottingham to St. Pancras, yet it’s much further; although, to be fair, it’s non-stop, whereas, Nottingham to London has quite a few stops.

It is no wonder commuters always complain whenever the rail fares are increased, and why some prefer to travel by other less expensive means.

Unfortunately, there won’t be a blog on this weblog site, as, by then, as I said earlier, I will have  retired – in fact I’m taking Early Retirement (two days early)!