It's all about soccer (sorry football) here in Europe at the moment.

I'm glad we finally made it to Luxembourg . They speak 3 languages here - French, German and Luxembourgish. And I didn't make that up!

We walked around the top of the cliffs (in the high town) and didn't descend in to the low town. But there is a lift down in the car park. We walked for over an hour and a half. Decided not to have dinner in the old town, as it looked as though it was going to pour with rain.

After a couple of beers at the bar next door, and watching Ireland play Ukraine, we went searching for somewhere to eat. Found a brasserie where lots of people played chess.

I'd stay here again if we were passing this way.

Friday appeared to be a simple trip through Brussels and Rotterdam to Hoek of Holland. If we were early (boarding the ferry starts 6.30 to 6.45), we'd check out the 'beach'.

However ....... The first train was meant to leave from platform 1 at 10 .09; it arrived and we all boarded. Then people started getting off and railway employees scurried around with clipboards. Mmmm..... The platform departure board was now blank, so we got off too. Ah, here we are on platform 2. I wrote an account of our journey on Word, but it wouldn't copy and paste - and has now disappeared. 

To cut a long story short, this train broke down somewhere in Belgium (at a station luckily) and after a considerable time a replacement train pulled in. We were an hour late now, but no worries we have plenty of time. This train proceeded to lose 16 minutes; things were getting tense ....

We got to Hoek van Holland Haven and went straight to the Stena terminal. We still owed some money on our ticket. I'd received an email from Stena the week before about 25% off if you book by the 17th, and I thought it was worth enquiring about it. Yes!! We got 25% (€13) discount. 

Boarding started about 30 minutes later. We'd booked a 'comfort' cabin this time and it was roomier and jad some free drinks. We'd also prepaid for a 3 course meal and we got a table with a great view and had a very leisurely meal.