European Parliament

Today I was in Brussels for a European meeting. It has been a strange experience. I arrived at the airport in the dark last night and took the train then the metro to my hotel. I had to walk through a large crowd of drunken rowdy men and police and I thought that there must have been a football match. Then I realised they were getting food from a soup kitchen.

I then came out of the wrong exit from the metro and wandered around on my own In the dark past the European Commission building, a building site and deserted streets until I found my hotel!

This morning I took a short detour on my walk to my meeting to enable me to at least get a picture of the parliament building. What a disappointment. It is squashed in between lots of other buildings and so is hard to see. This shot was the best I could manage. I was sorry I didn't get a shot of the bus with NATO as it's destination.

Then I had forgotten to move my watch forward and was engaged in the meeting and so nearly missed my plane. Fortunately there was a taxi on cue that took credit cards and the traffic was quiet.

A quick dash from Heathrow to Paddington on the express and then disaster. The tube to Euston was delayed and then packed like sardines, so much so that the alarm went off on one of the doors and we had to do an emergency stop in the tunnel.

Another sprint to Euston station to get the 6.30 train by the skin of my teeth! I should be home by midnight! Now I've just realised I don't have any food or drink with me and I haven't eaten since 12!!