Day 3 October 10th London to Frankfurt



Early morning St Pancras

We had to get up for what was for us the unearthly hour of 0620 to start our first day of the rail journey holiday.  It was dry and fairly sunny which made it slightly easier.  We showered, coffeed and packed by 0710.  It was then time to walk the short distance from the Premier Inn to St Pancras station.  I had to take a picture of the iconic station building.

We then met with our group 

Our Eurostar train 

(40+ strong), received our tickets and went through passport control with ticket checking and customs before boarding our 0855 departure for Brussells.  We also had time to call in M&S Simply Food for some supplies to sustain us.

The train journey went as planned to Brussells with a light breakfast being provided to help sustain us as well.  We arrived in Brussells at 1205 (European time) and had over 2 hours at the station before our onward journey started.  We relaxed 

Our rendez-vous point

a bit and then went for a wander outside the station before coming back to the picture of Big Ben which was our rendez-vous. 

We left Brussells on a German ICE high speed train (we reached 150 mph) and soon sped through Belgium and Germany to reach Frankfurt. 

Our ICE train to Frankfurt

The ride was very comfortable in 1st class and we enjoyed a small compartment at the rear of the train.  The catering on the train from the buffet was very slow. 
Once at Frankfurt it took some time before we all assembled with our luggage and made our way to the coach which brought us to the Maritim Hotel.  We were impressed by the hotel and we freshened up before it was time for dinner.  The service and quality of the meal was not up to our impressions of the high quality of the rest of the hotel.  We however ate most of it and then made our way to the room for an early night and prepare for the early start to our journey to Vienna tomorrow.