Comments Off on Day 4: Returning to the UK

By Fred Hart, November 7, 2013 22:57

After 14 hours’ worth of travelling, I am now back at home in Cirencester, (not) looking forward to returning to lectures at uni tomorrow. Broadcast Law is the lecture I have tomorrow, and I believe it will be on contempt of court, defamation, libel, slander et. Its not until 12:15, so at least I can have a lie in, and catch the 11:15 bus. I’ll return to my student acommodation in Cheltenham on Monday.

We left Brussels in the rain just before 09:00 this morning, aiming for the lunch time ferry from Calais to Dover. Made sure to check everywhere in the room to make sure I’d left nothing behind. I enjoyed a nice big breakfast this morning (lots of those mini chocolate croissants).

On our way back to Calais we stopped at the P&J Chocolate Factory located on the main road between Gistel and Oostende. If you’ve never been there, think of it as a supermarket that only sells chocolate. I wasn’t quite sure where to start! I spent a bit of money there – I think it came to €24 in total. Lots of chocolate to give to people as Christmas presents. It is of course, not all for me… 😉

I ate lunch on the ferry back to Dover, and then the final leg of the journey. By sunset we had reached the Fleet Services on the Southbound M3. I left the coach at the first stop: Salisbury.

I had to wait in Salisbury for a couple of hours before my train back to Kemble, which I could have done without, but I guess better than arriving late, missing my train and not being able to get back! The journey from Salisbury to Kemble took me firstly on a train heading towards Cardiff, then at Bath I changed and boarded a train heading towards London Paddington.

I actually didn’t go all the way back to Kemble on the train – I managed to persuade Dad to pick me up from Swindon instead (saving me a 55 minute wait). Dad however got lost in Swindon, as his sat nav tried to take him to Wales. He wasn’t pleased with his sat nav when he eventually found Swindon Railway Station 10 minutes after I’d arrived!

Sitting at home now, it seems odd to think that I was eating Greek food in the middle of Brussels last night, and that 12 hours ago we had only just crossed the border in to France. I have to say that I am already missing the Thon Hotel and our coach – which in a way has been my ‘second home’ for the last few days. In fact, I’ve probably spent more time on the coach than I have in the hotel.

I think it has been a great trip – I enjoyed every minute of it, I got lots out of my first visit to Belgium, and I seemed to get on quite well with everyone else on the trip. Lots of information to think about in the future too – I’m sure it won’t be long before my experience in Brussels gets used in a radio production of some sort.

Now: It has been a long day, I think I should head to bed now.

Good night.

FH.