Luxembourg; Friday, 23 June, 2006

Fartoearly O'clock: UK: After spending most of the night trying to fend off the particularly viscous mosquito in my bedroom I blundered through the shower, forced two slices of toast down my throat and headed out into the early morning mist, trying to remember how I got up at this time of the morning for three years when I had worked on the other side of London!

After a trouble free journey to Waterloo (quite an achievement for Southern and South West Trains) I checked in for the Eurostar and settled down in the departures lounge with a large coffee.

9am BST/10am CEST and I am speeding my way across France, by 11am I am in Brussels, Belgium and then at a little before 14:15 I cross my third boarder and into my fourth country of the day.

After checking into the hotel, I headed out into the city, only to find out at this point that June 23rd is Luxembourg day and everyone is on Holiday and in town to watch parades. All the shops are shut and most of the city centre is deserted, which makes it a perfect time to wander around the streets of the pedestrianised centre, which I assume would normally be heaving.

After spending a couple of hours wandering around, including stopping off in the Cathedral, which was mostly closed in preparation for a celebration mass that evening, I managed to find a little café in a nice sun trap and stopped for a bite to eat and a small drink.

I continued walking around town for a while before heading back (past most of the Army, Police, Fire and Ambulance services marching past the Hôtel del Ville) to my hotel.