So Monday morning saw us en route for Brussels and the airport and home. The trip was pretty uneventful, as are most journeys home after you’ve had a great time away. As soon as The Get Up Kids had finished I’d have been happy to have been home with my little daughter who I missed greatly, and her mother who’d not opposed my little trip. I just had to go, and I guess she understands me well enough to know just what Hot Water Music mean to me. She is the best. It was good to be home that afternoon, and little Phoebe Cate seemed to have grown so much over the last week or so.

To cut a very long story a little shorter, we made enquiries into the SeaCat to Oostende for the Deinze gig on the Sunday, but extended this to flights to Cologne which was the venue for the previous (Saturday) night. This then was amended to the SeaCat and train to Cologne, then back for Deinze and finally home. An itinerary was drawn up and new plans set in motion. Once again, I found myself saying "But Denise, I have to go!". And go we did.

Waking at 4am on the morning of Saturday 4th September on the floor of my brother’s lounge after arriving three and a half hours earlier was not exactly fun. Anyway, we needed to catch the 0730 SeaCat from Dover, and as it happened we got there around 0530. Better safe than sorry. A foot passenger return was only £12.50, so we gladly went for that. The SeaCat took about two hours to Oostende, and our train was about an hour and a half later. I got something to drink, but Nick and Steve went searching for a cashpoint machine. They were gone for ages, so I sorted out their train tickets...as I work for Railtrack, I fortunately get a number of free rail trips a year, this being one of them. In Belgium, they have an excellent rail pricing system which means at weekends prices are greatly reduced. It is also cool that, if there is more than one of you undertaking the same journey, this is classed as a "group", and a "group" ticket has even greater reductions. After asking for a return fare to Cologne for two people, then for a return fare from Oostende to Velkenraedt (the last station in Belgium) and a return from there to Cologne, I discovered a difference of about £30 each! I guess the ticket to Cologne was an "international" ticket, and did not qualify for the Belgian discounts. Whatever. Eventually Steve and Nick returned, sweating but with the desired cash. We hoped on our beautifully new and spacious train and prepared for the four and a half hour trip to Cologne.