I reckon Joey was both tired and a bit fed up that he was driving and we had all this free beer, but we had a good chat on the way to his new place in Nijmegen. Steve had bruised his hand trying to open a bottle on a window ledge by whacking it head on, rather than at an angle...d’oh! Him and Nick were fast asleep in the back as we crossed the Dutch countryside. Joey’s place was indeed neat, and after a quick tour and a look at his incredible PC we all crashed out.

The most amazingly loud high pitched rhythmic sound awoke us...it was Joey’s birds singing in tandem! He had gotten up late, so was rushing to get off to work, and drop us off at a station. We whizzed off, said our goodbyes, and jumped on a train for Roosendaal. From here, we had to change trains to get back into Belgium. It was grey and pretty cold, and some of us (with bruised hands) weren’t feeling too clever after spending most of the previous night trying to get someone (with the drinks tokens) to not drink so much so quickly. We got some food and drinks with the Dutch change we still had, and waited for our train. It was absolutely packed, and we ended up having to squat down in the front doorway of the leading coach. It took about an hour to get to Antwerp, where it was grey, miserable and, thanks to the rebuilding at the station, muddy. It also made no sense to have to walk out of the station and find the temporary (un-signposted) ticket hall, and we were glad when our train was advertised and we could leave. This took us south to Kortrijk, where we again changed for Ieper, our home for the next three nights. Fortunately the weather was improving, as were our spirits as we neared our destination.

The most amazingly loud high pitched rhythmic sound awoke us...it was Joey’s birds singing in tandem! He had gotten up late, so was rushing to get off to work, and drop us off at a station. We whizzed off, said our goodbyes, and jumped on a train for Roosendaal. From here, we had to change trains to get back into Belgium. It was grey and pretty cold, and some of us (with bruised hands) weren’t feeling too clever after spending most of the previous night trying to get someone (with the drinks tokens) to not drink so much so quickly. We got some food and drinks with the Dutch change we still had, and waited for our train. It was absolutely packed, and we ended up having to squat down in the front doorway of the leading coach. It took about an hour to get to Antwerp, where it was grey, miserable and, thanks to the rebuilding at the station, muddy. It also made no sense to have to walk out of the station and find the temporary (un-signposted) ticket hall, and we were glad when our train was advertised and we could leave. This took us south to Kortrijk, where we again changed for Ieper, our home for the next three nights. Fortunately the weather was improving, as were our spirits as we neared our destination.