travelling allrite

Here we are at the A-Train hotel in Amsterdam after a day on the trains. A long day on the trains. We said a sad goodbye to Paris, catching a packed metro train and then a RER train up to Gare du Nord station. We were early and there was not much to do but stand around the headers and watch the trains arrive and depart under the canopy. Our fast Thalys bound for Amsterdam waited next to another decorated with Tintin, in a cross-promotion with the Spielberg movie. The Thalys was very comfortable inside, bright pink and red decor, wifi (free for first class, extra cost for us) and power sockets. After days of blue skies today we left under foggy grey, racing past tenements, then cultivated fields of green dotted with small towns. Though our tickets were for Amsterdam we had to make a stopover in Brussels to pick up some lost property. We had actually left it in Ghent, but the luggage staff kindly shipped it straight down for us and look after our big bags as well. Not having seen out...