Trip Day 42

It is raining heavily in Brussels tonight, as I look out onto the little square located in front of my hotel from the restaurant, the market stalls from this afternoon have gone and are replaced with the reflections of neon signs off the glistening cobblestones. But this is Friday night and even the rain will not deter the tourist from venturing out into the cold evening, with umbrellas held high and clothed in coats and scarfs, they scurry across the square and into the dry warm environment of waiting restaurants.

Today was a preparation day with accommodation booked for Luxembourg and Paris, I now feel a bit easier that at least I will have a place to sleep for the rest of my trip. I also took the opportunity to post home some of my growing collection of trip memorabilia, 4 post packs and 56 euros later my bag is 6 kilos lighter.

Today also saw the 2 halves of the Gothard rain tunnel becoming one, the 57 km long tunnel is now officially the longest in the world and sees the moving of goods to rain between Milan and Zurich almost a reality, at a cost of 7.5 billion euro and 15 years in the making, it will not be until 2017 that the rail will be running cutting about 90min of the trip.