Day 11 December 2nd London to Wernigerode

If you have never heard of our destination, well neither had I before we made these holiday arrangements.  Christine first identified a German Christmas market holiday with Great Rail Journeys which fitted in with all the things we wanted to do on this time away.  And so we were up early to be at St Pancras station by 0730 to catch Eurostar to Brussells.  We met 

Our Eurostar train

up with the rest of the group at the company office on the concourse and were soon waiting to board.  Our boarding time eventually came up and we checked in and found our reserved seats.  The train left on time and as we whizzed to Belgium we had our breakfast which was very welcome.

It arrived on time and we had


Cologne cathedral from the station

an hour before catching the next train to Cologne.  We had a drink and pastry and then it was time to 

part of Cologne station

assemble for boarding again.  This train sped through the Belgian and German countryside as we read and had a snack lunch.  We arrived at Cologne on time and had porterage to transport our luggage to the next train taking us to Hanover.  We boarded and set off but were soon running behind time and eventually were 30 minutes late getting to Hanover.  Our coach to Wernigerode was waiting but because of diversions we did not get to hotel to 2130, we then had to quickly check in and have a buffet dinner prepared and kept for us.  We do not like eating so late but the food was good and welcome.  After eating we happily retired.